An Ounce of Prevention: Backing Up Your Photos

I'm sure you've probably heard a horror story or two of someone who lost their oldest child's entire photo library (baby pics, 1st tooth, kindergarten, etc.) when their computer died or their lap top was stolen. It seems to be more common than one would think, as I've heard several of these stories. While I would not want to go through the nightmare of losing everything on my computer, I admit that losing the photo library would be absolutely heartbreaking and the worst part for me.

A few simple preventative measures can save you the heartache of losing all those irreplaceable memories. But if you're not already doing this, (you know who you are) the important thing you can take away from this post is that you DO IT. Do it TONIGHT. Don't wait. Each of these methods are simple and effective, and there's even an option that doesn't cost anything.

1) An External Hard Drive. You can purchase these almost anywhere, including WalMart, or at any electronics store. You can even get them online at sites like NewEgg.com. They range in price from about $70 on up. The amount of memory they hold is usually measured in GB, or gigabytes also referred to as "gig." Most will be 250, 320, 500GB and up. I have a 500GB that I bought for around $120, and it should last me for a long time. To put things in perspective, I take lots of pictures and my entire digital photo library back to 2004 takes less than 10GB. Obviously, if you are taking high-res or professional photos, those will take more space. But if you're just looking for a place to upload images from your point-and-shoot, even if you take a lot of them, it will take you awhile to use 5ooGB.

2) Use Online Storage. I use Kodak Gallery. I was actually introduced to this recently by my husband's aunt and uncle, (thanks Evan & Charity!) The storage is free as long as you make a small purchase every year. They do all kinds of photo services, including printing (their prices are very competitive), so chances are you would be spending the money anyway. This is the option that is best for you if your budget is tight right now. There are several sites that will allow you to do this, but this is my favorite for it's ease of use and the variety of services it offers. You can upload up to 200 photos at a time, and the storage is unlimited. There are also options for easily sharing your pictures with your friends and family.

3) Burn a CD. This is the less efficient way to do it, but if an external hard drive is not in your budget right now, and you don't have access to the internet on a regular basis, at least it's something. Transferring your entire library would take a long time, depending on how many photos you have, so I don't really recommend that. But I did actually use this method for awhile. Since it would take too long to transfer my entire library, I selected the most "important" groups of photos (the ones I absolutely couldn't live without if I were to lose the rest of my library) and burned only those to disks. Then each time I uploaded a new batch of pics, I would burn that batch to a CD and then label it. It's not the most effective, but at least you can sleep at night knowing you have a backup. If at all possible, I recommend one of the first two options.

Whatever option you choose, the most important thing is to DO IT TODAY! You never know when your computer might die, or your two year old might decide to dump their drink on it. Accidents happen, you know. Once you're all backed up, you can sleep easy with the peace of mind that your pictures are safe. So DO IT TODAY!

Now Go Make History!