Image Backup's

**06Honda** · 01-13-2019, 01:44 AM

I currently have all of my images backed up to one external hard drive: WD My Passport Ultra. At some point this will likely fail so do most photographers simply have 2 external hard drives at all times backed up the same to eliminate any issues down the road. Is it possible to backup the data currently on my 1 external hard drive to a 2nd external hard drive?

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**480sparky** · 01-13-2019, 01:54 AM

If it doesn't reside on three separate mediums at three distinct locations, it doesn't exist. I have three working copies of everything right here at my desktop, and two more copies stored elsewhere.

**Andy W** · 01-13-2019, 03:19 AM

We backup on an external drive and thumb drives.

"Is it possible to backup the data currently on my 1 external hard drive to a 2nd external hard drive?"

Yes. On a Windows OS select the files on the current drive and copy them to a new drive.

**Eduard** · 01-13-2019, 03:47 AM

Originally Posted by 06Honda

I currently have all of my images backed up to one external hard drive: WD My Passport Ultra. At some point this will likely fail so do most photographers simply have 2 external hard drives at all times backed up the same to eliminate any issues down the road. Is it possible to backup the data currently on my 1 external hard drive to a 2nd external hard drive?

Here is an old thread that might be very useful to you: link.

**nickt** · 01-13-2019, 04:28 AM

If you have windows, you can easily plug in both drives and open up a file explorer window for each drive. Size the two windows so you can see both of them. Then tag everything you want on your original drive then drag and drop to the new drive's window. You can also do the drag and drop in one window but for a first timer it is easier to follow with two windows open.

I have a network storage drive in my basement. All of our computers copy to it automatically. Like Sparky says, that's not a real backup. It should be somewhere else. Malware could wipe me out since its connected all the time. If I had a fire, I could certainly lose my backup.

That said, I've been there, done that. I had a bad fire many years ago. I lost pretty much everything. Surprisingly, I recovered all of my files off the hard drive from my melted and fire hosed PC. It was a whopping 40 meg hard drive, haha. Even a fire safe is not the best place to store your backup. My safe left me with readable documents and spendable cash but they were certainly damaged.

**nikonpup** · 01-13-2019, 06:38 AM

go pro on flickr and backup your files there.

**hark** · 01-13-2019, 01:55 PM

I have several WD My Passport drives. Like Sparky said, it's best if they aren't all kept in one place (meaning store at least one in a different location than your house if possible).

**480sparky** · 01-13-2019, 03:21 PM

If you shoot a lot of raw and are thinking of online backup, you may not live long enough to upload everything.

**wade7575** · 01-14-2019, 02:50 AM

I do a lot with PC's and fix and build my own and I use external hard drives to back my stuff up as well,I do not use any back up software to perform this task because with some programs I have tried in the past it makes a data file that can only be read by that program.

What I do for my PC programs I like to keep on my external hdd's I just make a main folder called programs then make sub folders for each kind of program such a burning program's folder and one for partitioning software and so on,I also know people who just make a main folder for their pictures and then create sub folder that goes into the main folder with a name and date for the folder.

Originally Posted by 06Honda

I currently have all of my images backed up to one external hard drive: WD My Passport Ultra. At some point this will likely fail so do most photographers simply have 2 external hard drives at all times backed up the same to eliminate any issues down the road. Is it possible to backup the data currently on my 1 external hard drive to a 2nd external hard drive?

**wade7575** · 01-16-2019, 01:46 AM

06Honda if you are looking for good external HDD's I recommend you build your own before buying a pre-built unit,I have that a lot of time the Seagate and Western Digital pre-built external HDD's often use a middle of the road to the lowest quality HDD they make.

The Western Digital Blue mechanical drives were the worst when they first came out they would die in a laptop with in 6 to 8 months and they also used those drives in some of their pre-built external's,the other problem even if Seagate or Western Digital did put a HDD inside the case that was of a decent quality and would last along time they would use 5400rpm drives and they would also have a very small cache of ram memory built into them and it could be extremely painful if you were transferring a lot of data at one time.

If you haven't gotten anything yet I recommend these SDD's and these hard drive enclosure's.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-676-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-276-_-Product

This case is a very well built case and I own a few of them and they are also very easy to put together and they are made to last I have had mine since they came out and one of them I use everyday for at least 4 to 8 hours at a time.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-087-_-Product