Checksums are used to ensure the integrity of a file after it has been transmitted from one storage device to another, either downloaded from the internet, or simply between two computers on the same network. Basically, they act as fingerprints for that particular file. These strings have multiple names like checksum, MD5 checksum or SHA-1, etc.

You may have noticed that when you download files from certain websites, they have a very long string of numbers and letters. When a client is paying for your services, it can be a costly mistake if something were to go wrong, and when using the built-in solutions of your computer you never really know that every bit of data is correctly transferred unless you verify each transfer with a checksum. Many photographers I know apply a “set it and forget it” implementation and do not verify the transfer. Verification is an important step because it looks at the original camera media and makes sure that file and file structure is exactly copied to wherever you backing it up. Certain cameras can generate very complex media folder structures and if they aren’t all copied in the correct order a situation can arise where photographer or client can’t access any of the data. If you follow the 3-2-1 backup rule you know that you should have three backups of any file in case anything were to go wrong. First things first, you should never rely on one copy of your data, whether it is a regular external or a RAID solution.

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