Backup and Data Integrity for Photographers

These days, as a photographer, one strives constantly to not become a data center administrator. What with endless upgrades, updates, revisions, patches, security alerts, subscription management, feed management and the like, it's a wonder that we have any time left to actually take and create photographs. Consequently, subjects such as backing up one's data usually fall to the bottom of the list in terms of priorities. Then, ensuring the integrity of the data is even farther down the list of things to do. As usual, one day we get the dreaded "can't read Drive X", only to throw up our hands in despair.
The catch with data backup is not that it's a boring subject (it is), but that there are a huge number of options and strategies one can pursue to achieve a desired end. What is that end precisely ? How should I go about achieving it ? What will it cost ? This article will attempt to address a few of these issues.
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