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Keeping Your Photos Safe

Keeping Your Digital Photos Safe

Nothing is more important then keeping your digital photos safe - there are a pile of ways to do it. From keeping them on CD, to buying an external hard drive to using an online backup service such as LifeTimeBackup.com - you'll be glad to know your photos will be with you forever.

The Problem

Hopefully, it hasn't happened to you yet, but chances are, it has. You turn on your computer one day, and there simply isn't anything there. You realize that years worth of memories are gone in just a few seconds. Digital photos are great - as long as you have them.

With the advent of digital cameras, the cost of taking photos has plumeted. That means you take more then ever before. Some you print, but most make their home only on your computer. Its a teasure trove of memories that you love to show off to anyone who wants to see.

Thats created the problem - what used to be stored on paper is now stored only in your computer. If something happens to your computer, they all disappear. Its like your house burning down and loosing all your photo albums. But on average, it happens to your computer every four to five years. Is yours overdue?

Why Does It Happen?

Your photos are stored on a hard drive in your computer. To work, it needs to physically move several parts. Over time, those parts wear out and then stop working. As soon as just one part stops, your photos are no longer available.

How to Prevent Photo Loss

There are several ways to prevent photo loss - some easier then others. Here's a quick run down of some of the better, and not so good methods:

Pure Luck
Ok, this isn't a great method. It's what most people do now - nothing. You just hope it never happens to you. But, it will. Usually, within about five years of you taking the photo.

Copies on CD/DVD's
We are starting to get somewhere now. You can burn your photos onto a CD or DVD and have a second copy. Usually once a month is often enough, but some people will do it weekly or daily. There is however, a few downsides. To work well, you need to keep doing it. You think I mean keep putting new photos on the CDs, but that isn't all. Burned CD's are known to only last a few years. Some of the cheaper CD's last only a few months. The last thing you want is to go to the CD's to get the photos and find out they aren't there either.

To be successful, you need to keep copying the CD's - usually every year or two - so that you have new CD's with a new lifespan. After a while, that gets to be a lot of CD's to copy.

To make that protection complete, you really need to store those CD's someplace else. Try a friends house or at work. Then, if you do suffer damage from something like a housefire, your photos are someplace entirely different.

Backup Harddrive
Prices of external hard drives are really come down these days. You can pick one up for less then $150. Once connected to your computer you can copy your photos onto it and have a second copy. This provides excellent protection against hardware failure.

Now, there are still a few precautions to take with a second hard drive. It should be stored someplace else. Its vulnerable to computer viruses and, still a problem if your house burns down with the hard drive in it.

Backup Services
There are lots of backup services popping up lately. Some present the ultimate solution to photo backup, some don't. The main problem is cost. Many backup services charge a monthly fee that you keep paying. Should you stop, your photos are no longer backed up.

LifeTimeBackup.com is one service that's vastly different. They offer a pay once backup solution that keeps your photos safe for 100 years. While at first it seems to good to be true, their parent company has been around for years and is an expert in backup technology. Expanding to the home photo market just makes sense. The service costs around $25 per CD, but is often on sale for as low as $15 per CD.

Images can be uploaded eletronically, but are normally sent on CD to speed the service. When you need your photos back, they are just a phone call away, arriving at your door in a few days on CD, ready to load back into your computer.