Storing photos? USB pen drive, memory stick pro / duo???

tigs78

I read on another thread that CD's can degrade over time and that it is a good idea to store them on a memory stick.

Have had a look but am getting confused with the choices - USB Flash drive, USB pen drive, memory stick pro, memory stick pro duo, memory stick micro etc. etc.

What type of 'stick' would I need purely to store photo's?

Also approximately how many photos would a 1gb stick hold, my camera is a 6mp and I probably have around 400 that I'd like to back up.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

albertross_2

CD's/DVD's are a safer medium than a usb stick.. one virus, one early pull out and you'll lose the lot.

Flash drive/pen drive is the type to use.

tigs78

Thanks, I have them on CD but will get a flash/pen drive as a 2nd back up.

alanrowell

For travelling I'd just buy a couple more of the memory cards that the camera uses.

I can't see why you'd store them on memory sticks / pen drives as you'd need a computer to do the transfer and given the size of them they are easy to lose

If you are so concerned about losing them I'd store them online, on multiple CD's and be prepared to copy them from CD to CD every couple of years

albertross_2

Keep the CD's in a case, in the dark, they should last for years.

Little_John

I woudnt use any flash based memory for backup, CDr or DVDr and definatly ont CDrw or DVDrw. as for a 2nd backup keep them on the hard disk. I have a tape drive for backup purposesbut I also periodically copy the stuff I want to keep to another hard drive in one of the other PC's i have.

Flash memory is a very expensive method of storing stuff £25ish £ per GB hard drives and cds are alot cheaper. It is all about the way CDr's and DVDr's are stored look after them and they will be fine.

alanwjones

I use one of these http://www.misco.co.uk/SSinfo/~Q73997~/MAXTOR+One+Touch+III+Hard+Disk+Drive+300GB+USB+2.0.htm They hold thousands of photos, there are also smaller pocket sized ones available.