Data Backup for Artists

Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under tech talk | Leave a Comment

On Sunday afternoon, my husband was the victim of a nasty spyware attack, one which we’re still working hard to recover from.  He was browsing what seemed to be a completely legitimate real estate site, elected to watch their video, and was immediately struck by a wave of unstoppable, deadly downloads.  By the time he pulled the plug from the wall, it was too late.  A good antivirus program may or may not have prevented the attack, but we’ll never know, because he wasn’t using one.  I think I’ve exercised remarkable restraint for the past several days by not saying, “I told you so!” 

If you’re an artist of any kind — musician, photographer, fine artist, crafter, embroiderer — you probably have countless files on your hard drive.  For some of you, those files may even be your livelihood.  And I’d be willing to bet that many of you rarely, if ever, back up your data.  Antivirus software may offer you some level of protection, but what happens if something slips through, or you experience an equipment malfunction? Hurricane Katrina taught me a valuable first-hand lesson, and you could just as easily experience a natural disaster.

You might think that data loss would be a minor inconvenience, but let’s think about this for a minute.  How many years have you been collecting those embroidery designs?  Some of your freebies may not even be available anymore. And what about those designs you digitized yourself? They represent many hours of effort on your part.

Consider the wedding photographer who doesn’t have a backup of the wedding photos he shot over the weekend.  He hasn’t completed his post-processing, so he hasn’t yet ordered prints.  Data loss in this case could be extremely costly, resulting in both a refund of his fee and a badly damaged reputation.

This isn’t a tech blog, so I won’t offer you information on how to do a file backup.  I don’t have any products to plug either.  I’m simply suggesting that, as an artist in the digital age, you arm yourself with some information and create a disaster recovery plan for yourself, so you can avoid some of the pain we’ve experienced in recent days.  Do a little internet research, or talk to a tech-savvy friend. Choose your backup media, whether a hard drive or dvd or other option.  Select a backup method.  Schedule your backups, and be diligent about completing them.  And by all means, protect yourself from viruses and other malicious attacks.

Dan was lucky this time.  All his photos are on his MacBook instead of his PC.  We’re still cleaning up the mess, but I doubt if I’ll ever again hear those words, “But I’ve never had a problem before!”

Comments

Leave a Reply




Cruises Cool Geek Gadgets Internet News