Storing digital photo's

[Codi]

What is the best way to store digital photo's?

Right now I have my photo's on CD's, but have been told that is actually not the best way to store digital photos. The same person told me that an external hard drive is the best way to store them.

What is THE BEST way to store digital photos? They are my PRIZED POSSESSION and the first thing I would save in a fire. They are VERY important to me. Having lost a years worth of photo's due to a computer crash, I am scarred for life and want them stored the best way possible.

Thanks!

I wanted to ETA that my photo's are the first thing I would save in a fire AFTER my family. ;) :giggle

[Barefoot]

I have an external hard-drive (well 2 actually, in case one fails) You can get them as big as a Terabyte, so will hold thousands and thousands of photos.

[Codi]

So do you have a copy of each picture on both external hard drives?

[megmac]

External hard drives here as well.:yes

We keep copies on the computer and on cd's for easy access. We keep one set of hard drives in the study and one in storage in the garage. The garage is not attached to the house so the likelihood of both burning down in a fire (also my greatest fear) is unlikely.

[Delaney]

We use an external hard drive as well.

I also have a bin of regular film pictures (heavy), and I have always told dh that these puctures are very important to save in the case of a fire/flood etc. Although, we have never lost any before. These as well as the file folder with all our birth certificates and important papers. Except that all of these things are in differnet parts of the house......... I need to get more orginaized.

[megmac]

I've scanned all our regular pictures, like the ones before the digital era :lol, and put all those on the eternal hard drive.

[Delaney]

I've scanned all our regular pictures, like the ones before the digital era :lol, and put all those on the eternal hard drive.


This is smart. How many pictures did you have to do, and how long did it take?

[Macky]

External hard drive with Time Machine (Mac thing) for main backup. DH also backs me up periodically (computer and external drive) on the server downstairs. He backs up the server on tape (I think, at least he used to) periodically as well. Yeah... my DH is a techie at a bank. We're not losing anything around here. :giggle

[Barefoot]

Yes, I have 2 identical copies. I am so scared of losing everything. I also use the web based photobucket.

[AngelaVA]

I feel the same way you do. I lost all the photos of DD1's first year (except the ones I printed) and it scarred me for life I think. Here is what I do: external hard drive, at the end of the year photos for that year are burned to CD's as well (so if the external hard drive crashes I have the CD's) and I have newly started using Smug Mug and am in the process of selecting important photos from each year to store there too so if my house actually did burn down, I would still have my photos and my scrapbook pages.

[Happygrl]

We have two external hard drives just for pictures. One we keep here and the other we keep in my mom's bank box (the kind @ the bank). We switch them regularly so the one in the security bank box is current (usually every 2-3 months). Then I also keep them updated on Picasa. I figure three copies plus our regular computer SHOULD cover my bases. :giggle

[Leslie]

Right now I have my photo's on CD's, but have been told that is actually not the best way to store digital photos. The same person told me that an external hard drive is the best way to store them.


Our church stores mp3 sermons on the computer hard drive and an external hard drive, as well as the original CD's they were recorded on. They've already lost two external hard drives and are on their third.

What's wrong with saving photos to CD's?

I have mine on three different computer hard drives, and CD's as a back-up. A very few I put on CD and keep in a safe deposit box at the bank.

[LovinBeingMommy]

I have all my pictures on an external harddrive and on DVDs. My plan is actually to make a second copy of the DVDs and send it to my grandmother's house so pictures won't be lost if something happens here. :shrug3 Takes time, which I don't have, so we'll see when that happens...

[Codi]

What's wrong with saving photos to CD's?



:shrug3 That is just what someone told me. That CD's are not reliable and I should not use them as my back up. I was thinking the same thing when I heard that. ALL my pictures I have ever taken in the last 6 years are on CD. (Before I got a digi cam I have alllllll the prints in a box too that is HEAVY!)

[LovinBeingMommy]

I'd think the risks for CD's are about equal to the ones for an external drive... CD's scratch, drives go bad. Both can usually be saved, but not easily.

[Taedareth]

It's good to save them in multiple places. Have CD's or other external devices if you want to. Also have them saved to a backup service like Carbonite. It's very cheap annually, and then you've got the peace of mind knowing that they'll ALWAYS be recoverable. You don't even need to save your CD's in case of a fire because you can just download them again from Carbonite :)

[JellyBean]

Ours are on our server which somehow backsup on the internet. Not real sure where or how...DH is the computer genius...I just know if there was a fire or anything they are all out there in cyberland safe and sound. :lol

And I'm in the process of mailing off all my prints to be scanned so I have them safe too!!

[lucie]

We use Smugmug and external hard drives too. DH was fine with just Smugmug (I guess it's very reliable, backing the photos up on several servers), but I needed something more tangible. :lol I guess I don't trust the cyberland enough. :lol

[Allison]

How easy is it to download your uploaded pictures from SmugMug, Carbonite, etc?

I have some pictures on CD, but my CD burner isn't cooperating and I haven't taken any pictures off of this computer for almost two years. It's TIME!

I'd like to send all of my pictures to online storage, but I'd still want easy access. :think

[Leslie]

How easy is it to download your uploaded pictures from SmugMug, Carbonite, etc?

I have some pictures on CD, but my CD burner isn't cooperating and I haven't taken any pictures off of this computer for almost two years. It's TIME!

I'd like to send all of my pictures to online storage, but I'd still want easy access. :think

If you have less than 2GB (or if you can pare down your favorite photos to 2GB), you might use Dropbox. It's free, it stores your files in "the cloud" but syncs to a specific folder on your computer. So getting your photos back if you lose your hard drive is as easy as syncing a new computer to Dropbox.

I've heard Carbonite compated to Dropbox, so I'd guess they work similarly.

[Lady Grey]

We have a couple external hard drives but we also just started using Carbonite.

Back in the day I was really good about uploading to Snapfish (for the grandparents) but that hasn't happened as much since the last baby. ;) (plus we text a lot of pictures to them now)