It seems like I can't go a month without hearing that yet another filmmaker I know has lost a project due to having a hard drive fail and not having a back up. Most recently, it was some kids at a youth video project. Their counselors didn't back up the kids' iMovie project file and returned to edit the next day to learn the project was gone. All the editing they had done was lost. A group of budding filmmakers was in tears, the project was in chaos... Talk about an ugly situation!
But worst part is: The counselors knew better. They knew about backing up footage. They just didn't do it!
C'mon, counselors! What were you thinking!? Do you want to make children cry?
In a bit of inspired timing, Final Cut User linked to this video recently. No, I don't expect everyone to have the kind of backup system that Chase Jarvis demos. (I sure don't!) But as Jarvis says at the end of the video, you need something that scales to the work you're doing.
When was the last time you backed up your data?