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Recent Journal
Digital artists: Please make backups!
3 months ago
Dear digital artists:
Make backups!
Make backups!
Make backups!
Nobody in the history of computing has ever said "Gee, I made too many backups". :D
tl;dr: You can use a USB flash drive, external USB hard drive, or external USB solid-state drive with just about everything currently used to create art - desktop, laptop, tablet, phone. Online backups also work, but are slower, among other limitations. Get in the habit of backing up regularly. Every so often, test your backup - decide you want a copy of a file from some time ago, and then go get that file from your backup.
Why to back up
This journal entry was prompted by recent journals about computer problems from a couple of artists that I follow, as well as things I have personally witnessed, and things that artists have reported in the past.
Here are some reasons you might need to use your backup. Ones marked 💥 have actually happened to me or someone I know.
💥 You accidentally delete the wrong file or folder on your PC, laptop, or phone.
💥 Your PC, laptop, or phone gets a virus or ransomware.
💥 The hard drive, solid-state drive, or storage built in to your PC, laptop, or phone becomes physically unusable. (Hard drives can fail mechanically; SSDs and flash can fail electrically.)
💥 Some other part of your PC, laptop, or phone craps out, making the whole thing unusable. (PC power supply or motherboard quits; screen on a phone or tablet cracks.)
💥 House fire, busted pipe in the house, gas leak, extended power outage means you temporarily need to move elsewhere.
Tornado, flood, hurricane/cyclone, wildfire, winter storm, earthquake, tsunami means you temporarily need to move elsewhere.
Device got stolen. More common for phones and tablets, but possible for anything.
Your OS vendor pushes an update that deletes all your documents. (This happened to Windows 10 during its lifecycle.)
💥 You have to move house RIGHT NOW because a military operation has started in your country.
💥 You have to move house REAL QUICK because you don't want to get drafted/conscripted for a military operation, or similar political considerations.
Backing up to an external drive
My personal preference is to back up to a USB flash drive or USB external drive. I feel that gives me the most options in the "grab it and leave the house" department, as well as being able to access the backup from some other machine, if my main PC is on fire or underwater or whatever.
Take a look at the total size of all the stuff you want to back up, and get a USB flash drive or external drive at least that big, plus a little room for the stuff you will draw later. The size is also handy to know if you're considering an online backup.
For a phone or tablet, you may need an adapter cable to get the external drive to plug in to your device. If you know exactly what you need, get it online; if not, a good local computer store should be able to get you the right cable.
Online backups
Phones and tablets will be predisposed to back up to someone else's computer, usually at Google (Android) or Apple (iOS). You can usually also use third-party services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and similar on them.
These services will have neat features like automatic sync, and only backing up the stuff that's new since the last time you did a backup. Also, if both your device and your external backup drive are on fire, underwater, or whatever, it's pretty likely that your online backup will still be available - it's probably on a computer that's at least several hundred miles away.
On the other hand, online backups will be slower to use than an external drive, at least with the Internet connections most people have in the USA. Also, they may require you to do things like buy a new phone (Android or iOS backup), or be able to log into your Dropbox or Microsoft account, to get your files back. This may not always be easy to do.
Online providers can also change their pricing. "10 GB free" might turn into "2 GB free" with relatively short notice, so you might quickly need to upgrade to a paid service, switch services, etc. It's a good idea to sign up for a service like this with an email address you read regularly; good providers will announce pricing changes far enough ahead of time that you can do something about it before the change.
Opinion: In 2024, you probably also have to assume that online backups of drawings are being used to feed an AI. This might be buried in the Terms of Service somewhere (try reading the ToS the next time you're in the smallest room in your house for a while), or they might not. There's so much money currently being thrown at AI - both hype and real products - that assuming that your online backups are feeding an AI is a reasonable thing to do.
Opinion: If you draw adult art, you may be more comfortable with the idea of backups on an external drive that you can hold in your hand. (Gentlemen take Polaroids.)
Things that aren't backups
Twitter/X, FurAffinity, Weasyl, e621, Itaku, Mastodon, etc are not backups. Normally you will only post the "finished" JPEG, PNG, or equal to sites like this, so you won't be able to get the PSD (or equal) back later. Also, Twitter always recompresses images, FA often does, and other services might, so you might not even be able to get a good-quality image back later.
Selecting the "Keep my documents" option when reinstalling the OS is not a backup, because it doesn't always work. :D This mostly applies to PCs and laptops.
RAID-1 (mirroring) is not a backup. You could make an argument for some other RAID levels; some of them are robust against a single hardware failure, but not against multiple hardware failures. (If you don't know what RAID is, you're not using it.)
That spindle of burned-but-unlabeled CD-R/DVD-R/BD-Rs you keep on the floor next to your desk. Okay, Grandpa. <_<
In conclusion
I left out a lot of details, because this is already too long. :D
Make backups!
Make backups!
Make backups!
Make backups!
Nobody in the history of computing has ever said "Gee, I made too many backups". :D
tl;dr: You can use a USB flash drive, external USB hard drive, or external USB solid-state drive with just about everything currently used to create art - desktop, laptop, tablet, phone. Online backups also work, but are slower, among other limitations. Get in the habit of backing up regularly. Every so often, test your backup - decide you want a copy of a file from some time ago, and then go get that file from your backup.
Why to back up
This journal entry was prompted by recent journals about computer problems from a couple of artists that I follow, as well as things I have personally witnessed, and things that artists have reported in the past.
Here are some reasons you might need to use your backup. Ones marked 💥 have actually happened to me or someone I know.
💥 You accidentally delete the wrong file or folder on your PC, laptop, or phone.
💥 Your PC, laptop, or phone gets a virus or ransomware.
💥 The hard drive, solid-state drive, or storage built in to your PC, laptop, or phone becomes physically unusable. (Hard drives can fail mechanically; SSDs and flash can fail electrically.)
💥 Some other part of your PC, laptop, or phone craps out, making the whole thing unusable. (PC power supply or motherboard quits; screen on a phone or tablet cracks.)
💥 House fire, busted pipe in the house, gas leak, extended power outage means you temporarily need to move elsewhere.
Tornado, flood, hurricane/cyclone, wildfire, winter storm, earthquake, tsunami means you temporarily need to move elsewhere.
Device got stolen. More common for phones and tablets, but possible for anything.
Your OS vendor pushes an update that deletes all your documents. (This happened to Windows 10 during its lifecycle.)
💥 You have to move house RIGHT NOW because a military operation has started in your country.
💥 You have to move house REAL QUICK because you don't want to get drafted/conscripted for a military operation, or similar political considerations.
Backing up to an external drive
My personal preference is to back up to a USB flash drive or USB external drive. I feel that gives me the most options in the "grab it and leave the house" department, as well as being able to access the backup from some other machine, if my main PC is on fire or underwater or whatever.
Take a look at the total size of all the stuff you want to back up, and get a USB flash drive or external drive at least that big, plus a little room for the stuff you will draw later. The size is also handy to know if you're considering an online backup.
For a phone or tablet, you may need an adapter cable to get the external drive to plug in to your device. If you know exactly what you need, get it online; if not, a good local computer store should be able to get you the right cable.
Online backups
Phones and tablets will be predisposed to back up to someone else's computer, usually at Google (Android) or Apple (iOS). You can usually also use third-party services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and similar on them.
These services will have neat features like automatic sync, and only backing up the stuff that's new since the last time you did a backup. Also, if both your device and your external backup drive are on fire, underwater, or whatever, it's pretty likely that your online backup will still be available - it's probably on a computer that's at least several hundred miles away.
On the other hand, online backups will be slower to use than an external drive, at least with the Internet connections most people have in the USA. Also, they may require you to do things like buy a new phone (Android or iOS backup), or be able to log into your Dropbox or Microsoft account, to get your files back. This may not always be easy to do.
Online providers can also change their pricing. "10 GB free" might turn into "2 GB free" with relatively short notice, so you might quickly need to upgrade to a paid service, switch services, etc. It's a good idea to sign up for a service like this with an email address you read regularly; good providers will announce pricing changes far enough ahead of time that you can do something about it before the change.
Opinion: In 2024, you probably also have to assume that online backups of drawings are being used to feed an AI. This might be buried in the Terms of Service somewhere (try reading the ToS the next time you're in the smallest room in your house for a while), or they might not. There's so much money currently being thrown at AI - both hype and real products - that assuming that your online backups are feeding an AI is a reasonable thing to do.
Opinion: If you draw adult art, you may be more comfortable with the idea of backups on an external drive that you can hold in your hand. (Gentlemen take Polaroids.)
Things that aren't backups
Twitter/X, FurAffinity, Weasyl, e621, Itaku, Mastodon, etc are not backups. Normally you will only post the "finished" JPEG, PNG, or equal to sites like this, so you won't be able to get the PSD (or equal) back later. Also, Twitter always recompresses images, FA often does, and other services might, so you might not even be able to get a good-quality image back later.
Selecting the "Keep my documents" option when reinstalling the OS is not a backup, because it doesn't always work. :D This mostly applies to PCs and laptops.
RAID-1 (mirroring) is not a backup. You could make an argument for some other RAID levels; some of them are robust against a single hardware failure, but not against multiple hardware failures. (If you don't know what RAID is, you're not using it.)
In conclusion
I left out a lot of details, because this is already too long. :D
Make backups!
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