Backing up work files is a must in any business. I had a nightmare of a situation when my dog (yes I know) ran past my computer cables and dragged my work hard drive crashing to the floor. 500GB worth of work, gone. I tried different recovery methods, but they failed. The worst part of the story was that I had no current back up of the files contained on the hard drive. I was a victim of the “it will never happen to me” syndrome. I was able to recover all of the data, but it was expensive and I had to do with my files for a few days. If this happens to you, take your damaged hard drive to the best recovery lab in the business: http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/. They calmed me down and did a great job of recovery. When you rely on the files as much as graphic designers do, you want to go with a company you can trust.

Now I back up my files on a regular basis. I still use external hard drives for my work files. I like to keep my work files and operating system files on different drives. I can also take my external with me between my studio and home. For my back up, I have additional hard drives which back ups are copied to and I use a remote back up service. The remote back up service is the ultimate peace of mind, since there is no hard drive to fail or DVD to scratch.

The online service I use is SugarSync. You can try their service for free. They have automatic sync and you have control over sharing your online files with clients and collaborators. This feature comes in handy with the large nature of graphics files. They even have a free mobile app for your phone.

Which ever method you choose for back up, just do it. It will save your sanity and give peace of mind.