Years ago, when floppy disks were the norm for digital storage, I lost a lot of data. My computer's hard drive was experiencing issues. The good news (or so I thought at the time), is that I had backed up my data. I inserted the floppy disk which contained all of my back up data--and the disk was defective. Then, I made the mistake of inserting my secondary back up floppy disk--which was also defective. Apparently, the computer was destroying the floppy disks! Now, I had no remaining back ups--and all of my data was permanently lost. It took days to recover or recreate only the most critical files. Fortunately, this was before the time that I became interested in digital photography!

Now, I'm more careful to ensure that my data is protected. First, I store all of my images on an external hard drive--a Seagate 3TB external hard drive. I have a second Seagate 3TB external hard drive positioned next to the primary drive--and that's used for back ups. I use Microsoft SyncToy to synchronize the files between the drives. Unless I am in the process of backing up the data, I leave the second hard drive unplugged to minimize risks such as a power surge or virus attack.

I'm not comfortable having just one external drive as a back up. Also, having the backup drive located right next the primary drive introduces the risk of losing all the data if something should happen at the site--such as a fire. So, I maintain a third external hard drive as my second back up. That third drive is secured off-site in a safe deposit box. Every three months or so, I back everything up on the third drive and return the drive to the bank. If anything should happen to my on-site drives, I can rest assured that all of my data is safe in that off-site location.

In the unlikely event that all three hard drives fail, I upload many of my jpg files to my website. As a last resort, I can download those jpeg files as needed.