How I Manage & Backup My Files

I wanted to share my workflow on managing and backing up my files to ensure I do not lose any of the important images and video that I have accumulated over the 20 years of being involved in photography.

What equipment are you using?

I am pretty heavily into the Apple Ecosystem, so I am using a MacBook Pro as my main editing rig. I'm using external drives and backup drives made by OWC. They have a reputation for being very fast and reliable. I also have chosen them because they have a direct Thunderbolt connection to my MacBook.

Isn't thunderbolt the same as USB-C?

No, not at all.

They do have the exact same shape, and can plug into the same connectors, but speeds are very different and the cable you use matters quite a bit.

USB-C (USB 3.2) maxes out at speeds around 10-20Gbps. Thunderbolt 3 & 4 max out at 40Gbps and Thunderbolt 5 can max out at 80Gbps.

Because of the speed differences, Certified Thunderbolt devices and their cables usually come at a more expensive cost than USB-C.

Thunderbolt can also support monitors and other accessories' daisy-chained together, but for the purpose of this discussion, we will talk mostly about the speed difference. Which you can see from above Thunderbolt is, at least, twice as fast as USB-C, in most cases.

There is a new USB4 interface that claims 40Gbps, but I have no experience with it as my MacBook has no USB4 ports. Those are usually found on the latest, greatest Windows based computers.

How I arrange my files

I organize all of my files by year. So I have a 2026 folder and inside that folder I have locations I visited during that year. I repeat the process every year, starting a new folder at the start of a new year. I keep the "current" year's folder on a simple external SSD that I connect to my MacBook using a Thunderbolt connection. Let's take a look at what I am talking about. This is my "Current Photos" External NVMe SSD. This is where I store all of my 2026 images and videos.

This is how I structure my files in folder for each year.

This is the top level folder:

This is the next level after clicking into "Current Photos":

This is the next level after clicking into "2026":

I use this same organizational structure for every year.

Where do you store your previous year's files?

This is going to get pretty nerdy, so hang in there.

I have a Thunderbolt Enclosure from OWC called the Express 4M2 Ultra. It has 4 NVMe slots and connects to my MacBook via Thunderbolt. It allows you to configure the 4 drives inside in a configuration known as RAID. Without getting too far into the depths of RAID, it basically allows you to spread your data out across all the drives, and, depending on how you configure the RAID, will give you a layer of protection. If you have a RAID5, let's say, you can have 1 drive fail and none of your data will be lost, you can simply replace the bad drive and that drive will be "rebuilt" into the RAID when it is replaced. If you set your RAID up as a RAID0, you have no protection from drive failures. Why would anyone use RAID0, you ask? Speed. RAID0 runs much faster, but at the costs of the redundancy protection. Also, storage space. RAID0 basically adds your drives together, and you have that much storage space available. Using RAID5, for example, you lose a little bit of available storage because the system uses that space to store the data that would need to be recovered in the event of a drive failure. Ok, I think we are (mostly) done with the heavy nerd talk.

I have (4) 4TB NVMe drives in this enclosure and I set it up as a RAID0. This gives me 16TB of data in this enclosure. Aren't you worried about a drive failure? No, because I am backing this entire enclosure up in 2 different places, which we will get to later.

Here's what the enclosure looks like:

Let me show you the file organization structure of this enclosure.

Once 2026 is completed, I will move that entire folder from the external NVMe drive onto this RAID controller. Then I will start a new "2027" folder on the external drive.

That's great, but how are you backing all of this data up?

Great question!

I have another device from OWC called a ThunderBay 8. It is another RAID controller, similar to the Express 4M2 Ultra, except this enclosure only accepts the old school, spinning hard drives. It has 8 bays and I have filled all the bays with 12TB HDDs. I do have this RAID enclosure configured in a RAID5 to give me a bit of protection in case of a drive failure. This enclosure has a total of 84TB available. This is mainly used for local backups. And, no, I am not a trillionaire, all of this was purchased over the course of several years and was bought way before the flash storage crisis/price increases.

I am backing up my main MacBook laptop, the external "Current" NVMe, and the Express4M2 Ultra enclosure all to this ThunderBay 8 enclosure locally.

Let's take a look at the ThunderBay 8.

How do you have all of this connected?

Remember earlier when I said one of the advantages of Thunderbolt was the ability to daisy-chain devices? I have this ThunderBay8 enclosure daisy-chained to my Express4M2 Ultra device. Then it is daisy-chained to my monitor, which is also Thunderbolt. Then one cable from my monitor to my laptop connects everything.

Then I usually just plug my external NVMe directly into my laptop. I travel with it, so plugging it in directly is my way of reminding myself not to forget it when I go on a trip.

Are you using a special software to do backups?

Yes, I am using two, actually.

Coming from the IT world, there is a common plan when backing up data known as the 3-2-1 plan. The idea is you have 3 copies of your important data, then you have it on 2 separate drives, and finally 1 off-site storage location.

How I accomplish this is by backing up my laptop, external NVMe drive, and my Express4M2 Ultra to this ThunderBay 8 locally using a software called Carbon Copy Cloner. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to create "tasks"that basically mirror what files you tell it to mirror to a location you choose. You can also set the rules to run each "task" on a time schedule.

In my case, I have a separate task for each item. I have a task for my MacBook Pro, a task for my External NVMe drive and a task for my Express4M2 Ultra enclosure.

Each one I have set up a bit differently. So my MacBook Pro task and my external NVMe tasks I run daily at 2:00AM each night. Since I am likely to add or change files on those everyday, I run those nightly.

My task for the Express4M2 Ultra, which only houses the older image files, I run that task weekly. Since it is storing only "past" years files, it isn't likely to change near as often as the other two.

Here's a look at how Carbon Copy Cloner is set up:

I also have the option of running each tasks manually instead of waiting on its schedule. Another thing is, let's say I am off on a trip and the laptop can't run these tasks (when I am traveling I do not travel with the RAID controllers, so CCC can not find them). As soon as CCC sees them connected again, it immediately starts running each of the tasks.

For my 1 off site solution I am using a subscription based service known as BackBlaze. BackBlaze is an online service that backs all the files you choose to their cloud. It runs in the background and you never even notice it. As soon as it recognizes new files, it copies them up to their servers.

Here's what that interface looks like:

The subscription I have, which is about $5/month, BackBlaze will store 30 days of my files on their servers. In the event I need to recover a file, I have a few options. I can log in with my username and password to their website where I am presented with a "file explorer" and I can simply navigate to the file I need to recover and download it. In the event I would ever need to recover a large amount of data, I can request BackBlaze put that data on a hard drive and ship to me.

Why aren't you using a NAS?

Another great question.

A NAS, or networked attached storage, allows you to access your files remotely via an internet connection.

A few reasons I am not using a NAS. First, I have never really had a need to access my files remotely, yet. And, if I do, I usually just throw them on a Google Drive or Dropbox folder. The second, and biggest reason, is that these Thunderbolt enclosures are just recognized by the system as "external drives". BackBlaze allows me to back up as many external drives as I want. However, it will not allow me to back up a NAS on my current subscription. So, I chose these Thunderbolt devices so I could continue to use BackBlaze as my off site backup location without an additional subscription or cost.

I've used this system for several years now, and it has served me very well.

What about when you are traveling?

Another good question. I take my regular "Current Photos" External NVMe enclosure with me and an additional 2 other NVMe enclosures on every trip. At the end of each day of shooting, I download all of my camera's cards to the "Current Photos" NVMe drive, then duplicate it to the additional drive 1 and additional drive 2.

Since internet is often non-existent, or very limited on the road. I just have those three copies and pray nothing happens to all three of them until I arrive home.

Once I arrive home and connect my laptop to the other enclosures, the local backups start running automatically. Once BackBlaze realizes there are new files, it begins running automatically, too.

Is this system the best? I'm sure there are faults, but like I said before, it has served me well for several years now.