Backing up digi supplies
 

I sat down to scrapbook this morning & my external hard drive was not being recognized by my laptop. :/ I plugged it in a different port & my whole screen went black. Yikes!
Luckily, it opened on my husband's computer & I finished backing up a few months of photos that I hadn't copied onto our other EHD. (I also upload my photos to smugmug for backup)

My question for you is this:
When you back up your digi supplies, do you drag & drop all and then tell it to skip the duplicates, or do you just copy over the stuff you've added since your last back-up? If you do it the second way, how do you know what's new and what's already backed-up?
I'm doing it the first way right now, but it's taking ages.

Or maybe there's a different way that's so much better and I'm just not thinking of it! Tell me what your process is...

I use Backblaze for backup and as long as my computer has internet access, it backs up automatically. I just got a new portable HD, too, so now I have my computer's HD backed up with backblaze as well as two portable HD.

I use backup software. At the moment I'm using Crashplan for both my online and local backups. (I've used a few different programs for my local backup over the years, usually not the same one as for online backup.) When I plug in my EHD, it automatically backs up anything that I've added or changed on the laptop hard drive since the previous backup.

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Glad you were able to get it to work. Stuff goes to the cloud automatically, but I have been making a handwritten list to also copy to an external when I finally get around to plugging it in.

Not sure what OS you're running, but I'm on Windows and use a program called "FastCopy". It's a lifesaver for coping my scrapping supplies to my external drives. You can download it here: https://download.cnet.com/FastCopy/3...-10905019.html

I have mine set to only copy files if their modified timestamp is newer than what's already on the external drive, so it's not trying to copy my entire stash each time I run it. I read the help file to get everything set up the way I wanted it, but if you end up using this and have questions I could help.

I don't store any digi scrap supplies on my laptop. I move over to EHD.
I have Crashplan running also.

I use BackBlaze and I have a folder system for new purchases and photos/etc that need to be backed up onto my EHDs. Currently I have 4 EHDs but one is a little more than half full and I don't "fill up" my EHDs to capacity.

Anyway, my folder system is:
my DS folder is called Digiscraps. Inside is
KITS (these are kits that are already backed up to EHDs. I don't keep everything in my laptop--that would be impossible lol, but I keep recent purchases that I want to use asap)
TEMPLATES (similar to my Kits folder)
Z DS back up (This is where new purchases go. See below for a breakdown)
z Extras (folders in this folder are JC, WA, paint...basically anything that isn't a full kit. I don't keep much in here.)
z Pics to Back up (folders by year then yyyy-mm inside. That's how I organize photos)
z Docs to back up (this will have all digital files, including music, that I need to back up)

Inside the z DS back up folder:
1 Templates
2 Previews
3 Layouts
4 Extras
(yes, they have numbers, so they show up in that exact order and my kits are all after these 4 main subfolders)
Then, after those four folders, I add all the kits that I've purchased/unzipped but have yet to back up. Each is in a folder named/arranged exactly how I normally keep them.


When I back up, I drag/drop onto my EHDs. I do it row-by-row and EHD-by-EHD, so I don't miss anything. I try to back up twice a month but it's turned into once a month. After big sales/events, I try to back up asap. I don't let things sit in my Downloads folder: I buy/download/unzip right away (except during big sales; I know that's hard on the store.) [Basically, if something is in "z DS back up," then I know it isn't yet on my EHDs, but BB will back it up automatically, so at least I have that little bit of security.] After I've backed up everything (I double-check), I move stuff to the corresponding Digiscraps' subfolder or delete off my laptop.

This is all a LOT of words...I should just take screenshots lol.

I have the subfolders arranged so that "Z DS back up" and "3 Layouts" are in the same spot in their subfolder; that way, when I click "Z DS back up," I can, without thinking, just double-click again to open the "3 Layouts" folder. This makes posting LOs in galleries take less time/less thought...and I like that lol.

Thanks for sharing your processes! You've all given me a few things to consider!

I also use Back Blaze. My kits are in 2 other places... laptop and an EHD.

Photos and anything I don't want to lose are backed up on both an EHD and on Amazon.I know that all EHD's will eventually die, so I always make sure to have a secondary method. I also use TimeMachine on my MAC for anything stored locally.

After two external hard drive crashes, I no longer use them. I am 100% cloud based storage. I have lost hundreds of kits and layouts due to hard drive failures. No issues with cloud thus far (although it gets pricey).