Value of Backups

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I’ve been working this week to prepare optimized high-res files for delivery toGarden Picture Library, one of the stock agencies that represents some of my work. These are garden photos from 2006 (I’m a bit behind) that are stored on an external Netgear NV+ Raid 5 storage device. In the process of working with the files, using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS3, a handful of the image files have been corrupted. I don’t know quite why it’s happening, or when, or whether it’s related to the software or the external storage or the network. And since it only affects a few of the files it’s very hard to track down.

Fortunately, I have backup DVDs of all the images and I knew where to find them. I was able to restore the backup of each affected file, put the metadata back in (the backups were made before the images were captioned and keyworded), and resume working. It was frustrating and tedious but at least I didn’t lose anything but a few minutes time. However, I’ve been relying on the RAID to provide some measure of file security and it’s obvious I really need to have it backed up to other storage as well. The box holds 1.5 terabytes so backing it up is not going to be trivial.

Hooker’s Balsamroot on the Wild Horse Wind Farm

I’m pretty sure there’s a high level of redundancy in the operational and control systems for our power company’s generation facilities, including the new Wild Horse Wind Project east of Ellensburg where this photo was made last month. That redundancy helps assure reliability, which is important whether your business is big or small.

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