Whether they’re stored on SD cards or mobile devices like phones or tablets, most of our photos are now stored digitally – but how can you keep your photos safe?
Our data recovery team see multiple SD cards every week, some from personal photographers, but quite a few from professional photographers, too. For professional photographers, not only is there an economic hit when photos are lost or accidentally deleted, but a personal one too; we have recovered photos for several wedding photographers whose reputations would be ruined if they lost the photos from a couple’s big day. While our data recovery team have masses of experience recovering photos from SD cards – and data recovery at home using software is an option too – the best thing to do is get yourself in a position where you don’t need to recover your photos.
There are several best practice tips when it comes to SD cards. Most commonly used in digital cameras and mobile devices such as phones or tablets, SD cards are incredibly fragile storage devices, and very susceptible to physical damage. As with all storage devices, it goes without saying that you should treat your SD cards with care, and store them away from extreme heat or sunlight. Data recovery from a physically damaged SD card is possible, but should only be attempted by a professional data recovery specialist. We’d recommend investing in a decent quality memory card, rather than simply buying the cheapest one you can find. Your photos will also be safer if you opt for multiple smaller capacity SD cards rather than a single large one; if anything goes wrong with one, far fewer photos will be lost. When you’re out shooting, keep your camera safe from water and humidity, and make sure to keep drops and knocks to a minimum.
You should transfer your photos from your SD card to your computer or hard drive as soon as you can. There are some great portable SSDs with SD card readers available that at are marketed towards photographers, allowing quick and easy transfer of photos on-the-go. Make sure that you do not delete the photos on your SD card until you are certain that they have been copied over to another device. Once you have your photos on your computer, you need to get into the habit of backing up regularly. This can be done to a physical storage device like an external hard drive or RAID system, or in the cloud, or both if you want to be extra cautious. If you’re a professional photographer, it’s worth keeping an additional backup offsite to protect your photos in the event of a fire or flood, whether that’s in the cloud or on another drive.
