Storing Digital Photos...options?

[Catty1]

A client of mine wants advice on storing photos. Her daughter is about 4, and she wants her daughter to be able to see the pics when she (daughter) is 25 kind of thing.

She has printed them out, and I suggested PhotoBucket as another means.

She also will burn them on CDs and even save them on a flash drive.

Does anyone know of any more options?

*sigh* the older photo albums made life SO much easier...

[Karen]

I would not rely on Photobucket or any website to still be in existence 25 years from now for such important family matters. Save them onto a DVD and remember to back them up every few years, as even that material can degrade over time. And of course, she can print them out and save them in an album just like olden times!

[Catty1]

Karen, we were trying to save them on DVD and the laptop didn't like that - said to put in a CD.

I downloaded Imgburn, which I have used successfully, but it was not responsive to the request. (NOT SURE WHY...but anyway).

So - CDs and maybe a backup drive would be the way to go?

Thanks.

[Karen]

CDs and a back-up drive, and make a note if she buys a new laptop at some point to transfer them to a DVD, in case the CD ever goes out of popularity.

[dab_20]

I would say an external hard drive and a cd. I would just print out a lot too, because that is the most definite way you will always have them. It's always fun to look at a scrap book, rather than scroll through them on a computer screen.

[Sonia59]

For me, it's 2 DVDs (or CD depending on the size, numbers of pics). And to avoid the surprise that they could be unreadable in a few years (although it never happened to me yet), I am planning to copy all DVDs on an external hard drive. It might be too much, but I just don't want to regret I did not do it in the future

I also like to print some and show them in albums, old fashion but this is only a small selection of them

[smokey the elder]

Archival-grade photography printer paper is available, although pricy. You can generate several prints per page, cut them and put them into a regular album. Make sure the ink is dry first, though! I made an album of Little Orphan Animals cats years ago and smeared the prints, and had to redo them!

[kitten645]

I swear by Mozy. For $5 a month, they back up your whole computer! Totally worth it!

[Catty1]

kitten - the thing is, will they be there in 25 years?

[Catlady711]

Any type of digital media is vulnerable to crashing (it's a matter of WHEN, not IF).

I back up all my pix on TWO external hard drives, as well as my main cpu drive AND my laptop drive. In addition to all that, I also back up on DVD's which I keep off premises.

I always do all those back ups before I ever wipe out my memory cards.

I had an external drive die on me after less than a year. If it had not been for my redundant back ups I may have lost my photos. With tech stuff you can NEVER be too redundant.

And yes formats will change over time so as a new format becomes more commonplace, all or some of the backups should be transferred over to the new format.

And yes, photo albums and negatives were so much easier, but you didn't have the security of multiple copies in case of disasters.

[Laura's Babies]

What about a external hard drive? That is where I have a lot of mine and send them there every several month.. I have a 1 TB one that I have TONS of pictures on and haven't even put a dent in what it will hold. I keep it close to the computer but unplugged and only hook it up when I need something on there or want to dump new stuff..Hopefully that protects it in case I get a bug or virus on my computer.

[blue]

If she is cereal. Multiple copies to CDs, CDs do degrade. More then 1 hard drive backup, hard drives fail. Prints in a safe location, perhaps multiple prints in more then 1 location. A tape drive for backups maybe?