Storing Digital Photos

[GJM]

How do you store you digital photos? This is my project that I keep telling myself I am going to do. I have photos on my hard drive, some on shutterfly.

I don't know were to store them that would be safe. I was thinking of putting them onto Shuttlerfly and then saving them to a CD.

Any help please!

 

[OceanAnnie]

I've stored ours on DVDs and I keep them in a large leather "carrying case". I have them in a handy spot JIC. It works for me.

 

[Barbossa]

I'd recommend backing them up on a separate external hard disk drive or onto a set of DVD's, then storing the backups outside your home. I have a large external HDD where I back up all of our home computers. I store the HDD in my desk drawer at work. This way you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

There is controversy about the life of your garden variety DVD-R, I've read it can be between 10-20 years. If this is too short you can buy "archive grade" CD-R's that supposedly retain their data for 100 years.

 

[PhillipV]

I suggest investing in an external hard drive. Over time, DVD's & CD's can degrade and/or become damaged. I transfer my files to the external, and keep it in a fire box. This way... if the system crashes or (God forbid) a catastrophe occurs, my files are safe.

Hope this helps!

 

[Brianne]

We burn ours onto CDs then keep them in a fireproof safe along with our important documents. If we ever had to evacuate, we'd just grab the safe and go.

Our next step is scanning in the thousands of photos we took pre-digital. That's going to be fun.

 

[PhillipV]

I'd recommend backing them up on a separate external hard disk drive or onto a set of DVD's, then storing the backups outside your home. I have a large external HDD where I back up all of our home computers. I store the HDD in my desk drawer at work. This way you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

There is controversy about the life of your garden variety DVD-R, I've read it can be between 10-20 years. If this is too short you can buy "archive grade" CD-R's that supposedly retain their data for 100 years.

Great minds think alike!!

 

[Barbossa]

Our next step is scanning in the thousands of photos we took pre-digital. That's going to be fun.

I wish I had the time to do this. I've looked for a good auto-feed scanner without success, time to check again.

 

[GJM]

So it seem like an external hard drive is the safest way to go -

That is one thing I didn't think of! Plus I just got a larger fire safe box -

 

[Brianne]

We recently bought one of these. The printer died, we had no scanner and we'd been meaning to replace the fax machine. So, there ya go. An auto feed would be nice to have though--I don't think this one does anything like that, but I haven't played around much with it yet.

What we have to find now is a way to scan slides. We have thousands upon thousands of slides as well.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

I have a paying account on Flickr ($25 a year) and have ALL of my 22,000 pics (and growing) up there. I"m scanning all of my old picures and storing them on there too (hence the 22K so far). I also have them on an external hard drive. So I have them in two places in case something happens to them!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

We recently bought one of these. The printer died, we had no scanner and we'd been meaning to replace the fax machine. So, there ya go. An auto feed would be nice to have though--I don't think this one does anything like that, but I haven't played around much with it yet.

What we have to find now is a way to scan slides. We have thousands upon thousands of slides as well.

I'm pretty sure my scanner can scan slides? I have an epson... I'm not sure the make though. I'll have to look!

 

[Barbossa]

Great minds think alike!!

 

[safetymom]

You should have them backed up twice. If you have them on cd or dvd you should reburn them every 5 years or so. If they come out with new technology copy them to that device also.

That way someone 50 or 75 years from now can see your images. Anyone still have a 5 1/4 floppy in their computer?

 

[OceanAnnie]

We thought about getting an external hard drive, but decided against it. It wasn't practical for us. Here is one good article about the pros and cons:

http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1215078,00.html

 

[Barbossa]

Anyone still have a 5 1/4 floppy in their computer?

I have a floppy drive on my business laptop, a lot of old engineering lab equipment still uses these disks. The same is true of the old 25 pin printer port. Again, some legacy equipment requires this port, but it's very hard to find used or new laptops with it. A niche market if I ever saw one.

 

[C.Ann]

All on CD's - still quite a few more I have to scan and put on CD's.. (I make two copies of each CD - and they are stored in different locations for safety reasons..)