It's cold here now, so we had to break out the winter-weather gear. Love these hats! (Sorry about the photo quality--I took it with Steve's camera phone!)
Okay, I have a question for all you tech-savvy readers. I really need to back up the photos on my computer, but I'm not sure how. I have several questions.
- What's the best way to backup the photos? CD? External hard drive? Something else? Is there a particular brand or style I should look for in either case?
- Should I also save a copy on a web-based photo site (Picasa, for instance)?
- Ideally I'd like to dump some of them off the computer because they eat up so much memory, but I don't know if that's the smartest idea. Should I dump them once I have them backed up? (Ideally twice, which is why I was considering an external backup source (CD or drive) AND the web-based site.) Or should I leave them on my computer, dump all the terrible photos I know I don't want (because they exist--oh, yes, they do), and just buy more memory for my computer and hope THAT speeds it up?
- Anything else I should know/do/use?
Feel free to email me directly if you can't fit your reply in comments. My email address is dburen @ gmail.com. (Without spaces, of course.)
Thanks, and Happy Friday!
5 comments:
I keep meaning to get an external hard drive as a back up for my photos. I haven't done it yet, but it's what I plan on doing. If I ever have tons of free time, I would also like to burn CD/DVD of photos as well. But we will see if I ever get around to doing it all!!
She's such a cutie, Darrah. But I'm already tired of bundling 2 kids in winter coats and dealing w/ the car seat, etc. But it's so cute too.
Ok, backup:
I suggest an external hard drive but I can't suggest a brand. I also back up on CD. And since I use snapfish, I know even if all electronic files are somehow damaged, I can still order prints and have all pics for projects on-hand. I have pics from 2006 forward on snapfish. It comes in super handy when you're doing projects for presents and whatnot and have all the pics right there to choose from.
Thumb drives are the way to go! You can quickly save images to the drive, and can carry them and plug them in to any computer with a USB drive! Easier to handle and more "destruction-proof" than CD's or a larger external that you would have to lug around.
Other backup options. Online image hosting is a good deal. I also use discreet email addresses for image (and general file) backup. I use both Yahoo and gmail for redundancy--and I "zip" my files to upload only one file at a time. A cool thing about email backup is that you can access your backed up files from anywhere by just checking your email!
CD's are unreliable and should be a fourth or fifth option, if at all. Externals are cool, but mind the cords. An "sentient living entity" tripped over the cord of my 200 GB external mp3 drive, sending it crashing to the floor and rendering it "dead." Very bad news. Nearly drove me to tears.
You may remember the late 90s when I kept my offsite backup files with you and Steve. 20-some floppy drives, about 30 MB! Of course, when I moved into 1100, I had to find another offsite backup!
I highly recommend the Aquaphor. We're doing it every night before bed now (and sometimes before naps if I remember), and it has completely worked to fix his redness. Even the morning after I blogged that it was 10x better.
Hope you had a good thanksgiving, too. I have no advice about the photo backing-up question, as I read your comments for advice! lol.
I LOVE that hat... sometimes I wish it got cold enough here for cute hats like that.
You can copy your pictures (or other files) to an external drive for redundancy, but as Mike points out, there are potential issues with "reliability".
A CD or DVD backup solution is another option, but there is quite a bit of manual effort involved in burning the files.
Thumb drives are good, but there is the potential of losing or breaking them. (I've run more than one through the wash.)
Personally, I think it is best to make redundant backups to get one copy of the backed up files out of the house/office/etc.
Why redundant? I prefer to make two backup copies. One copy is to remain on site for access in the event of a data loss. The other is to go off site for access in the event of a larger disaster (theft/fire/flood/etc).
I also believe that the less manual intervention required, the better. Let's face it. The more we have to rely on ourselves to periodically perform a manual backup, the more likely we are to NOT do it.
I like to use Mozy (www.mozy.com) for my off site backup solution. It's free (for the first 2G), and effortless. You simply install the agent, configure it and let it go. When you need to retrieve any files, you can do it straight from your explorer window or a browser.
I can elaborate more if you would like...
- Brian (Lindi's cousin)
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