Photography News issue 18

Opinion

SPEAKERS’ CORNER Safety first

Brian Law prides himself on always painstakingly backing up his images, but after nearly setting his house on fire, he decided to rethink his strategy and hopes others will learn from his mistakes

Words by Brian Law ARPS, CPAGB

I know quite a few people, including one ex‑Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU) committee member, who have lost large numbers of images, both Raw and processed, due to hard drive failures when their data was not backed up. In two of the instances the individuals involved spent between several hundred and several thousand pounds – successfully, I am pleased to say – to recover the obviously valuable images. I would like to think that I am nearer the other end of the spectrum. On my laptop I assiduously back up all my documents and emails on a monthly basis. On my desktop machine, where I do all my image processing, I use Karen’s Replicator to carry out regular and frequent backups of my images to an additional 2TB hard drive housed within the computer. I can recommend Karen’s Replicator: it’s a free piece of software which can be programmed to carry out incremental backups of any files or folders at any prescribed interval. In addition to my 2TB backup drive, I have a 1.5TB drive as a primary store for images, a 320GB drive for music and non-photographic material and a further 320GB system drive containing all my software. A sensible approach, you may think: plenty of capacity, all images backed up, and data types stored separately. However, that’s where the problem started. I had just finished sorting and renaming 32GB of image files from a recent holiday, so I started a manual backup of this data and left the computer running in my study while I went off to get dinner. Squaring up for an evening of serious image processing, I returned to my study an hour or so later to find the room filled with a fog and pervaded with a strong smell of electrical burning. Fortunately there were no flames evident but I hastily pulled out all the plugs, and, after opening the windows and allowing the air to clear, I removed the side panel from the computer. Peering inside suggested no obvious damage, though the innards were pretty warm. Plugging the computer back in showed it to be completely dead. I took it off to the local menders and indeed the power supply had gone. However, a more thorough inspection by the computer technician showed that the power leads connecting to the 2TB hard drive had burnt through and partially melted the connector on the drive itself. Evidently the power supply was of the incorrect rating to handle four disk drives (plus a DVD writer). Had I not returned to the computer when I did, it could have gone up in flames, with the potentially disastrous consequence of the house catching fire! I think there are a number of valuable lessons to be learnt that are worth passing on to other photographers and computer users.

Firstly, when I built the computer the capacity of the power supply unit was probably adequate for a high-spec processor, a hard drive and a DVD writer. However, as I added extra drives the demand on the power supply exceeded its rating. If you have built your own machine and added extra drives it’s worth checking that everything matches in terms of power requirements. A basic system, with a reasonable processor, single hard drive and single DVD writer, probably needs a power supply rated at 300W. For every extra drive you probably need a further 50W. The lower the specification and the cheaper the power supply, the lower its power rating will be. If in doubt, pay the extra for a top-spec power supply. One telltale sign: does the fan on your power supply run continuously and loudly? Mine did, but with a new high-spec power supply it’s now extremely quiet. Backing up your images is absolutely essential and something everyone should do. However, if my only backup had been the 2TB drive inside the machine and it had caught fire, I would have lost my primary copy and my backup! So don’t rely on an extra drive in your computer: have a third backup, stored away from it. Mine was in the bottom of my wardrobe, but if the house had caught fire I could

have lost that too. Cloud-based storage is another option, although you are relying on a third party and upload and retrieval speeds are only as good as your Internet connection. All my most recent holiday images were still on the memory cards: I always leave these on the card for as long as possible and only reformat the card before I next need to use it. However, my cards and camera were all in my study with my computer – which is not that smart if you want to insure against potential disaster. Much of this may be familiar to you, but if it’s not and you take your photography seriously, you need foolproof backup systems in place. Create a well thought-through backup system and enjoy your (disaster-free) photography.

BELOWDeath and the Maiden by Brian Law, inspired by a 1926 photo by pictoralist William Mortensen. BELOW RIGHT The inside of Brian’s computer, indicating the damage and scorching to the 2TB drive.

Don’t relyonanextradrive inside your computer: havea third backup, storedaway fromit

π To find out more about Brian Law, go to www.brianlawphotography.co.uk.

WHATDOYOUTHINK? Do you have any backup experiences (or disasters) to pass on? Or have you set up an efficient backup system and want to offer advice? Whatever your comment, let us know your thoughts at opinion@ photography-news.co.uk.

Photography News | Issue 18