Your Tapes Have Been Converted to Digital — Now Make Sure You Back Them Up
Converting old VHS tapes, camcorder tapes and other family media to digital is one of the best ways to preserve the memories recorded on them.
But there is another important step that is sometimes forgotten:
Your newly converted digital files need to be backed up too.
A USB drive containing your converted family videos may feel much safer than a 30-year-old VHS tape — and in many ways it is. But no digital storage device should be treated as the only permanent copy of an irreplaceable family memory.
A Recent Reminder
We recently had a customer contact us after losing the USB drive containing their converted videos.
Unfortunately, they had not yet made another copy of the files.
Fortunately, they had done one very important thing:
They had kept their original tapes.
Because the tapes still existed, the memories had not necessarily been lost forever.
It was a good reminder of why we encourage every customer to do two things after having their tapes converted:
Keep the original media somewhere safe, and make multiple backups of the digital files.
A USB Drive Is a Copy — Not a Complete Backup Strategy
USB flash drives are convenient for watching, copying and sharing family videos, but they can be:
Lost
Accidentally deleted
Physically damaged
Corrupted
Misplaced during a house move
Accidentally overwritten
Subject to electronic failure
External hard drives and computers can fail too.
This is why important files should never exist in only one place.
How Many Copies Should You Keep?
For important family memories, we recommend having multiple digital copies stored on different devices and, ideally, in different locations.
A simple arrangement might be:
Copy 1 — Your everyday copyThe USB drive supplied with your videos or the copy stored on your computer.
Copy 2 — A local backupA second USB drive, external hard drive or NAS.
Copy 3 — An off-site or cloud backupA reputable cloud storage service or another drive kept safely at a different location.
The important part is that all of your backups are not sitting together.
If your computer and backup drive are both beside each other and something such as theft, fire, water damage or an electrical fault affects that location, both copies could potentially be lost.
We Keep Your Converted Files for 30 Days
At Video to Digital Conversions, we keep a copy of completed digital conversions on our NAS for 30 days after your job is completed.
We do this to give customers some time to:
Collect or receive their converted videos
Check their files
Copy them onto their computer
Create additional USB or hard-drive copies
Arrange cloud or off-site storage
However, our 30-day copy should not be considered your permanent backup.
After that retention period, customers should assume that their own copies are the only remaining digital copies.
We therefore strongly recommend organising your backups as soon as you receive your completed conversion.
Don't Throw Away Your Original Tapes
Another question people often have is:
“Now that my tapes are digital, can I throw the tapes away?”
Our preference is to keep them if you have somewhere suitable to store them.
Your original VHS, VHS-C, Video8, Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV and other tapes are the original source material.
Even after conversion, they can provide an additional safeguard.
Store them:
Somewhere dry
Away from excessive heat
Away from moisture and humidity
Away from direct sunlight
Somewhere physically protected from damage
Avoid sheds, garages or other locations that become extremely hot or damp if you have a better storage option available.
You may never need the tapes again — but if something happens to every digital copy, you may be very thankful that they are still there.
Check Your Backups Occasionally
Creating a backup once and forgetting about it forever isn't ideal either.
Every so often:
Connect your backup drive.
Make sure it is still recognised.
Open several video files.
Check that they play correctly.
Replace or duplicate ageing storage devices when necessary.
As storage technology changes over the years, you can also move your memories onto newer devices. Think of digital preservation as an ongoing process rather than something that happens only once.
The Most Important Rule
There is a very simple principle worth remembering:
If an important memory exists in only one place, it isn't properly backed up.
Your children's first steps, weddings, birthdays, Christmas mornings, grandparents, family holidays and loved ones who may no longer be with us cannot simply be recreated if the files disappear.
Converting old tapes to digital is the first major step towards protecting them.
Backing up those digital files is what helps keep them protected for the future.
At Video to Digital Conversions, our goal isn't simply to transfer a tape onto a USB drive.
It's to help preserve your memories for future generations.
Keep the tapes.Keep multiple digital copies.Keep your memories safe.
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