The Rule of 3 – Easy Digital Preservation
How many times has your hard drive crashed, computer stop running, or you get an error that your memory card has gone bad? Everyone has lost data at some point due to technology failing. There is almost no way to guarantee that you equipment will never go down, but following the the simple rule of 3, can help keep your important content around and stop you from pulling your hair out when your next piece of technology does fail.
The rule of 3 is simple and isn’t a new concept for people in archival and preservation circles. It’s short, easy to follow and looks like this:
The Rule Of 3 or (3-2-1 Rule)
“Make 3 copies of anything that you consider valuable, in 2 different formats, with 1 of those versions offsite.”
Seems simple enough, so why do so many of us continually lose our data files, irreplaceable photos, and digital videos?
As a society we are always adding to our digital collections and its in our nature to capture life’s most valuable moments, but too often we neglect to do anything else with it once its recorded.
In a previous blog we wrote about why you should digitally preserve, this one explores why following the simple rule of 3 is just as important.
Losing your Content:
We have all heard stories about people grabbing photos, wedding albums and videos, or other important content out of their houses in an emergency. They do it because those records are some of the most important instances of their lives, and they are irreplaceable.
Everyone has content that means the world to them, but wouldn’t it be nice to not have to worry about always losing it? That is where following the simple rule of 3 comes into play.
The rule might seem complicated to some users but is actually really easy to do, and we can walk you through it:
Say you had baby photos in an album, your first step would be to digitize the photos to have data files of your physical copies. Now once you have created the digital copies, the next step would be to place them on 3 different formats: lets put them on Data Disc, a flash drive, and on a storage network in the cloud. By doing this you have ensured that your most important memories are preserved and now you are complying with the rule of 3.
Place your important content on 3 different formats
How easy was that?
Essentially, what you have done is created back ups of your album, placed them on different formats, and created an offsite storage in the cloud.
Different Formats and Offsite Locations:
Now when choosing the formats for your content there are many options and it really depends on what you have access to and how you will want to retrieve it in the future. Your formats can be anything from DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, memory cards, external hard drives, flash drives, LTO tapes and more. Whatever you choose make sure it’s a format that you know you will be able to use when recalling the content later.
For offsite backups, the general rule is to have a copy of your content in a place that you can access, that is not with the existing copies. Cloud storage networks are a popular choice because you can access your files from anywhere, but there are other options out there. Using a professional service like LightJar to protect and store your content, placing a backup in a safety deposit box at a bank, or even giving a copy to a family member or friend. These all work and are all great ways to ensure that you have a copy that you can get to when you need it.
The Rule of 3 preserves your legacy
You never know when your next piece of technology or equipment will fail but it can be certain that at some point you will lose something that is very valuable to you. It’s frustrating when it happens but by following the rule of 3 you can rest assured that you have not lost it for good.
Whatever you formats you decide or where you place your offsite backup, the important part is that you have decided to follow the rule of 3 and are being proactive in preserving your most important content. If your families digital legacy is important to you then you should really consider following this one simple rule.
For help digitizing content for a project or your own check out our website and professional services at www.cintrexav.com
