Best way to store digital photos

[techgal]

Recently I bought a new cell phone and had to transfer all the data from my previous mobile to the new one. Luckily, there wasnt much data but this kept me thinking what is the best way to store digital information such as home videos, music, medai files, images etc.

We can store on USBs and CDs but with time these devices lose their effectiveness as well. I mean what's the replacement for old photo albums of yesteryear where you could easily store photos and forget about them

 

[fastdude]

Recently I bought a new cell phone and had to transfer all the data from my previous mobile to the new one. Luckily, there wasnt much data but this kept me thinking what is the best way to store digital information such as home videos, music, medai files, images etc.

We can store on USBs and CDs but with time these devices lose their effectiveness as well. I mean what's the replacement for old photo albums of yesteryear where you could easily store photos and forget about them

Well, I guess you could say digital photo frames USB's, CD's, and computers are very efficient [if not beautiful] at storing media

 

[jimmymac]

nothing really wrong with just storing them on CD's/DVD's, personally I would always make two copies each time so that you know you have a backup.

Myself I have multiple hard drives in my computer and ensure that the pics are backed up on at least two other drives in case one fails, just to be sure

 

[techgal]

but wouldnt the CDs and DVDs finally get unusable let's say after 20 0r 30 yrs? How long a lifespan do they really have anyway?

 

[tremmor]

Yes thats true. On the other hand how long does a hard drive last. ive looked into it before. worth looking at I burn on both. internal drive, usb drive and even burn for portability and to take with me. Here is an article at Cnet:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?threadID=152618

 

[Binkstir]

I vote for the flash drive. Small and inexpensive enough to have your pictures on more than one. A 4gig like this one would hold a lot of photos..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171398&cm_re=flashdrive-_-20-171-398-_-Product

Binkstir

 

[techgal]

but USBs will ultimately fail as well...what storage media lasts the longest?

1) CD
2) DVD
3) USB
4) Hard Drive

What do you guys think?

 

[OverClocker]

i thinks External hard drives will last for a long time. Besides the Solid state drive, i dont think anything can replace spindle hard drive in a pc yet... Solid state drives are not that common yet. Better yet, get a paid online storage or even the free ones.

 

[Binkstir]

How about backing your pictures up online? If you didn't want to put them on a public image hosting site, you could get your own webhosting cheap and create your own online photo gallery.

Binkstir

 

[sometechieguy]

Online isn't bad - in multiple online locations if you're paranoid.

If you backup via usb key or cd/dvd/blu-ray then you'll probably want to dig out that backup in 5-8 years and move it onto a newer media.

If you go with hard drives get a home network attached storage system with raid capabilities. Preferably 4 drives. The drives will mirror each others content for redundancy - but all those drives are in the same building if your house burns down.

One local and one online method would be ideal. If the online system fails and loses your data you have a local backup to restore once the system is back up. If your local data gets lost, stolen or destroyed, you have an online backup to download and re-burn immediately.

 

[deanj20]

I would say keep the stuff on a separate HDD on your computer, reserved especially for photos. And back that up to two external HDDs once every three or six months - I would make a date and put it on the calendar and commit to it - otherwise it becomes one of those things "you were gonna do but never got around to, and now your pics are gone forever".

Keep one of the external HDDs at your house and one at work, in storage or at a friend or family member's house. And if they really mean that much to you, you should back it all up online too (probably when you're backing up to the externals.) That seems pretty much fool-proof to me. I don't know how long the external HDDs would last, but you would probably be wise to upgrade them every ten years or so, sooner if they start "acting funny"...

 

[sometechieguy]

What deanj20 said.

Especially in regards to if a drive starts 'acting funny'. Sometimes you just get a unit that must have been produced on a Monday morning and it flakes out on you, you lose some data, you get a new drive under warranty, the new drive lasts you 5 years without issue.

So definitely have a redundancy in your backup plan.