Managing and Archiving Your Digital Media

We’re guilty. All of us. At some point in our digital experience we fail to adequately cover our assets and we lose some or all of our precious work. In some cases we don’t care if a file is lost here or there, but the really important assets are the files we have spent considerable time working on, or the files we really care about that are essentially irreplaceable. Maybe it’s the once in a lifetime UFO footage you captured on video while on a hike, or the manuscript you’ve been toiling over for the last three years -- 243 pages and counting. How hard would it be to replace those files? Harder than you may like to think about. Here are a few simple ways you can safeguard your work and streamline your workflow to minimize pitfalls.

The best way to improve your workflow and secure your files is by backing up any files you care about consistently and frequently. It should be common sense to do this, but it isn’t. You can purchase car insurance, fire, and even life insurance, but there is no substitute for a good backup where computer disasters are concerned. Backing up files is one of the least fun things you can do with a computer, but it ranks among the top in importance.

When you save your work don’t just click “Save…”. When you do this you are only updating one copy of your work. If the file gets corrupted you will only be saving a fresher version of ruin. Also, since most files do not get corrupted, if your hard drive has a problem you are improving the odds of being able to recover a file if it exists in more than one place on the platters of the drive. It’s a simple formula: Redundancy = Good.

To help ensure that your files stay fresh and vital you should make incremental file saves and name each saved version something simple and easy to track. For example, if you have a file named “Production Schedule” save it first as “Production Schedule 1a,” then “Production Schedule 1b,” and so on. It really doesn’t matter how you name your files when you save incrementally, so long as you can tell by the file’s name which one is the newest version. At the end of the day take a look at all of the versions you saved. If you’re sure you only need the last one you can throw away the others, but make sure the file you’re keeping can be opened without trouble. Safer yet, get into the habit of keeping the last three versions of all files you’re currently working on. The increased drive space requirements to make incremental saves is easily worth the added security.

Make the task of backing up files easy and consider purchasing another hard drive that serves no purpose other than to store the complete contents of your primary drive. Hard drives are cheaper, faster, and more reliable than ever, and many drive manufacturers include free software that makes the backup process a little time-consuming, but otherwise painless. Once you have a good working copy of your drive you can relax a little knowing that you can at least get your computer back to the state of the last backup, and not have to start from ground zero. Remember, ground zero is no fun. It will take you hours and hours to reinstall all of those applications, and the files you previously created may be lost forever without a backup. With a backup drive you can either copy its contents to your previously bad drive, or use it as your primary drive. Hard drives of moderate capacity currently sell for less than $100. External hard drive enclosures cost between $25 and $150, depending on connectivity options.

Consider partitioning your hard drive so one volume contains all of your applications, and the other volume stores the data you create with those applications. If something happens to the operating system files of the applications partition you can still easily recover the data files. Generally, the data files are the ones that really count. You can always reinstall Director, Flash or Word, but you can’t easily recreate all the files you made with those programs. If you’re really tight on drive space and you have an external drive you can skip backing up the system files and backup only the data files. It’s best to back up the whole “Kit and Caboodle,” as indicated above, but in the least you will certainly want good archives of your data files.

A single backup of a file or disc is not enough. Make at least two physical copies of your most precious data and store one set in a safe, safe deposit box, or at a friend or relative’s house. If you have a fire, or someone breaks into your house you can lose everything. A small safe large enough to store CD-ROMs, a hard drive, and flash drives, costs less than $30. These inexpensive safes can be opened with a key and can be bolted to the floor so they can’t be easily carried off. These safes are also fireproof (for a period of time), and are much more trouble for a thief to pilfer than a stack of discs neatly organized ion a shelf, or in an easy to grab case. A safe deposit box is less convenient, but anything you put in there is unlikely to be lost or burned. You have to decide how important your work is. If you truly care about it you’ll make multiple backups and store each backup set in a different location.

Archiving means making a copy of your files and carefully considering the long term storage issues. This is easier said than done, as archiving is a complex science. Here are the core media issues to consider when thinking about archiving your data.

Media refers to the physical form onto which your files are stored. The media formats commonly used include CD-ROMs, DVDs, flash drives, and of course hard drives. Each type of media has specific advantages and disadvantages, but in general they are all only temporarily reliable.

We all love this format. It’s fast and it allows us to store up to 700 MB per disc for less than a dime. However, CD-ROMs may scratch, or the organic dyes used to manufacture them may fade over time, eventually rendering the disc unreadable. If you use CD-ROMs extensively do the following:

Take the time to label each disc after it’s burned and consider writing down the date and contents on the front of the disc. If there are too many files to write down just write down a general description of what’s on the disc. Writing down the date is really important because you won’t need to load the disc to see the overall timeframe for its files, and there is always the possibility that your computer’s clock was off when the files were written out, so the computer date might not be a reliable indicator of file freshness. Having the burning date on the disc is also handy when you’re trying to determine which of the same set of files you need to keep, and which ones you can discard on two backup discs.
Turn on data verification to ensure the integrity of data on each CD-ROM when it’s burned. Verification requires more burn time per disc, but you will know that you have a good bit-for-bit copy
Test discs from a manufacturer you have not previously used. Even though the disc may burn, it may not be readable on other CD-ROM units you use. It’s disconcerting when a disc will only open on select CD-ROM reading hardware. Use the media made from manufacturers you have experience with.
Store discs in the dark and in a cool place. Buy a CD-ROM case and keep your master discs in it, closed up and away from direct sunlight. Remember that the CDs you burn make use of a sensitive photochemical process, and leaving them in the sun will make them unreadable much sooner than if they are kept in the dark. Heat can be a problem as it can warp a disc. For music that you leave in your car use only CD-ROMs. They have no resale value if stolen, and if they get warped or scratched you can always burn another copy.

DVDS have essentially the same advantages and disadvantages as CD-ROMs, but they are superior in their capacity to hold so much data. The precautions for using and storing DVDs are the same as for CD-ROMs. Keep the discs at a comfortable temperature and away from direct sunlight.

These relative newcomers to the file storage market have become enormously popular. They come in two flavors: USB 1 and USB 2. Don’t bother with anything but USB 2. It’s much faster than USB 1 and well worth the few dollars more you may pay. Flash drives currently have capacities of up to 2 GB, and according to some manufacturers, can last up to 10 years. Since they have no moving parts there is no chance that the flash drive can crash. However, since Flash drives use volatile “flash” memory they are susceptible to damage from strong electromagnetic sources and static electricity. (Incidentally, I knew of someone who left their flash drive in their pants before being laundered. The flash drive came out of the dryer with all data intact, though I’m sure no manufacturer would recommend that method of data sterilization.) Flash drives, as good as they are, are not good solutions for archiving data. Think of them as being better for speed and convenience than for reliability. One big problem with Flash drives is if they are removed before data have been completely read from or written to them. Removing a Flash drive while file I/O is happening can corrupt the directory tree of the drive and you won’t be able to read any files from it without a 3rd party utility.

These storage beasts get faster, more capable, and more reliable with each generation, but they still crash, and it’s not so much a matter of if, but when. Regular maintenance with a disk defragmentation and directory tree repair utilities greatly improve the reliability and longevity of these devices. For little cost you can purchase a removable “sled” enclosure for a hard drive that makes it easy to “hot swap” one drive for another, and always keep a spare safely stored away. Drives fail according to “mean time between failures,” which is the average time a particular mechanism can operate under specific conditions before it stops working. A drive that is only used for backup, or is used less frequently may operate longer because it is being run for fewer hours.

Hopefully you realize with more clarity the importance of the care and handling of your computer files, not just the files themselves. By following these guidelines you may be able to avert media disaster when your computer has to make an emergency water landing, and maintain the integrity of all those pretty files.