Crosswords1 min ago
Backing up photos
19 Answers
Planning to back up a large number of photos. I've found an old unopened USB stick, 2GB, which says 'works with Windows Vista'. I'm now running Windows 7. Would this still be OK, and approx how many photos would it store?
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I would add that you should only consider putting anything on a usb stick as a temporary measure. USB sticks have an annoying propensity of suddenly not working and getting lost due to their small size.
Much better to put your photo's on CD and/or invest in an external HDD.
I would add that you should only consider putting anything on a usb stick as a temporary measure. USB sticks have an annoying propensity of suddenly not working and getting lost due to their small size.
Much better to put your photo's on CD and/or invest in an external HDD.
I think if you back them up to CD/DVD they will last longer than backing them up to a USB stick that may well got lost or stolen (or stop working) in that time.
Anyway, backing up important files to ONE place is VERY VERY risky and it is worth backing them up to multiple places just to be sure.
I would put them on CD/DVD (two copies), AND on an external hard drive, AND maybe on another family computer.
Note you can also upload them to "secure" web sites like Dropbox or SkyDrive from Microsoft. These are secure as you have to logon to be able to access the files and if you have the userid/password no one else can acess them or see them.
Dropbox and SkyDrive are not image viewing sites like Photobucket or Flickr, they are data storage areas, which is a totally different thing.
Not a good idea to upload them to facebook as it can reduce the quality and it is alsoways best to keep pictures at the best quality.
Anyway, backing up important files to ONE place is VERY VERY risky and it is worth backing them up to multiple places just to be sure.
I would put them on CD/DVD (two copies), AND on an external hard drive, AND maybe on another family computer.
Note you can also upload them to "secure" web sites like Dropbox or SkyDrive from Microsoft. These are secure as you have to logon to be able to access the files and if you have the userid/password no one else can acess them or see them.
Dropbox and SkyDrive are not image viewing sites like Photobucket or Flickr, they are data storage areas, which is a totally different thing.
Not a good idea to upload them to facebook as it can reduce the quality and it is alsoways best to keep pictures at the best quality.
"but I'll need to keep them for several years and who knows whether CDs will be outdated by then?"
CDs (and DVDs to a lesser extent) are outdated now, but they are not likely to disappear totally for years yet!
If you back up to CD or DVD make sure you use decent quality disks and store them in a cool dark place.
CDs (and DVDs to a lesser extent) are outdated now, but they are not likely to disappear totally for years yet!
If you back up to CD or DVD make sure you use decent quality disks and store them in a cool dark place.
I don't have another external hard drive, and the other 'family' computer is in USA and therefore not easily accessible, unfortunately. Chuck, I had visions of having another computer in a few years' time that might not have a slot for CDs (e.g., I used to back up all my files on zip disks but there's no facility to lad those or floppies now). Thanks for all the suggestions.