Online Digital Picture Storage

[WDWorBUST]

I am having trouble with my computer and will be getting a new one soon. The problem is I have a million pictures on this hard drive. My CD/DVD burner on this computer has quit working. I just tried to backup my most recent pictures to my external storage "book" and it's not working now. (Not sure if it is the book itself or the computer not talking to it correctly - I will try it at work tomorrow) So far my pictures are still available and good on the computer and I believe I also have CD/ DVD back up of my older stuff. However I don't think I can have too many backups, especially under the circumstances. Is there an online storage place that I can upload my pictures to that I can then retrieve them when I get the new computer set up? Then I can go forward from there? I don't mind paying for a service, I don't plan to keep it long term, however if it's not too expensive I might. I just need something reputable and user friendly.

 

[ricktib]

If you have a hotmail/msn account, you get 25 GB of free SkyDrive storage.

 

[wgwtgb]

I LOVE snapfish.com
Great storage and gives you the opportunity to create great gifts.

 

[WDWorBUST]

How does skydrive work?

And with skydrive and snapfish both I can then download my pics back to my hard drive, correct?

 

[sbell111]

I have alot of pics on flickr, but I don't really consider that a backup. I use two external drives to back up pics and other important stuff. One of these should probably be kept off site or in our fire safe, but I have been negligent.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

I save all my pics on Shutterfly, it's free and there is no storage limitation. Also, you can purchase from them all your pics on CDs and they're actually full sized pics so you always have a backup.

 

[wgwtgb]

I save all my pics on Shutterfly, it's free and there is no storage limitation. Also, you can purchase from them all your pics on CDs and they're actually full sized pics so you always have a backup.

This is almost exactly the same as snapfish... just another site with the same capabilities.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Well - the good news is my external drive isn't bad....it's just my stupid computer. The bad news is that I don't have ALL my pictures on it....it looks like I only have through last year. On snapfish/shutterfly I understand I can buy CD's with all my pics, but can I just download them back to my computer? Or do I have to pay to get the digital images back?

 

[wgwtgb]

It is somewhat time consuming, but you can go back and save them to My Pics or whatever you want. I just like that I can access them wherever I am with any computer with internet access. If there's a fire or in my neck of the woods a hurricane I don't have to worry about ever losing them. They're accessable from anywhere in the world with internet access!!!

 

[RadioNate]

SmugMug

There is a fee but you can easily retrieve your files.

 

[bonoriffic]

Snapfish and other services like that may rename your files, and downgrade the resolution if above 9 megapixels. Yuck! Who would want that, even for free?

Smugmug is the best of the paid services, if you also want to share your pictures, videos, and have access to your pictures at their full resolution. If you don't want to share pictures, there are some free options for just backup out there.

Sky Drive is a great option, but may be a lot of work to get your files backed up. Once it is set up, it is easy to maintain but starting fresh will be a boring afternoon of manually uploading pictures. You need a Windows Live account (hotmail email address is one example of a Live account).

Go to skydrive.live.com and sign in. You basically get a web based storage account up to 25 GB of space for any kind of files (documents, pdfs, music, etc). The one limitation is each file you upload can only be 50 MB in size. So you can't zip up large folders and send the whole thing at once.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 just came out and they have a new option that works with Sky Drive that automatically backs up whatever folders / files you want for you. That doesn't have a limitation in file size, only that you only get 5 GB of total space. (2GB today, 5GB shortly) That is an amazing free service that backs up your documents for free every day with no effort on your part. It also allows you to remotely log in to your home computer from anywhere in the world which is useful now and then, as well as log in anywhere and access your backed up files. Every once in awhile I like to log in to our home computer from work and start music playing when my wife is home, just to freak her out.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Thanks everyone!! I feel so much better knowing my external drive is okay. And I'm confident I can get the rest of them set up.....I just need to get to it because we leave on vacation tomorrow afternoon and I need empty memory cards

When we get back I will make it a priority to get all my files backed up properly and I think I will use an internet service along with all the other ones I currently do. I can't bear the thought of losing my pictures.

 

[bicker]

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of service for whatever service you choose very carefully. A lot of folks have been terribly surprised by various tenets of these agreements, often losing or losing access to their data.

 

[Carl]

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of service for whatever service you choose very carefully. A lot of folks have been terribly surprised by various tenets of these agreements, often losing or losing access to their data.

Right! If you're not careful, they will notify you that if you do not place an order with them, they will delete your photos.

 

[Best Aunt]

Am I missing something? If you have a USB port that works, can't you just get a flash drive at Staples or somewhere, plug it into the USB port, and save your pictures to it? The flash drives have a big capacity these days.

 

[bicker]

I can't speak for OP, but it would take a boatload of flash drives to store our family photos:

15.8 GB (17,045,823,678 bytes)