What Do You Store Your Photos On?

[pesh]

Hi All

I have thousands if photos and thought I should move them off the computer, just in case.

I've heard if you don't look at a cd that you've burnt it will eventually fade to nothing. Is this true?

So what do you use to keep your original photos safe and sound?

Thx for your replies. :D

Sharon

ps if there's an existing thread on this please feel free to place the link. Thx :)

[persephone]

each month I move those photos to an external hard disk drive :)

Ones I want to work on etc ..I store on little USB flash drives, too. Never use CDs anymore.

[pesh]

Well as I say and admit I am computer stupid......... Such a true and sad story.

[stari]

External drive and Dropbox. Every time I take a picture on my phone it is uploaded to Dropbox automatically.

[kja]

Hard drives for sure.

I keep two copies of stuff that's at least pretty important and anything that I deem important is stored on three different drives.

Hard drives are dirt cheap now, and smaller, so it's so easy. I'm slowly migrating things to newer, higher capacity, smaller physical size drives, too. No use for old baby sized drives now that 1TB and bigger are so well priced!!

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I have two external hard drives - because they can die too.

Some of my older photos are on CD and DVD.

I copied those on to the hard drives - I organise stuff as much as I can be bothered, and I back all the photos and stuff on to the second hard drive, and store them in two different places.

If you're shopping, get one with USB3.0 or fast connections / data transfer speeds.

There are also things called NAS - or something about network something storage - which is like having a separate computer that just does file storage, usually in something called a "RAID" config which is two hard drives that mirror each other (have the same stuff) so like a back up if one hard drive fails.

Tho I read one sad story where the data disappeared off one hard drive, and the other one became a mirror of the missing data. That would suck.

Organising is fun. You have to think about what you would be looking for when you want a particular photo and store the pictures with that name. I'm not all that keen on databases - because you get a new computer, and new operating system and the jpgs can come too but not the database software - frustrating much.

Still thinking about that one too.

I store by context eg family and then by year and event...

and I'm starting folders for my fave pix. And also folders for each family member or group. Ie my mum's family is usually separate to my dad's family. But not always. And mostly but not always - they're separate to my hockey friends... etc.

I'm pretty good at remembering when something happened, or if it happened before or after something else, so that's a good way to organise for me. And also who I was with, or what event so that helps too. Naming the folders stuff like CD01 CD02 - not very helpful. Neither is naming the folders after the camera. A lot of sorting and fixing up there.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Mrs Rusty Bucket

[pesh]

Thx for the replies so far. :)

[tdierikx]

I have 2 external hard drives... and from the old days, I have a couple of proper internal hard drives that I can put into a caddy and access via usb.

T.

[huga]

My son killed an external hard drive by knocking it off my desk. So I back up to EHD and also DVDs (which have a lifespan of about 10 years).

The best way to keep photos is to print them :D I get an album made every year.

Edited April 4, 2013 by huga

[PossumCorner]

Quality prints, well cared for (pro-lab, not home printer on paper that makes stupid claims for longevity). They will outlast all the techy storage. All storage discs, drives memry stix blah blah will live long and hold the image: but there will be nothing to "play" them on because the hardware will all have gone off with the dinosaurs. A little like the way cassette music tapes, or even super-8 film are headed. Technology will leave stored images behind: maybe like the little 4x4 floppy computer discs - boxfull here, nothing important on them, nothing to read them if there was though. So the next generation times two will be the poorer. But if they can open an old container full of hard copy prints, it's all there, great great great grandmother and her dog Spot, and some weird ancient computer on a desk behind them, what's that?

I suppose it depends on the end-use, if images are only for the current owner in their lifetime it doesn't matter, any mix of discs and drives will keep them safe for a few years. But this is unfair on future generations, denies them their photographic heritage.

[kja]

For organization, you can't go past Lightroom. Keyword those babies and you're good to go. I personally suck at doing it but then I seem to be able to find things anyway because the way I name folders works for me (after a bit of trial & error), it just takes way longer. But it's a goal to be better at keywording :)

[huga]

My personal archiving system :D

Actually, clients get the same system (as well as a DVD).

[pesh]

Yep I do print out my favourites. :)

I do realise computer thing-a-me-jigs do change over the years, but just thinking of the now factor.

I do like those books, we had one made for Mother Dearest, she loves it. Great presents if anyone is thinking of Christmas.

No one just store on usb sticks?

[kja]

god, no! I'd have a zillion of them and they're too easy to lose. Also way more expensive per unit than hard drives.

[pesh]

Thx kja.............. :)

[wagsalot]

Our computers backup offsite too, incase the place burns down or anything like that. All my uni work etc and then all my photos backs up once a week I think it is? Hubby set it all up and had a massive whinge because of all the photos we had, the initial backup took ages :laugh:

[mixeduppup]

Google drive

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I gotta love work back up systems...

Once place I went to - I was asked to check the system was backing up properly and when they finally gave me access so I could see what was being backed up - the only folder that was backed up - was the home folder of the guy who set up the backup system. Oops. His response was "I don't see a problem with that".

Another place - they thought they were running backups. They were not. They had filled up the space available so the backup was terminating with an out of space error. Nobody was checking.

Another place - major hospital - I got told when I asked them to retrieve a folder that some user had mistakenly deleted - and that trashed one of their accounting systems - that they'd have to shut the whole system down for three days - to retrieve one folder. That was when they went to NT. When they had a network using "novell" you could go into the network trash bin and get that kind of stuff back out, took an hour maybe - to find the tech to do it.

Sigh.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

huga

which book printing website/system do you use for those?

those who print - does Big W count as professional quality or should we be going somewhere else.

[huga]

Sorry, Big W isn't professional quality (although with care, I assume their prints would last a while? I've seen their books though - pretty blah).

I've had two done through Blurb, but was disappointed with the paper and printing the second time around (see the horrendous blue cover that is supposed to be B&W? They blamed that on my monitor. Errr, no). Now I only print through Momento or Picpress (layflat albums, 270gsm pearl lustre paper - it's divine). Please note that I am pickier than most about this stuff.