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August 24, 2005

Backup Your Images

As I mentioned last week, people have a tendency to take a lot more photographs with a digital camera than they had with traditional film cameras. In the past, you could keep your negatives in the same envelope as your prints. But now most of your photos are kept on the computer, how do you save those for the future? It is important to make backup copies of your photos. You have a few options for doing this.

Create a CD/DVD archive of your photos periodically. I actually like to make two copies. One that I keep in the house so I have quick access to all of my images, and a second that I like to keep off property (another family member's house, a safety deposit box, etc). Having a second copy off site provides a safety net for your images in the event there is ever catastrophic event in your house, such as a fire, that destroys your computer and all the CD's you have beside your computer.

Many local photofinishers can now output your photos to a CD for you. This avoids the hassle of creating the CD yourself, and depending on the lab, you may get an index print with the CD to show you what photo's are on them.

As with any digital media, hard drives and CD/DVD media can fail. And even though manufacturers of recordable CD's claim longevity of anywhere from 25 to 200 years for their products, they often fail much sooner than that, so it is a good idea to make additional copies of your CD's every couple of years to ensure you do not lose those precious memories.

Next week, using software to help organize your images.

Posted on August 24, 2005 03:03 PM | Permalink

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