APUS Richard G. Trefry Archives | Home: From the Archivist Blog

It bears repeating that discussion there about backing up your digital files, because it is the most important one. It is important to have multiple copies in multiple formats and storing it all in multiple locations. The general rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 Rule. This entails creating 3 copies of the file, storing 2 copies in different types of media (for instance hard drive and cloud drive) and storing 1 copy outside of where you live or work. This ensures you have the proper backups so if one should fail there are still others.  
 
Along with the backing up of files, you should practice migrating the backups to new storage mediums to stay ahead of digital decay and changes in technology. Remember, the average lifespan of a computer is 5-8 years, a laptop is even shorter at 3-5 years, an external hard is the same, while your average smartphone lasts roughly 3 years. So if you're keeping your digital files on your phone, computer, laptop or external hard drive just be aware that you'll need to move over your digital archives every few years.  
 
Now let’s dig into some other digital files.  
 
Textual Files 
 
This includes Microsoft Office files such as word docs, Excel and PowerPoint files and the google equivalents. Also, this will be PDFs and even websites. For these types of files that include text and fonts, the best practice for preserving them is to convert them to a PDF/A format. It has been surmised by information management specialists and archivists alike that this is the standard format for text based documents. It allows for the longest and most stable preservation of these digital files. Though while PDF is an Adobe product, there is widespread acceptance that even if the company of Adobe should falter there would still be a need to make sure these files are accessible by any kind of software. So archives storing digital files all over the country and the world have been adopting the PDF/A standard for preservation. 
 
Research.gov has put together a helpful guide that walks you through how to covert a document to PDF/A. 
 
Audio Files 
 
There are many different kinds of audio files you may have just laying about on various devices and computers. An old demo tape from the your band from high school, the eight episodes of that podcast you did with your friend, audio notes you took to help you write your thesis, recordings of you talking with your great-grandmother, etc. No matter what it is all of it is worth saving. 
 
While there is no set, archive quality file format for audio, it is generally agreed upon that formats such as .WAV or .FLAC are the most desirable ones. These formats (or any format that follows these rules) do not sacrifice quality in order to save on disc space. MP3s are generally the catchall these days for any audio online. However, MP3s compresses the digital audio files down to get them to a manageable size so that the songs or podcasts or whatever can be easily streamed from whatever website or downloaded quicker. The compression process strips away data to cut down on the size. However, since MP3s are considered a quasi-open source and since the damage has already been done, if your audio files are in MP3 format it is best to keep them that way. Nothing is gained (quality-wise) when you convert from MP3 to WAV.  
 
Sound quality, compression and data loss are the biggest factors when it comes to audio preservation, so the file format is something to keep in mind if you are currently creating audio works that will need to be preserved in the future. With that in mind, it is best to maintain an archival recording that is compression free and save a compressed copy that you then distribute on your website or ship out through your podcast feed, etc.   
 
This also goes for if you have physical media of some sort like a CD with your songs on them or a tape from an old voice recorder that you're transferring to digital, that when you go to convert those you do not want to place any compression on those files. Record or transfer as is. 
 
Video Files  
 
Much of the same issues that you have with audio files you have with video files. With the sheer size of video files, even the shortest ones can be nearly a GB, compression often takes place in order to upload and stream them.  
 
Also, if you have physical media such as DVDs or VHS or BETA (bless your soul), and you are working on transferring those to a digital format, then you will not want to compress those video files . Keep them as pristine as possible. In another edition, I will take up the challenge of converting physical media to digital media, but right now it is good enough to know that if you have that or have already completed the conversion process then you should not compress the files.  
 
As mentioned above about file sizes, please keep in mind those file sizes and the amount of digital storage at your disposal. If you are looking to back up your entire YouTube Channel of videos the number of videos and space is going to add up quickly. And if you are utilizing some sort of paid cloud storage solution it could be cost prohibitive.