Congrats, you just lost two copies. Learn a real backup plan

Back Up Your Podcast Before Your Hard Drive Decides For You My 4TB solid-state drive started disconnecting from my computer about once a day. Luckily, my podcast files were already backed up. In this episode I explain what a real backup is, which files are worth keeping, and why a hard drive failure is a matter of when, not if. In this episode: What counts as a backup. A backup means copies in two different locations. Your internal drive plus an external drive in the same house isn't enough. If your house burns down, you lose both copies. My setup. I keep my files on an external drive and back up everything, external drive included, to Backblaze. I also use iDrive as an extra cloud copy. How I organize my files. I have a Podcasts folder with a folder for each show. Inside each show are Production (intro music and similar files), Episodes (one folder per episode), and Finished (the exported final files). I record and edit from a saved Hindenburg template. What you can safely delete. In 20+ years, I've never gone back to rebuild an old episode from its raw files. I keep the project files for about a week in case someone spots a problem, like 10 seconds of dead air. After that, I keep only the finished episode. If your episodes are live, you haven't lost them. If they're still on your hosting platform (Captivate, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, etc.), you can download them again. The files you used to make them are replaceable. Back up your files, not your software. You can always reinstall programs like Audacity. Back up what you create: audio, documents, spreadsheets. Hardware always fails eventually. My drive was only half full and about four years old. Cars, dishwashers and hard drives all wear out. Export your email list regularly. Your email list is one of your biggest assets, and there's no algorithm between you and your subscribers. Export it every so often in case something goes wrong with your provider. The bottom line: Keep one copy at home, on your computer or an external drive, and one copy online. Links mentioned: Backblaze (affiliate link) iDrive Hindenburg Audacity Want help with your podcast? Join the School of Podcasting at schoolofpodcasting.com and use coupon code LISTENER for a monthly, quarterly or yearly plan. Every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy