Sorry for the delay guys, but here is the second part on backing up your work.

I will show you how to get your files backed up online, using Livedrive which is a service costing 7 dollars a month for unlimited storage. The fantastic thing about Livedrive is that it does the backup automatically once you have set up which folder to upload, AND it allows you to browse the files and download them anywhere. Image files even have thumbnails, making them easy to navigate!

To start off, goto www.livedrive.com

At the time of writing this there is a 14 day free trial avaliable right there on the front page:

You guessed it, fill in an email adress and password and press “Start Free Trial”

You are then given a choice of “Backup” or “Backup & Briefcase”… the second one costs 10 dollars more a month, and I personally don’t see much use for it… but maybe someone does. Anyways, I chose Backup.

Next you get to the billing page, depending on if you want to take it for a spin first and see if you like it or want to go for a year long subscription etc… then your choices here will be different. For the 14 day trial, click the green button “No Thanks Just Start Free Trial”. Else, fill in details and click create account.

You are now taken to the site where an automatic download of the application takes place. Save the install file to disk and run it.

After install is finished, time to open the program and set it up. It should be found under your start menu, programs, Livedrive.

Sign in using email and password you used when you registered.

Give your computer a name, this will appear online when you browse your files. If you have several computers that you are backing up this will help distinguish between them.

You then get to select which folders you want to back up, I unchecked the ones listed above since I don’t really use them for anything. Click Add Folder to … well… add other folders that you want to back up.

Here I have added the I:/Photography folder and checked it. When done, press next. (You can add your whole drive if you want… remember, unlimited space)

After you press next you are given a short instruction on how to add more folders later, which is really easy… just right click a folder and find the Livedrive popout menu item and select “Backup with Livedrive Backup”. Press next to get to the last bit of the setup.

You have now set up your Livedrive backup system. If you click the “Access and use Livedrive online” you will be taken to the livedrive site where you can now log in and view your files… of course, if you just finished setting up, this will be empty… it takes a while for Livedrive to scan through your files and then upload them.

To see the status of your files, go to the Livedrive Control Panel (its under the livedrive folder on the start menu).

Here you can see (at the top) if Livedrive is running. If you click that link assuming it is not running, it should start. If it is running, you will get a new box openend with Livedrive status… this again will take a while to get started, but will automatically add files to upload queue.

OK, so… back to the online portal. As mentioned, you can login to Livedrive from www.livedrive.com, and typing in email and password in the top right hand corner.

you will see a whole bunch of useful stuff once logged in, including most recently added files, a menu on the top as well as one on the right that looks like this:

It might look different depending on which account you set up and if you have set up payment details or not.

To see your backed up files, press the top one, Livedrive Backup (or you can press Backup on the menu on the top)

Here you will now see the computer name you inserted when you signed up.

This has a fantastic little pulldown menu, the most important bit probably being the Download option, which will allow you to download all thats been backed up. You can also double click the computer icon to get further in to see your files. This way allowing you to navigate just like you would on your computer, so that you can find a single file if its just the one file you need.

Useful? I think yes! I have access to all my photos anywhere in the world as long as i have internet access :)

One last useful thing, under Account Setting, on the bottom, there is an option to put in a personalized web address, making it quicker to log in.

Seeing as we are currently being taught about digital workflow at school, everything from color profiles, to file sorting, keywording, etc etc. I figured I would write a post that I hope can be of use to others. Being a photographer, photos are your source of income, and as such you would most likely want to keep these safe, and this is where backup comes into play. Its not a matter of IF your hard-drive fails, its not a matter of IF your PC/Mac will stop working, but WHEN… and WHEN that time comes, its better to have taken pre-cautions.

These days there are tons of ways to backup your work, which one you will go for is very much up to your budget, and your preferences in general.

Over the next few days I will post more information about different methods of backing up your data and will mostly cover the free ways in which to do it (free as long as you have the media to store it on :P in other words, i wont really talk about programs you have to pay for, with exception of online backup). I will write about how to back up your data onto another harddrive. I will also show a fantastic way to keep the files backed up on a different computer, automatically. I will also attempt to show how to use an online based backup service, these tend to cost money, but will give you access to the files from anywhere in the world, and if I am not mistaken (I need to double check this…) will automatically synch the folders, and if your electronics get fried or stolen, if your office/home gets flooded or burnt to the ground, or abducted by aliens….. uhm … yeah… , etc, the files will still be there.

Some people still use DVDs/CDs to backup their work, but with image sizes being as large as they are, and the fact that burning discs is very much a manual task that takes time and effort… maybe not the most popular choice. Blu-Ray is obviously also a possibility with its larger (25GB) size, but again, in my opinion discs just clutter things up, and take too much time.

Instead, I prefer using extra harddrives. These days storage space on harddrives is CHEAP! Internal discs of 2TB for stationary computers (~2,000 GB, you wont get quite that much) cost around 1400 NOK (~£140), external ones are at tiny bit more pricey, though not much. So if you have the money and the space, extra harddrives are definitely recommended. Now for the backing up part, there are several ways to do this.

-You can do it the obvious way and just copy the folder and pasting it over onto the new disc. This works, but when you add new files you will have to add these manually as well, and that’s just a hassle.

-If you have Windows 7, it has a built-in backup feature that lets you set up an automatic backup schedule, so it will run weekly and make sure your backup folder is up-to-date. Due to me having an annoying Norwegian version of Windows 7, I won’t show you how it is done myself, but this link gives a quick and good guide of how to do it: http://lifehacker.com/5144757/first-look-at-windows-7s-backup-and-restore-center … one thing… the link doesn’t do a very good job at telling you where you find it, so make your way to the Control Panel (Kontrollpanel) and then the Backup and Restore Center (Sikkerhetskopiering og gjennoppretting). Oddly enough it doesn’t let me back up from the I drive to the C drive, only the other way around… and due to me having my main library of images on the I drive, this feature isnt that much help to me.

-Another tool you can use, which works for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 is SyncToy, a free Microsoft tool avaliable at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en. This tool allows you to set up folders which you would like to synchronize and run the backup process whenever you feel like it with a simple click of a button. Download, Install and Run.

You will start off with this window with nothing set up:

Click “Create New Folder Pair”

Select the two folders you would like to synchronize, and press Next. Here I’ve decided to backup the photography folder on the “I:” drive to the “C:”

The next screen gives you a selection of choices of HOW the folders are synched.

The Synchronize option keeps the two folders the same, any changes you do on one folder will be copied to the other and the other way around.

The Echo option is the one I prefer, any changes you do on the “left” side, in my case the I: drive, are done to the “right” side, the C: drive. So when I add new files to I:/Photography, these will be copied over. Important thing to note in this mode is that if you delete a file on the I: drive, it will also be deleted from the C: drive.

The last mode, Contribute, is perhaps a bit more safe. It will copy from left to right, it will rename from left to right, but it will NOT delete files. So if you accidentally delete a folder on the I: drive, and you have synchronized the folders without noticing this, the files will NOT be deleted from the C: drive. You will have to actively go onto the C: drive and delete it there as well then.

Next screen asks you to name the folder pairs, call it whatever you want! “Bob” will work, but it might be useful to name it something that helps you remember which folders it refers to. I named mine “Photography I to C”.

Press Finish to get back to this screen, which now looks a bit different:

If you create more folder pairs you will get them listed down the left-hand side. Before, when I had my second external harddrive was still working, I had “Photography I to C” and “Photography I to G”… my 500GB external drive died on me, I was happy I had another backup… since my laptop also died on me only a couple of weeks later.

OK, next, to check how many files have been changed or added since last time you ran the synchronizing, click on the Preview button.

This will take a few seconds, to some minutes depending on how much it has to scan, it will list all the files that need to be copied over and some quick info about what it needs to do. Apparently I need to copy 30GB of files over, 2510 files into 114 folders.

Next, Click Run. Yes, this will take a while! The first time you do it is usually the one that takes the most time. Next time you do it, it will only have to copy over the files that have been changed or added since last time you ran it.

Tune in over the next few days when I’ll talk about how to backup onto another machine and to online services.