I need to pick someones brain.!!

[Deleted User]

My husband and I are going to have to down size massively in the not too distant future.

We have at least 1000 photographs in albums in the loft, many of them could go but I would like to save some of the precious ones. I have a 3 in 1 printer (HP) can I scan a montage of photos and transfer them to my computer and then to an external hard drive?

If so how do I go about it please. I am not a techie but my limited computer experience tells me it can be done.

Is an external hard drive better than using a memory stick?

rmg1

You would be able to scan in the photos either in batches (but that would give you one document (i.e. JPEG, PDF, whatever) with them all on) or you could scan them in individually (that would take a while).

Your printer should should have some scanning software you can install (if you haven't already) to allow you to do this. If you haven't got the software, check the HP website and see if you can download it for your particular printer.

wongataa

Deleted_User wrote: »

My husband and I are going to have to down size massively in the not too distant future.

We have at least 1000 photographs in albums in the loft, many of them could go but I would like to save some of the precious ones. I have a 3 in 1 printer (HP) can I scan a montage of photos and transfer them to my computer and then to an external hard drive?

If so how do I go about it please. I am not a techie but my limited computer experience tells me it can be done.

Is an external hard drive better than using a memory stick?

Yes you can scan photos. The software with your 3 in 1 should be able to. Have a look at it.

An external hard drive is better than a memory stick as they have high capacities (you will need a lot of space) and thay are likely to be more reliable. Make sure you have back ups as well.

Be aware scanning photos is tedious and there will be a learning curve to find the best settings/workflow.

[Deleted User]

I am not planning to scan them all, just the ones that are of relatives and friends who have passed on etc.

I will have a look at the instructions for the scanner, see what I can find out.

keicar

When scanning and saving always useful to name the files by the name of subject, year, location etc or store them in named individual files by subject etc for ease of location at a later date!

[Deleted User]

If the photos aren't huge (say no more than 7X5s), then a handheld scanner, similar in design to a laminator would probably speed the job up.

shopbot

As these are precious photos please back them up!

The safest back solution is the 3-2-1 solution.

You should have 3 copies of the photo in 2 different locations and 1 copy should be online.

In practice this usually means one copy on your PC. One copy on a drive or USB stick offsite (relatives house etc) and one in a place like Dropbox (which is free).

SB

[Deleted User]

bsod wrote: »

an album or a box doesn't take up much space

It does when you have not got space. The boxes are in the attic at the moment, when we move we are not going to have an accessible attic. At 71 Ladders and steps are not a good idea. I have arthritis in my hips and knees. OH is 81 and just not safe on a ladder.

EssexExile

Photos in boxes deteriorate, once digitised they don't.

I've used my HP 3 in 1 to scan hundreds of photos, you soon get a rhythm going. It's an old printer so I had to download some new software from HP to run it on my newer computer, then I put several photos on the glass & you can either scan them all as one or do a preview scan then mask off each photo in turn. Once you've scanned a load you can save them to wherever you want on your computer.

I've scanned thousands of slides using a dedicated scanner, now that's boring!

shopbot

If you are not that techie do you have anyone who could help you? Maybe someone interested in photography? I'm sure you can do it using the auto functions on the scanner but sometimes you do need to alter these to get the best results. This might be especially important if you wish to pass these on for future generations.

If you do it yourself then a few things to watch out for are:
1. Dust...when you scan a photo this becomes really noticeable. Even when you don't notice on the original print.
2. If the scanner asks you what resolution you want to scan at..choose no lower than 300dpi.
3. The auto features on the scanner might try to give you a PDF file. If you can set as JPG choose that. If you want to pass these photos onto others as part of an archive then a TIFF file is the best for this.

SB