Hard Drive Management for Creative Pros

Join Kevin Ames as he dives into the hard drive, why it fails, and the steps that creative professionals can take to protect themselves from data loss.

Introduction

• Welcome

1. Understanding Hard Drives and Why They Fail

• What is in a hard drive?
• Factors that can hurt a drive
• The dangers of hard drives on a shelf
• Obsolescence

2. Formats for Hard Drives

• Mac
• Windows
• Cross-platform formats

3. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (RAID)

• What is a RAID?
• RAID 0 is for speed, not storage
• RAID 1: Mirror, mirror
• RAID 5: Protected storage
• Proprietary RAIDs (Synology and Drobo)

4. Organizing Data Workflow Strategies

• Metadata vs. folders
• Folder structure approaches
• Keeping it simple
• Letting the computer sort it all out

5. Digital Asset Management Tools

• What is a digital asset manager (DAM)?
• Catalogs are databases
• Using a file browser
• Naming conventions

6. Connecting Hard Drives

• Megabits vs. megabytes
• Current connections
• Legacy connections

7. Backups Are Mandatory

• What is a backup?
• Backup vs. protected storage
• How many copies of a backup?
• How often to backup
• Local storage
• Offsite storage
• 3-2-1 backup
• Long-term backups
• Migration

Conclusion

• Next steps