For creators whose outputs are largely digital, like audio engineers, creative designers, writers, and the like, strategic briefs and project summaries, delivered projects, design files, and raw footage hold days, months, and years of creative labour. Years of creative labour that can be wiped away by an incident of a stolen PC, a bad hard drive, water damage, an accidental permanent delete, or malware. These digital assets are fragile and rather vulnerable.
Data is a core part of your business as a creative, and making sure it is protected should not be an afterthought. You need a robust, mindfully sorted data backup and storage to preserve the years of work you put into making a creative career.
While most creators whose work is largely digital would have multiple storage systems, you need to be sure that your backup framework is optimal. These are some tips on how to store and safeguard your creative projects properly:
It is good that you have one, but don’t rely on just one hard drive. Neither should you rely solely on your cloud storage. A hard drive can develop a fault that you cannot work around right when you need to extract something important from it. Your cloud host can have unexpected server downtime, or you can experience network challenges right when you need something you worked on months ago. Clearly, relying on just one backup option is not the best. So, here is what you can do: have multiple storage locations of different types.
Make 2 copies of your primary working file. Store these backup copies on different physical storage, maybe an SSD and an HDD. Store one copy in the cloud. It would be very rare and odd for all three backups to develop accessibility issues around the same time.
Organize your storage well. This would improve your workflow, helping you spend less time searching for certain files. Have a designated storage for current projects and working files that you need to access often. It makes sense for this particular storage to be fast enough to allow for easy access and seamless editing. Then, have another where you store fairly recent projects, say projects completed in the past year or half a year. Finally, have one for old files that you barely reference in your daily workflow, raw media, and finished work. Cloud storage is a good option here. And if you would prefer to save the same thing on all storage, organize them in folders (by year and project), it makes it easy for you to search for what you need
Name files and folders properly. It is one thing to have backup storage; it is another to be able to find what you need as quickly as possible. Aside from the processing speed of your storage device, your naming system also contributes to how fast you can find files. We all have that one file that looks something like: “final_final_lastone.ext”. As much as I get it and can relate; that is not a great way to name a file. Develop a naming system or convention for your local and backup storage.
This is a good format to steal:
YYMMDD_Client_Project_Description_Version.ext
Update your backup storage often. If you are one who prefers to do the grunt work of moving files every other week, set a reminder and line up a cue that makes it habitual for you to update your storage without fail. Otherwise, find software that you can configure to automate and sync your storage at a certain interval. You can also set up your cloud storage to auto-update as long as you are connected to the internet.
Keep your drives and cloud safe; encrypt them. Enable 2-Factor Authentication on your cloud. Use tools like BitLocker(Windows) or FileVault (macOS) to encrypt your hard drives. This keeps them inaccessible in the event of theft or loss—your projects would be unreadable.
Finally, don’t just store files; run an intermittent audit to ensure the safety of the files and assets you have previously uploaded to your various storage systems. As time-consuming as it sometimes can be, ensuring that your data is well-stored and safe should not be an afterthought, nor can it be understated. As you work hard to make amazing creative outputs, put in the work to ensure that they survive unforeseen events that can possibly wipe them out of existence.