Question about archiving photos
 

With the days of 7 mega pixel cameras it becomes harder and harder to find a way to keep safe all the original digital files. I'm not thrilled about resizing the originals and I'd like to preserve them in as original a format as possible. I've got a couple of thousand photos I need to transfer off of my computer hard drive and was wondering if there is a product, program or media I should be using.

I don't have a Blue-Ray burner as of yet but I might need one soon because I just purchased a High Def camcorder.

What to do with all the photos though?

Michael

I use 2 external Western Digital HD's so I have 2 copies of my photo's on magnetic, and then I copy to CD every now and then. I'm still in the dark ages and don't have a DVD burner in my main machine (only in my laptops).

What are you using to compress the files? I do have a DVD burner but even then the files are HUGE.

Any on line solution that is reliable? I'm willing to pay for redundancy.

compressing jpeg? they're already compressed. or do you shoot raw?
regardless, i don't compress them, i store them natively. 500GB drives are cheap.

I was thinking about something like WinZip or a compression program to move some photos to CD-ROM or DVD.

I'm now thinking a Seagate 650gb external HD or something similar.

Thanks,

So that is just an extra plug in, right?

I use a tape drive mag tape storage has the longest shelf life of all types of current data storage I store them all uncompressed and put them in a fire safe

huh? mag tape? you're assuming a lot doesn't happen like oxidation, temperature changes, tape drive malfunction, restore software obsoletion....

I just pulled the trigger on a 650 GB Seagate external drive for $225. I'll then store some of my more important photos online for an off-site storage option.

The 650GB Seagate is USB 2.0 so it is plug and play.