Choosing the Right Hard Drive for Your Photo Backup

Photographers should think carefully about the hard drives they choose to organize and archive their images. There are three basic aspects to consider: capacity, convenience, and protection.

In Organizing and Archiving Digital Photos, I cover a few hard drive configurations to consider for your own backup workflow: RAID1, removable drives, and personal cloud computing. I also demo their functionality by accessing my images on a local area network, and even downloading archived photos over 400 miles away on a Buffalo Cloudstor drive in my studio.

In fact, if you're considering personal cloud backup as a component for your backup strategy, take a look at my article on the Buffalo Cloudstor. It is an affordable, easy to use solution that has been working well for me.

More on Organizing and Archiving Digital Photos

Organizing and Archiving Overview Movie

Roundtripping from Lightroom to Photoshop

"Organizing and Archiving Your Photos" - Digital Photography Podcast 290

Quick Keywording Tips in Lightroom 3

Backing Up Aperture 3 Via My Local Network


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2 Comments

What's the info on the 3rd unit you show? Doesn't look like the Buffalo CloudStor.

Hi Ron,

You're right. The unit in the movie is the Iomega iX2 network drive with RAID mirroring. I like that unit also, but for LAN more than cloud. I think it's difficult to set up for cloud computing. But I've had great luck with it on my local network. And the RAID mirroring is a welcome bonus.

I see both the Buffalo and Iomega units going on special regularly on Buy.com. Might want to follow them if you're interested in either.