Dear Computer Lady,
My question: technology is changing so fast–most new computers do not have a cd drive- I was putting all my pictures on cd’s so what would you recommend to store your pictures??
I was thinking about a jump drive. Hopefully you can be of help.
Thanks and have a great day, Barb
Dear Barb,
For archiving files like pictures, optical media like CDs and DVDs are far better than a jump drive. This is because the files are burned onto the disk, and unless you scratch it or melt it, your data is not going to become corrupted.
With a magnetic media like a jump drive, your pictures can become corrupted much more easily because things like a static charge can damage them.
You do have some options though. You can always purchase an external DVD drive to go with your new computer. It will attach by USB and you can use it to access your photos, and burn additional photos to disks.
You can store them on an external hard drive. This is a bit more secure than a jump drive, and certainly easier to use since you don’t have to break your photo library down into disk sized chunks.
You can store your photos on a cloud based service. Some examples are a backup service like Carbonite, or even OneDrive, which is Microsoft’s cloud. If you are paying for Microsoft Office 365, your subscription includes up to 5TB of cloud storage, which should be more than enough for your photos.
You can store them on a small server or network attached storage device in your home. The advantage is that you would be able to access your photos and videos from any computer, smart TV, tablet, or phone that can access your network.
Whatever you choose to do, the best backup plan should have your files stored in three locations, on your computer, on a local backup, and in an off site backup.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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