Storing precious photos

renegadefm

What is the safest way to store photos these days? In the past I have always backed them up on TDK scratchproof DVD discs as I find SD cards or USB sticks can fail or get lost easily compared to carefully filed DVDS. But trying to find a laptop or PC with a DVD drive these days is difficult.

I don't agree with or even trust having to pay to upload my photos on the Cloud or anywhere online.

So have things come full circle and should I just get them developed or printed off and keep them the old fashioned way albeit this seems an expencive way to do it compared to being able to store thousands of photos on one DVD.

Havent we gone backwards in recent years?

tonyh66

get an external DVD writer and do it the old way.

Rodders53

USB Hard Disk Drives - multiple copies on multiple drives.

But USB DVD-writers are available. https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Optical-Drives/subcat/DVD-Drives-External are some examples.

(NB writable Cd/DVD disks can fail also).

eddddy

The reason that pcs no longer have DVD drives is because of fast internet and the cloud.

I think cloud storage might be more reliable and trustworthy than you imagine. For example, lots of companies rely on it to run their businesses.

Over the years, you might find it increasingly difficult to find hardware that can read and write DVDs (a bit like it's become very difficult to find hardware that can read and write VHS tapes).

dipsomaniac

the safest way is via google photos (free option) for your offsite storage and a external drive/nas for a second onsite backup

pramsay13

I use Google and it lets me upload unlimited high resolution (as opposed to full size) photos for free.

I trust Google to keep the files safe and backed up more than I trust USB drives or writable CDs, DVDs, all of which have failed on me at some point in the past.

If you are looking to copy them to DVD just make a point of getting a computer / laptop with a DVD drive, they are getting rarer, but still easy enough to find.

poppellerant

Hard drives can be prone to mechanical failure, sometimes without any warning. Memory cards, as you say, can also be prone to failure.

For me, that leaves two methods - DVDs and SSD drives. Personally I would rather store the photos on an SSD as they are more resilient to being knocked or scratched. Do bear in mind that SSD drives are a relatively new technology, but as long as you buy a good brand (ie: Samsung or Intel) you ought to be fine.

Uxb1

I digitize much of my paperwork with a fast pro-document scanner on receipt and it is hence essential it does not get lost.
So I use multiple WD Elements portable USB powered disk drives as duplicate storage - and these are treated as a piece of delicate Georgian furniture: not dropped, held by the cable nor is the connection just yanked out of the PC without it first being "safely removed in software", kept out of harms way and only connected for the period of doing the backup/update.
Ideally you will have one copy/drive stored elsewhere than in your property to guard against fire/theft.

giraffe69

I don't agree with or even trust having to pay to upload my photos on the Cloud or anywhere online. Havent we gone backwards in recent years?

Your privilege, of course but storing them on the cloud which you don't have to pay for unless you have a very large number coupled with back up to an external hard drive seems the way to go to me. I've no idea why you don't agree with online storage. Seems a peculiar view to take. Not trusting it is different but IMO still wrong.
No. I don't think we have gone backwards in recent years. Media in use one year stops being used when better things come along. We don't use VHS, Cassettes etc very much these days. I can recall working as someone who installed updates to a program and at one stage that came on 63 floppy disks. If one failed you were back to square one. The it was CD then DVD and then over the internet.

googler

Keep multiple copies on different media - one set on portable HDD, another set on internal PC HDD, perhaps others on other portable HDDs, another on DVD ...

If you can't keep one full copy off-site, away from your home, get a fireproof box to keep one of them in along with important paperwork

TonyMMM

As above - multiple backups stored in different places ....:

But for really important photos - get them printed onto good quality paper using proper archival ink and give copies to those who will value them. They will probably outlast any digital format.