Digital images are just as susceptible to damage or loss as physical photographs. However, digital photos are more than just collections of pixels- they are memories, precious moments captured in time. So, what can you do to ensure that your photos are preserved for not just years but decades?
Here we have mentioned some ways on how to preserve and protect your digital photos
1. External Hard Drives
Many people store their digital files, documents, videos, and images in an external hard drive. This is because hard drives are affordable, offer ample storage (you can get drives with storage starting from 500 GB to up to 10-12 TB or even more), and can be used conveniently with many computers or laptops.
Although external hard drives have many benefits, lack of longevity is the major flaw. Standard hard disk drives are not very reliable. Most hard disk drives fail within 5-10 years.
Plus, there are other risks like data corruption which can happen from a virus if you are not using a premium antivirus. There is also the possibility of human error as you can accidentally delete an entire folder on a hard drive.
This solution is only recommended if you aren’t particularly concerned about losing your photos or want to create multiple backups of your photos.
2. Optical Disks
Optical disks like CD, DVD, and Blu-ray offer many advantages over external hard drives. For starters, when you store your images on these disks, then they can’t be deleted by accident or infected by a virus.
They can be easily organized and stored in a cold and dark place for the ultimate preservation. Believe it or not, experts claim that Blu-ray disks can last for 50-100 years easily; sometimes even longer.
For most people, optical drives can be an ideal storage solution. If you have a limited number of photos, then you can use DVDs as they have a storage capacity of around 4.7 GB which is enough.
If you have tons of photos, then you can use Blu-ray disks as they have a storage capacity of 25GB (single-layer disks) or 50GB (dual-layer disks).
3. Google Drive
The Google Apps suite is undoubtedly one of the most popular productivity suites used by many individuals and businesses. It is bundled with all kinds of programs and features that you could possibly need for a simple cloud-based work environment and one of its most amazing features is Google Drive.
Google Drive, just like Apple’s iCloud, is a cloud storage system for storing and accessing the files on the go. It’s probably the best solution for storing your precious photos. This is because your images are secured on a cloud server which is protected and maintained by professionals.
Google also keeps backups of its servers so that if some problem occurs, they can restore your photos.
You don’t even have to pay anything for limited storage which is around 15 GB. If your images need more space, then you can purchase more storage through a subscription.
Things to Remember
Many people consider Google Drive as a backup for their files on the cloud. The truth is that google drive just serves as a reference system for the actual files stored in the cloud.
In other words, the files and folders displayed in the local Google Drive folder are actually the links to the actual files which are only stored on the Google Drive online.
Thus, if you delete a photo from the online Google Drive it will be deleted permanently (unless it is sent to the Trash folder) and won’t show on your local drive either.
If you don’t want to lose your files in accidental deletion, then it’s important to create an actual backup of all your documents.
Protect Your Photos for a Long Time
You have plenty of options to collect and preserve your photos. You can pick any of the options above and you can also create multiple backups of your photos.
However, you should also be careful to protect your photos on the primary storage. For instance, if you keep your photos on your personal computer, then make sure to protect it from malware.
Remember – basic measures like these can save your precious photos to a great extent.
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