The Workbench Life: Baby Blogs
By Jason Carpenter for The Workbench Life
Losing your digital photos can mean losing precious, life-changing memories — forever. Save yourself the pain of a computer crash-induced loss of precious memories like wedding vows, your baby’s first steps, or that infamous guys’ trip to Amsterdam in ’05, by implementing proper photo storage practices.
Backup, backup, backup
After every photo session, you should save the files on a computer. Whether your main camera is attached to your cell phone, or is a professional digital device, a simple transfer of files by USB cord or memory card reader is be quick and easy. Once you’ve got the photos on a computer, be sure to check that all the files transferred properly before you even think of deleting the photos off the camera device.
Photos in the Clouds
One great way of backing up your photos is to upload them to a “cloud” storage account. Right now, many cloud servers are offering up to 10 gigabytes of space simply for signing up. That will hold a whole lot of photos. In fact, 10 gb of space will hold about 4,000 photos shot at 5 megapixels, and nearly 10,000 photos of 3 megapixel size!
Digital Storage Unit
As technology advances, the cost and size of digital storage is getting smaller and smaller. The average portable external hard drive with 500gb of space is no bigger or heavier than a deck of playing cards and costs less than $60.
Having your files on an external hard drive will protect your files against a computer crash, but not a fire — or any major event to strike your home. That means you need to keep the files off-site, or make them disaster proof.
Getting your files off-site should be easy — just ask someone you trust to store your hard drive. You can easily password-protect your files, as to not worry about prying eyes. Try to pick someone who lives far enough away that they would not be affected by a natural disaster near your home. Then simply bring over your laptop a couple of times a year to transfer any new photos.
Lastly, a fireproof safe will save your photos from just about any natural disaster. A small safe that can hold jewelry, keepsakes, documents and memory cards or hard drives with your photos will cost anywhere from $200 to $400.
The ultimate photo storage method would be to combine all of the aforementioned safety measures. By storing photos on computer hard drives, external hard drives, external hard drives offsite and on a digital cloud drive, you’ve created a multi-layered approach that will keep your files safe even if one (or more) your filing systems have failed.
And now you can safely delete those bachelor party photos from your camera phone!
Like this article? Get more by following us @WorkbenchLife or liking us on Facebook at The Workbench Life.
Jason Carpenter (yes,
that’s his real last name) loves to tackle DIY projects on weekends; his work
has appeared in This Old House, Men’s
Health, Consumer Reports and other publications that appreciate good
tips and tools. Jason is a frequent contributor to The Workbench Life.
