World Backup Day is set aside as a reminder to back up your files, even if it’s once a year! Unfortunately, most people don’t think to back up their files until they face a hard drive crash or they don’t know how. I’ve made you aware of backing up your files, now here’s how.

Understanding the 3-2-1 Backup Plan

The 3-2-1 backup plan is three copies of your data: Two stored locally, one stored off-site (preferably cloud services like Backblaze or CrashPlan). Three copies, that’s it, don’t modify it. Having more copies is just as bad, stick with just three.

Building a 3-2-1 Backup System

Simple solution: $106.00

Ideal for: Typical users, college kids, my Dad. 1TB drives are plenty for word documents, music and cell phone photos. If using this setup with a Laptop, save $68.00 by using your internal drive as your main working drive. You have to be disciplined and sync your drives plus backup to Dropbox or Google Drive. This setup isn’t bulletproof but is better than nothing.

  • $ 0.00 Computer: Work with the drive you have
  • $53.00 Main working drive: WD 1TB My Passport USB 3.0 Secure Portable Hard Drive
  • $53.00 Local mirrored drive: WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive
  • $ 0.00 Off-site: Built-in software with WD Passport to Dropbox or Google Drive

An affordable solution on a budget: $415.00

Ideal for: Running a very small home-based business, weekend photographers, photographers getting started in the business.

Photographers add $79.00 for the solid state drive. You’ll thank me later when editing in Photoshop or Lightroom. Adding a Network Attached Storage (NAS) such as Drobo 5N or Synology for about $499.00 to $599.00 allows your storage to grow as you grow.

My personal bulletproof backup solution: $1393.00 base price

Ideal for: Professional photographers (mission-critical business where downtime is not an option) and users that want a storage solution to grow as they grow.

I grew my 10TB system over the years. Currently, I have four Seagate Desktop 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM in each Drobo. Each drive cost $102.00 bringing the total cost to $408.00 per unit adding $816.00 to the overall storage solution. The best part of this solution, Drobo takes the upfront guesswork out of determining the amount of capacity I require. I buy the capacity I need today, and when I need more storage, I simply replace my smallest drive with a larger one and immediately use that capacity in seconds.

Get your copy of Building a Bulletproof Backup for Photographer!

For the past several years, I’ve been writing, teaching and consulting on the 3-2-1 Backup Concept. I’ve organized my articles and put them in a Building a Bulletproof Backup for Photographer eBook to help photographers never lose a single image again.