Storing Digital Photos...options?

[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.