Storing precious photos

poppellerant

I would lose the idea of storing your photos on DVD - over time they will deteriorate and are susceptible to scratches.

If you want to store them somewhere that isn't likely to fail and be easily accessed, put them on both a portable USB hard drive and a portable USB SSD drive. I have a USB 320GB Western Digital Passport hard drive that I bought in 2009 and it still works to this day - granted I only use it now and again for backups, but it is still reliable.

dan958

1 copy on your computer, 1 copy on an external drive, 1 copy in the cloud.

virgo17

poppellerant wrote: »

I would lose the idea of storing your photos on DVD - over time they will deteriorate and are susceptible to scratches.

Totally agree. I have files backed up on DVD and CD. Some are ten years old and many are now unreadable due to deterioration. Fortunately all files were backed up on two other different means.

oldernonethewiser

renegadefm wrote: »

oldernonethewiser, what is a NAS, and why is it at a relatives house? I'm a bit confused.

I think what I'm trying to get at initially was I do really feel as though the perfectly reliable format DVD and CD for storage is being made to feel outdated prematurely in the computer world.

I'm puzzled why society is branding it old fashioned before its time. I can only assume they are trying to prevent piracy as its so easy to copy music cds and other software and sell or give it away etc. But it seems a bit late for that because you can put hundreds of music cds on one USB stick for example, so that kinda blows my theory out of the water for blank DVD and CD media's demise.

My other theory is they are trying to find ways to make laptops slimmer and lighter, so the first cumbersome thing to go was DVD Roms. But I find this an ironic thing to do when the same shops that sell laptops with no DVD roms still sell blank DVD and CD media. Ok yes I know you can buy portable USB DVD roms, but that in itself is cumbersome and added expense surely?

I realize nothing lasts forever, but look at the way some things come back like Vinyl records. I never thought I'd see that, and now even cassettes, and I read somewhere in America they are producing 8 track cassette players again for nostalgia reasons. But I do feel when it comes to blank media once its gone its gone because I dont think you can associate it with nostalgia in the same way as different music formats which is a shame to me.

Its a shame because we have all become too reliant on the internet for all aspects of life, like banking, storage, purchasing etc etc, which is killing our physical things like the high street shop for example, but the minute this stuff crashes we run around like head less chickens, and what will happen if in the future it crashes for good or a long time, sounds dramatic now, but in time could in some cases be life threatening.

I think we have become such a disposable and wasteful society, its sad really. Sorry rant over.

Network Attached Storage - plenty of details online.



It is at another location to reduce risk.



If you think the lack of DVD/CDs is any way limiting piracy then I fear you might well be mistaken, sadly.

Heedtheadvice

virgo17 wrote: »

Totally agree. I have files backed up on DVD and CD. Some are ten years old and many are now unreadable due to deterioration. Fortunately all files were backed up on two other different means.

But those who decry cd and dvd......you are supposed go be making backup copies and storing them safely. Getting scratched, how? Are you using them and thus not storing safely?
Did you use archive quality or something a lot cheaper?
Did you recopy after a few years.

You have to do things properly!


Like propellerant writes, using a usb hdd is quite good and not (very)likely to fail (but some do) and has been in use intermittantly (not misused) for many a year.
I have CDs and DVDs too that are many years old without issues. Both those statements really only say what is positively possible rather than what might go wrong.


If hdd and ssd storage is so reliable why backup? Why do we have raid arrays? Why do we build in redundancy.


Not saying one is better than the other, each have downfalls and benefits.


The OPs photos are precious, we are told, so use a few methods and have other copies for sharing. Do not share your backups!

tempus_fugit

renegadefm wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone, but to me it doesnt feel the same storing thousands of personal family photos online. Plus how does my siblings access them when I'm dead and gone? They would hsve to know my account etc

With many cloud storage options, certainly with Google Photos, you can share your collection with other members of the family. I’m pretty sure there is an option in there that allows them to download the photos if needs be.

In any event, cloud storage should be only ONE of your backup options. If you decided to do so then there would still be other ways of retrieving the photos if you are no longer around.

in_my_wellies

Interview on Radio 4 with man who developed Cloud storage for photos.
At the end he was asked how he stored his photos. His answer was 'the safest way is in an old shoe box'

Johnmcl7

poppellerant wrote: »

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.

I'm a bit puzzled why you warn that hard drives and memory cards can be prone to failure then recommend an SSD, they're just as vulnerable to failure as hard drives and flash memory plus if they fail there will be no chance of data recovery. Hard drives are prone to mechanical failure if they suffer any shock which is what I find to be the most common reason for their failure but any backup drive shouldn't be getting moved around while powered up.

Johnmcl7

renegadefm wrote: »

oldernonethewiser, what is a NAS, and why is it at a relatives house? I'm a bit confused.

I think what I'm trying to get at initially was I do really feel as though the perfectly reliable format DVD and CD for storage is being made to feel outdated prematurely in the computer world.

I'm puzzled why society is branding it old fashioned before its time. I can only assume they are trying to prevent piracy as its so easy to copy music cds and other software and sell or give it away etc. But it seems a bit late for that because you can put hundreds of music cds on one USB stick for example, so that kinda blows my theory out of the water for blank DVD and CD media's demise.

My other theory is they are trying to find ways to make laptops slimmer and lighter, so the first cumbersome thing to go was DVD Roms. But I find this an ironic thing to do when the same shops that sell laptops with no DVD roms still sell blank DVD and CD media. Ok yes I know you can buy portable USB DVD roms, but that in itself is cumbersome and added expense surely?

I realize nothing lasts forever, but look at the way some things come back like Vinyl records. I never thought I'd see that, and now even cassettes, and I read somewhere in America they are producing 8 track cassette players again for nostalgia reasons. But I do feel when it comes to blank media once its gone its gone because I dont think you can associate it with nostalgia in the same way as different music formats which is a shame to me.

Its a shame because we have all become too reliant on the internet for all aspects of life, like banking, storage, purchasing etc etc, which is killing our physical things like the high street shop for example, but the minute this stuff crashes we run around like head less chickens, and what will happen if in the future it crashes for good or a long time, sounds dramatic now, but in time could in some cases be life threatening.

I think we have become such a disposable and wasteful society, its sad really. Sorry rant over.

Your post doesn't make any sense, for most of it you complain about the lack of optical drives and discs then at the end you contradict yourself by complaining that we've become too disposable and wasteful. Optical discs are wasteful and by using less of them it means less waste, instead of people buying many CDs or DVDs that end up in the bin they download them instead which means far less waste.

There's no conspiracy theory with optical discs and your suggestion it's down to piracy makes no sense either when it's easier to pirate digital material. The simple reason is they just don't serve much purpose any more as technology has overtaken them, in their day they were useful for transferring data as they were cheap and high capacity with little alternative as internet speeds were too slow to transfer the data online and hosted data was too expensive. Now however DVDs don't offer enough capacity, blu-ray is too expensive to catch on and most people have high speed internet connections so they can transfer data quickly without using a disc.

The way we listen to music has changed with most people now listening to digital music so there's not much reason for CDs there either.

I personally still use blu-ray drives but it's not hard to see why optical formats have dried up over the last few years.

Johnmcl7

I think the simplest answer to this question is that anything backed up regardless of the technology should be in more than one place.

Personally I use a few hard drives one of which is kept separately to the house so if I was burgled or the house burnt down then I've still got a separate backup. It's easy and fast to back up data to the drives as wel as access it and also to keep rolling the data forward to newer drives as the capacity increases.

I've only got a 10Mb/s upload on my internet connection so that's not remotely fast enough to consider a cloud service but there's plenty out there that can be convenient to use and definitely worth considering. Convenience can be important as I've frequently come across people with a dead hard drive and when I ask them what's their most recent backup it's one of those things they always planned to get around to...

I'd be surprised if DVD's were a viable means of backup for anyone these days due to their capacity being so limited. Blu-rays do offer much higher capacity but aside from being expensive they are painfully slow.