Archiving images isn’t what it used to be. Just a decade ago, photos were destined to be printed, held, examined, shared, and discussed. Maybe they would, ultimately, end their journey in a drawer or box, but invariably they could be retrieved, albeit with rolled up a sleeves and some digging.
Nowadays, digital photos are amassed (thousands of them!) and, most often, stored in a computer hard drive without a plan. Not to scare you, but this isn’t exactly your safest bet. Trusting this fallible box that tends to go bust every few years is a surefire way to lose all your photos in the blink of an eye. I can’t tell you how many distressed customers have come in with their laptop or camera, begging me to perform miracles and rescue their lost memories.
Most recently three teary-eyed Swedish girls found their way to our store. Apparently, one of the three had accidentally reformatted the memory card of their single shared camera while attempting to view images of their two-week tour of New York. The entire record of their adventure (hundreds of memories) vanished without a trace.
Sadly, there was little I, or anyone, could do at that point besides reiterate the hard lesson to never ever hit the “format” button before you have downloaded and saved images elsewhere.
It was hard to break the bad news, especially since I know what it’s like to lose something so precious. When I was a kid, I loved to photograph anything and everything with my Kodak Instamatic or a folding roll film camera that Mom had used in college. At the time, I had never considered (or cared) that my images might not last forever.
I soon accumulated a vast amount of processed film that outgrew my filing system. One day, I decided to relocate my old film to a shoebox and give the storage envelopes to my newest film. A year or two later when I returned to the shoebox, I realized the loose film had been thoroughly scratched. Embarrassed, I tossed them in the garbage. In one fell swoop, I discarded my own early visual history.
Now I tend to save too much. Perhaps to compensate for the records I lost long ago. So my heart goes out to these three Swedish girls, whose story ends just like mine.
This is partly why I agreed to write this column in hopes of providing you with a thoughtful guide of how to preserve, archive, and share your most special digitally captured moments. The other part being that I’m naturally curious to explore and learn more about our options as we move forward in this new digital era.
Fortunately, solutions exist to guide us out of this bird’s nest of tangled image files. You may already find it residing in your computer. Check your computer’s available hard disk space. If you have less than 20 percent of free space available, now is the time to buy a new external hard drive. My recommendation: the WiebeTech 500GB ToughTech.
Made by a small company that specializes in storage solutions for forensic and military use, this drive will give you plenty of space to copy your entire internal computer hard drive. I would suggest buying two of these drives so that one could mirror, or duplicate, the other. This will provide an extra level of security. Keeping your files outside of your computer will allow you to easily move them from one to another because, as you know, all computers eventually fail. Bonus feature: It comes with Data Backup software that will let you schedule regular backups.
In the coming months, I’m looking forward to investigating the myriad of storage options available beyond external hard drives, including online services such as Amazon’s on demand “cloud computing”, which permits backup that meets the widest range of needs and uses. Until then, do yourself a favor and backup your memories starting now.
About our Expert: Jeff Hirsch is the owner and president of a popular Manhattan-based photography store named Foto Care, which strives to cater to the needs of all photographers–from amateurs to professionals–by offering high-quality support, products, and services.
Email Jeff all your burning digital photo questions at editors@thefineartoffamily.com and check back often for great advice.
Published on November 2, 2009
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