Where Do You Store Your Digital Photos?

Do you have a ton of photos in your collection? Perhaps you've been taking many photos over the holiday season or during your last vacation. Where do you store all those photos? This article will run through some ideas on digital photo storage so that you know how to approach the storage issue in future. Essentially, there are a few options you have when it comes to storing photos - memory cards, hard drives, CD/DVDs and online storage.

Using Memory Cards

Of course, one lazy way to 'store' your images is to leave them all in your camera's memory card. Not a very good idea. For one thing, you need to clear out space in your camera's memory card to take more photos, so you certainly should try storing them elsewhere. Think about it - if you're snapping 5 megapixel images very frequently, I guarantee you that even a 1GB memory card will run out very quickly.

A SanDisk 512 MB CompactFlash memory card
 

Using Hard Drives

After you import your images from your camera to your computer (usually via a USB cable), you should have those pictures stored in your hard drive. Hard drives are pretty cheap these days. For $100, you can get a branded 160 GB hard disk (that's enough to store about 32,000 pictures at 5 megapixel resolution each!).

The Seagate Barracuda 160 GB hard drive

Based on personal experience, I'd say the only problem with hard drives is the uncertainty of the data safety. I'm talking about hard disk crashes and virus infections. If your computer is used by all family members, there is a small chance the hard disk may crash due to virus infections ( e.g. from surfing the web). To avoid this, I'd recommend using CDs and DVDs as your back option.
 

Using CDs and DVDs

Right – if you're not using a memory card or hard drive to store photos, the next best option might be to use CDs or DVDs. A CD-R can typically store 650 MB worth of photos and a DVD-R can store 4GB of photos. You'll need a CD burner or a DVD burner, along with a CD or DVD burning software to burn those photos. One good example of such software is Nero Burning ROM.

The Sony DRX710UL External DVD Burner

Personally, I prefer to store my photos in DVDs. When burning DVDs, I will set each DVD to be a multi-session DVD. This means I can burn, say, 1GB worth of photos on one session, leaving 3GB of DVD space for another burning session.
 

Storing Your Photos Online

Another good option is to store your photos online. You can either use online photo sharing sites or upload them to your own website . This is a great way to share your photos with friends and family without the hassles of emailing photos. Some of the photo sharing sites allow you to specify logon passwords for specific users to come online and view private photos. You can also read my guide on sharing your photos for more information.
 

Conclusion

Well, I hope you now have a better idea of how to store your photos. Besides using memory cards and hard drives, one can use CDs, DVDs or store them online. Whichever way you choose, remember to file them so that they are easy to find. Here's a guide to organizing your photo collection to help you along. Good luck and remember to backup your treasured photo collection!