A client asked me to help her tame her huge volume of pictures. Her hardware vendor had recommended Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE), which I personally believe is one of the best photo organizers on the market. I installed the software, and showed her just a structured approach so as not to be overwhelmed by the huge task of organizing 10,000 plus photos. As I was leaving, she wanted to me to make sure the work she would be doing was backed up. I hadn’t considered it because the hardware vendor had done all the setup, including the backup program. They had installed the very popular Carbonite backup software. Of course, her photos were being backed up, but there was a little wrinkle. By default the PSE database with all the tags and custom information is stored in the hidden folder called appdata. At least at that time the standard Carbonite Home plan did not backup that folder. Only by upgrading to Carbonite HomePlus was she getting the backup she needed. By the way, CrashPlan does backup this folder by default.
This post is not intended to be a review of Carbonite or CrashPlan. The main point is that it is important to make sure important folders and files are being backed up in the backup program you choose. And no matter which one you choose, periodically restore a random file, just to make sure the backup is working properly.
Contact me if you would like help with the verification.