You hear it everywhere: “I have an external hard drive, my photos are safe.”
Unfortunately… no. An external drive, no matter how solid or expensive, is not a backup. It’s simply a copy. And a copy can disappear just as fast as the original: failure, fall, theft, corruption, human error… one unlucky moment and everything can vanish.
As photographers, visual artists or content creators, we often postpone the “boring” technical management tasks. Yet this is exactly the part — invisible, silent — that protects years of work, memories and sometimes… an entire career.
To be truly protected, there’s a simple, proven method used for years by archivists, tech companies and managers of sensitive data: the 3-2-1 rule.
The 3-2-1 rule: your digital life insurance
1 – Three copies of your files
The original + two copies.
Why three? Because a single device can fail without warning, and a second copy may be affected by the same issue. Three copies = resilience.
2 – Two different types of storage
For example:
- an internal drive (your computer),
- an external drive,
- a NAS,
- a cloud service,
- a second drive stored elsewhere.
The idea is simple: never put all your data in the same technological basket. One disk fails? The other technology still holds.
3 – One off-site copy
This is the one that saves careers.
Fire, theft, water damage, loss, total corruption… if all your copies are in the same room, it’s as if you only had one.
The off-site copy can be:
- a drive left at a friend or relative’s home,
- a safe in another building,
- a reliable online service (Backblaze, iCloud, Dropbox, etc.).
What matters: that it is not physically with the others.
Why it’s vital for photographers
Because we accumulate thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — of unique files.
Each photo is a moment that will never happen again.
Each client project is a professional responsibility.
Each personal collection is cultural and family heritage.
A poor backup strategy isn’t just a waste of time:
– it’s cancelled contracts,
– lost clients,
– erased memories,
– decades of work gone forever.
Conversely, a solid 3-2-1 structure:
– protects your archive,
– eliminates stress,
– ensures work continuity,
– strengthens your professional credibility.
Conclusion: backup isn’t a gadget — it’s a discipline
We invest in bodies, lenses, workshops, software…
But nothing is more valuable than your files.
The 3-2-1 rule isn’t theoretical: it works, it’s simple, and it has saved more photographers than we could ever count.
If you care about your art, your memory and your professional reputation…
set up a real backup, not just an external hard drive.