Best way to store digital photos?

[zoiberg137]

I'm wondering what the best way to store digital photos would be. A basic google search introduced me to the concept of storing photos on cds... Personally, I am not a fan of cds as they scratch and take up space, and unless that is the only way I would like to find a more practical solution.

I was thinking about a flash drive?? I've never used one of these before (though I've been told I should for storing my English class papers haha), but it seems like a convenient way to store data.

So, can photos be stored on these things? Movies and papers, too? Or are there certain types you have to get in order to store certain things?

The only things I am wanting to store are my digital photos and the papers I write for school. Maybe short movies if I ever get a camcorder. I'm not opposed to having several of these since they seem to be relativly inexpensive. It seems safer that way than to keep everything on one expensive external drive (but I dont really know anything about these either, so by all means, educate me!)

I'm open to any other recommendations or suggestions. Let me know what brand/model you use if you recommend something. Thanks!

 

[MLeeK]

You are going to get a lot of back up recommendations that are probably far more than you are looking for.
We are backing things up here to multiple hard drives, raid systems, clouds, on site, off site...
As for what you are asking-yes, they can be stored on the jump drives or memory cards-both of which are small and cheap right now. The key is going to be storing them safely and when the technology changes to something new you need to migrate all of your stored images to that new technology. Who knows where USB's will go down the line. It may go the way of the floppy disc... Everything evolves in the computer world and you need to be aware of it as time goes on.

 

[Big Mike]

Best way to store digital photos?

Redundantly.

 

[480sparky]

Best way to store digital photos?

Redundantly.

And in multiple locations.

 

[analog.universe]

You can get cheap (relatively) external raid setups that just plug in to USB. The trick is really just keeping a bunch of copies, because every device will fail eventually. RAID's are nice because it keeps several copies for you, without you having to consciously do it.

Check this thing out: Newegg.com - BUFFALO DriveStation Duo 4TB (2 x 2TB) USB 3.0 Black External Hard Drive HD-WL4TU3R1

I'm not recommending that one specifically, but that type of product is what I had in mind, lots of companies make them. It's got 2 hard drives inside and you can configure it to keep identical copies of everything on each one. When one fails, you replace it, and the data gets copied back from the good drive.

 

[480sparky]

The only problem I see with a RAID system is all your eggs are in one basket. It may protect you against the biggest source of data loss... drive failure... but nothing else. Your house burns down, a tornado/flood/typhoon wipes you out, or some thievin' bastad breaks in and takes all your computer gear.... you're still SOL. That's why I have two external drives with all my data stored in two locations outside of my own house.

 

[analog.universe]

The only problem I see with a RAID system is all your eggs are in one basket. It may protect you against the biggest source of data loss... drive failure... but nothing else. Your house burns down, a tornado/flood/typhoon wipes you out, or some thievin' bastad breaks in and takes all your computer gear.... you're still SOL. That's why I have two external drives with all my data stored in two locations outside of my own house.

Yeah, this is an excellent point...

I should be more diligent about things like this : )

 

[480sparky]

I may have uttered an inaccuracy, however. My understanding is a RAID system also protects against corrupted files. True?

 

[ph0enix]

The only problem I see with a RAID system is all your eggs are in one basket. It may protect you against the biggest source of data loss... drive failure... but nothing else. Your house burns down, a tornado/flood/typhoon wipes you out, or some thievin' bastad breaks in and takes all your computer gear.... you're still SOL. That's why I have two external drives with all my data stored in two locations outside of my own house.

Yeah, this is an excellent point...

I should be more diligent about things like this : )

In addition, a faulty RAID controller could take all of the drives in the array out. Ask me how I know.

 

[ann]

I keep 4 copies of everything, all on external hard drives, one which i take off site. When I first started out it was cd's then dvd when a negative i was working on wouldn't fit on one cd. But your right too much space and they do fail; but then everything is going to fail. Remember if it's if something goes wrong , it is when.

Storage is very cheap these days, so that helps.