How To Back Up Your Photos

An insightful article over at BBC got me thinking about backing up my photos in a different way. The article mentions that only one-third of digital camera users are not backing up their photos, and 30% were not printing their images either.

I store most of my pictures on an external hard drive, a web server that hosts an online album, and I occasionally use Flickr. I rarely print out any photos, and have been scanning my old photographs so I have a digital copy of them.

Computer viruses are common, so the best place for your photos is definitely not in your PC. Keep a backup of your photos externally, this way you don't run the risk of losing it all someday.

So what are the best ways to preserve these memories?

1. Keep Hard Copies: Print photographs that hold a special meaning to you or were taken during special events like birthdays and weddings. Remember to be selective. At the rate we take snapshots, it's going to be expensive to print them all out. If it weren't for photographs kept by my grandmother, I would've never known what my great-grandparents looked like. Besides, who knows how extinct JPEGs will be 20 years from now. 

2. CDs or DVDs are your friends: You can't beat this method. Keep a copy of all your photographs on disc, and make several copies. DVDs are able to store more images (4.7 GB or over 15,000 photos) compared to CDs (720 MB) so if you have a DVD burner, use it. And did I mention that the lifespan of a disc is up to 75 years or more with proper care?

3. Portable external devices: I never use my computer as a storage device, instead I store all my media on an external drive. For one, it doesn't use up the storage on my computer, and I don't have to worry about losing my memories to a virus. External hard drives are inexpensive these days, and can store over 500 GB of your favorite pictures, movies or MP3s. 

4. Go Online: There are many services online such as Flickr or Yahoo! Photos that let your share and store your photographs online. Flickr even provides you with code so you can embed some of these images on a personal website, although some blogs provide you with a photo album option. If you live in disaster prone areas, you really should look into online storage. Many of Katrina's victims lost all their memories after the storm. Don't let this happen to you.

5. Create Photobooks: This is a great way of preserving memories for future generations, while ensuring that your photos won't deteriorate with time. Print all your images to a photobook and tell a story, instead of storing all those great pictures under your bed. Make this the yearbook of your life.

For more ideas, check out these "Ten Ways to Protect Your Pictures"

Do you have other great tips to share with me? Let me know in the comments below.