Saving photos from laptop to . . . . ?

[Howyoudoin]

Morning Guys,

The other thread today reminded me of something that i've been wanting to ask on here for ages.

My laptop is about 8 years old and before/in case it dies I want to make sure that the photos/videos i've collected in that time are safe.

Is the answer a USB stick? If so, do you have any recommendations and are they a long term solution i.e. last another 20 years or is there a better way of safeguarding the files?

Thanks for any help,

HYD

[servodude]

Morning Guys,

The other thread today reminded me of something that i've been wanting to ask on here for ages.

My laptop is about 8 years old and before/in case it dies I want to make sure that the photos/videos i've collected in that time are safe.

Is the answer a USB stick? If so, do you have any recommendations and are they a long term solution i.e. last another 20 years or is there a better way of safeguarding the files?

Thanks for any help,

HYD

If I were you:
I'd probably have an external USB drive that I used as a copy regularly
And A NAS that was regularly backed up to automatically
And another USB drive that the NAS backed up to
And a place on the cloud (gdrive that that was backed up to)
And I'd keep the original SD cards in a shoe box.
And I'd get worried that wasn't enough
(Only data I really don't want to lose)

-sd

[Howyoudoin]

Morning Guys,

The other thread today reminded me of something that i've been wanting to ask on here for ages.

My laptop is about 8 years old and before/in case it dies I want to make sure that the photos/videos i've collected in that time are safe.

Is the answer a USB stick? If so, do you have any recommendations and are they a long term solution i.e. last another 20 years or is there a better way of safeguarding the files?

Thanks for any help,

HYD

If I were you:
I'd probably have an external USB drive that I used as a copy regularly
And A NAS that was regularly backed up to automatically
And another USB drive that the NAS backed up to
And a place on the cloud (gdrive that that was backed up to)
And I'd keep the original SD cards in a shoe box.
And I'd get worried that wasn't enough
(Only data I really don't want to lose)

-sd

Ha. That might as well have been written in Russian for the amount that I understood (about 20%).

The cloud is a great suggestion that I keep forgetting about. Presume there is an ongoing cost for this?

Thanks,

HYD

[kiloran]

My understanding is that USB memory sticks are not renowned for being super-reliable. Very good for sure, but not something I would use for backup. And easily lost, being so small.
And for backup, especially for 20 years, I'd go for at least two solutions (meaning both are used, not either/or). I'd use a USB external drive such as these https://www.amazon.co.uk/External-Hard- ... =430544031
And an off-site, cloud-based storage, such as Google Drive or Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, or a host of others. Partly in case your USB hard drive goes kaput, partly in case your home containing it is burnt down, burgled, whatever.

My laptop is about 8 years old and before/in case it dies

Not in case, it's WHEN! I strongly recommend using Macrium Reflect Free to make an image of your whole PC to your external USB hard drive. Make a note in your electronic calendar to email to remind you once a month or more frequently.

You can never have too many backups for precious things like family photos, etc.

--kiloran

[Urbandreamer]

Is the answer a USB stick? If so, do you have any recommendations and are they a long term solution i.e. last another 20 years or is there a better way of safeguarding the files?

There are definatly better solutions.

However no single "solution" is perfect. In simple terms you need to think about how much effort you wish to put in.

Ideally as Servodude says, you need multiple copies in different locations. Expect the medium to go obsolite at some point. USB A (old style common memory sticks) are likely to go the way of built in opticle drives soon. USB C is the way than many are going these days in an effort to reduce laptop thickness. You could wind up with a box of sticks that you can't plug into anything!

You don't really need to know the details, just that you will need to plan on copying stuff at some point or even regularly. Just as many have had to copy super 8 family movies, VCR tapes of wedings and slides etc to new media.

[PhaseThree]

The cloud is a great suggestion that I keep forgetting about. Presume there is an ongoing cost for this?

I use Google Photos - Entirely free, but you need to be happy to let your memories become part of the Goggle hive mind.

[88V8]

And the few photos that are really precious, print them out on photo paper, in black & white not colour because colour fades, frame them and hang them on the wall. They'll be the ones that live on.

V8

[Howyoudoin]

Some really great advice there.

Thanks everyone, duly recced.

HYD

[Stonge]

This is really urgent. You must act today.

[BobbyD]

Morning Guys,

The other thread today reminded me of something that i've been wanting to ask on here for ages.

My laptop is about 8 years old and before/in case it dies I want to make sure that the photos/videos i've collected in that time are safe.

Is the answer a USB stick? If so, do you have any recommendations and are they a long term solution i.e. last another 20 years or is there a better way of safeguarding the files?

Thanks for any help,

HYD

There is as noted no single perfect answer, USB sticks do have some benefits as part of your solution though.

Something like this: https://www.picstop.co.uk/usb-flash-dri ... oTEALw_wcB

is small, a lot faster than your PC and cheap.

Consequently you can buy it without a lot of research as to which service is best, or which HD manufacturer you favour, copy 120GB of photos on to it, and then either stick it on your keyring or ask a friend/family member to put it in the back of a draw for you instantaneously giving you both redundancy and some degree of off site* backup for under £15.

Then you can sit down with a cup of tea and explore a slightly more robust strategy. You might even consider using USB sticks in that too.

* If your house burns down remember to grab your keys on your way out of the door.

[AF62]

The cloud is a great suggestion that I keep forgetting about. Presume there is an ongoing cost for this?

Google will allow you to store an unlimited number of photos in a compressed "high quality" format. If you want to store uncompressed photos then they offer a certain amount of free storage (15GB) and then you pay from there (100GB is about £15 a year).

The compressed version is ok to share on the web or to print a 5x4 photo, so ok as a last resort safety net but not a proper backup.

https://support.google.com/photos/answe ... ktop&hl=en

[jonesa1]

Any backup solution should be refreshed on a regular basis and the technology upgraded before it's obsolete. So if one backup is to external USB hard drive, expect to buy a newer disk every few years, equipped with whatever interface(s) are currently in vogue, while the older one can still be used. One of the great IT challenges of our time is archiving data. Basically all formats become obsolete, so important data needs to be migrated as the technology changes. Potentially that involves a lot of work, eg if a commonly used data format gets superceded, then it may be reasonable to assume backward compatibility for the software that uses it, but for now long? There comes a point when most users are only using the latest send greatest, will vendors continue supporting formats used only by a minority? Try reading a Lotus WordPro document using Word - it can be done, but only by using a separate program to convert the file, with no guarantee of formatting integrity.

My own approach is only to backup data I care about, certainly not operating systems or applications. But definitely photos, music ripped from CDs, spreadsheets tracking my finances etc. I have at least 3 copies of everything important: source (on laptop, tablet and/or mobile), cloud (Dropbox, for some files also sync.com) and USB hard disk.

It's very easy to go over the top, which is fine if you're happy managing multiple sets of backups. But always worth thinking about what data you want safeguarding and what risks you're trying to mitigate.

[staffordian]

My own approach is only to backup data I care about, certainly not operating systems or applications. But definitely photos, music ripped from CDs, spreadsheets tracking my finances etc. I have at least 3 copies of everything important: source (on laptop, tablet and/or mobile), cloud (Dropbox, for some files also sync.com) and USB hard disk.

It's very easy to go over the top, which is fine if you're happy managing multiple sets of backups. But always worth thinking about what data you want safeguarding and what risks you're trying to mitigate.

I think this is often overlooked.

Doing too much inevitably leads to things not being done regularly as it becomes too much of a chore for an average non techie.

Far better to do the key stuff regularly than do everything on odd occasions, when most of it isn't really needed.

[panamagold]

With the photos, print them off if they are important.

As with external drives, usb keys etc. paper can be lost, burned or destroyed. However, its very unlikely to be upgraded, subjected to new formats or become obsolete in the near future.