Archiving Your Digital Photos

What in the world do we do with all of these digital photo files we have? How do we preserve the memories for future generations when technology changes so fast? Have you backed up your photos recently?

There is no real clear answer but here is my take on it.

For me I shoot a lot of pictures using the JPEG+RAW format. The RAW format is basically a digital negative that is easier to manipulate in post processing. The cost of RAW format images is the very large space needed to save it.

I have a hard time "trashing" digital photos so I tend to keep more than I throw away. All of my files are sorted by date (yyyy_mm_dd). I have created various folders for my kids, family, special vacations, etc. In order to prevent bogging down my PC I first save all of the photos from the camera to a external hard drive #1 (500GB) that is always attached to my PC.

Every six months I copy (backup) the files on that external drive #1 to another external drive (#2) that is only plugged in when I need it. I then create a 3rd back up with CDs/DVDs. If you wanted to be extremely safe then create a 4th copy to DVDs and put in a bank safe, work office, relatives house etc. Once the external drives get full I just buy another external drive.

On the CD's/DVD's I write the date of the backup and the range of folders (i.e. 01/01/2009 to 07/01/09) so that I know where I left off from the most recent backup plus it helps to catalog them.

I go through all my backups (external #2 and CDs/DVDs) once a year to make sure they still read the photos. For example a few years ago I had a stack of floppy disks full of pictures. When I got a new PC it didn't have a floppy drive. So before I got the new pc up and running I saved the images on the floppy drive to a CD. Floppy's are a thing of the past. I am sure sometime in the future they'll stop putting CD/DVD reader in PC's so I'll have to switch medias again.

In general I have 3-4 copies of just about every picture I have taken.

I need to get better at this but another thing to do is actually print your "most memorable" photos.

The cost of memory is getting more affordable very day. You can get a 500GB external drive for less than $100 and you get a 1TG external drive for less than $150 these days. That is a lot of storage.

If you asked 100 people how they save/archive their digital photo files you would get 100 different answers. The main thing is to have a minimum of three copies of your photos. The original, the backup, and the backup of the backup.

Try to also think about the worst possible event....a PC crash, a flood, a fire, or anything else and ask yourself, "if the worst happened will I still have my photos?" You never know what will be thrown your way all you can do is be prepared.

Having almost lost photos in the past I am a little more cautious.