Where to keep your family photo archive so you never lose it

How to protect your data

If you compose the top nightmares of a modern person, the fear of parting with valuable information forever will certainly be at the top of the rating. We conducted a survey among the readers of Lifehacker and found out what data they worry about the most. In the first place is the family photo and video archive - 37% of the respondents are afraid of losing it. Another common fear is to say goodbye to the list of passwords and bank data; 28% of survey participants worry about this information.

The loss of important documents or files that are needed for work and study worries 9% and 7% of the respondents, respectively. If the passwords can be changed and the card reissued, then the lost report, which took several days to prepare, or the deleted video sources will have to be restored from scratch. And yes, this sometimes happens even with the most responsible people.

We were sent on a business trip to shoot for a couple of days. Cool heroes, cool locations - everything went great. On the last day of filming, we traveled all over Moscow, collected a bunch of material and squeezed like a lemon back to our rented apartment.

The operator began to check the footage right on the camera. Either from fatigue, or the devil beguiled, but he pressed the wrong direction and formatted the memory card. Deathly silence reigned in the room, and a second later everyone was screaming in horror and despair. The project was on the verge of collapse. It was saved that our flight to Ulyanovsk was only the next day. So instead of walking around the capital, we filmed again.

In order not to get into such situations, remember a simple rule: all important data must have backups. This also applies to photographs, and working documents, and personal information, be it a password from the mail or a code word in the personal account of the bank. Backups need to be done on every device you use - on your home or work computer, and on your smartphone. This should be as familiar as taking a shower in the morning. It sounds obvious, but many realize the value of such a practice only after they once again lose something important.

The frequency of backups depends on the type of data you want to keep. You can send new photos from your smartphone to the cloud or to a spare media once a week, right after vacation or family holidays. And if you are doing an annual report or writing a thesis, make copies at least once a day.

Another useful feature is file request. Let's say you want to collect from your friends all the photos from the New Years celebration. It takes a long time to write to everyone in the messenger, and the quality of the pictures when they are sent back and forth may suffer. Select the folder where you want to put all the photos, create a link to the file request and send it to other users. Using this link, they will be able to upload their images in original quality directly to the repository.

Home network storage is a simple and reliable way to protect valuable data so you don't lose or accidentally delete important documents or photos. An intuitive interface guides you through setting up your Synology DiskStation DS220j in minutes, and mobile apps make it easy to access files even when you're away from home.