How to save important photos

I guess subscription to iCloud could be one solution...😎

safer than CD? CDs should last 25 years under normal circumstances...

if you're concerned about very long term storage, your best bet is redundancy. Put copies on different media (CDs, external hard drives, online storage) so that if one fails it can be replaced from one of the others. it's also a good idea to make one cd copy and store it elsewhere, so that if you wander into act-of-God territory (fire, flood, tornado...) at least one copy is safe.

twtwtw wrote:

CDs should last 25 years under normal circumstances...

But you will you have a slot to put them in? 😎

macjack wrote:

twtwtw wrote:

CDs should last 25 years under normal circumstances...

But you will you have a slot to put them in? 😎

well, that's kind of a personal question... 😊

Use external hard disks and/or DVDs, this depends on the global size. Optical drive are getting to their demise. If you use iPhoto, you may save the whole iPhoto library, otherwise you may export all your pictures using maximum resolution and size. Make at least two copies of each set of essential files, and keep them in different locations.

Redunancy is definitely the key. Forget about DVD and CD, apart from the fact that they are unreliable in the very long term, the simple fact is that they will be gone the way of the floppy disk in 10 years.

The following refers to my iPhoto and Aperture back up routines. But they work for any photos.

My Library lives on my iMac. It’s Backed up to two external hard disks every day. These disks are permanently attached to the iMac. These back ups run automatically. One is done by Time Machine, one is a bootable back up done by SuperDuper

It’s also backed up to a portable hard disk when ever new photos are added. This hard disk lives in my car. For security, this disk is password protected.

I have a second off-site back up at a relative’s house across town. That’s updated every 3 or 4 months.

My Photos are backed up online. There are many options: Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug etc. However, check the terms of your account carefully. While most sites have free uploading, you will often find that these uploads are limited in terms of the file size or the bandwidth you can use per month. For access that allows you to upload full size pics with no restrictions you may need to pay.

Every couple of months I test the back ups to make sure they are working correctly. It’s very easy to mis-configure a back up application, and the only way to protect against that is to do a trial restore.

twtwtw wrote:

macjack wrote:

twtwtw wrote:

CDs should last 25 years under normal circumstances...

But you will you have a slot to put them in? 😎

well, that's kind of a personal question... 😊

😁