Decades ago, an at-home tragedy, such as a flood or fire, meant losing your precious treasured memories. Those who kept loose pictures and albums had no way to backup these links to the past. Today, digital images ensure pictures last forever. But it’s not that easy, for even digital images demand a strategy when it comes to saving and storing. Here’s how to preserve your treasured memories.

Align Options and Intent

Those looking to store digital images have plenty of options including USB thumb-drives and SD cards. The ideal solution depends on how many pictures you have and how often you plan on accessing them. Also, price plays a part in what you decide upon since you’ll encounter cheap to expensive ways to store and retrieve.

Use an External Hard Drive

An external hard drive plugs into your computer like an external mouse. The present size and rate of growth of your photo collection dictate the size of preferred drives. Some get more than one hard drive, so there’s a backup drive too.

Save- Up for a NAS Box

A NAS box acts as a small computer with its own processor, memory, and operating system. It’s convenient since you can store all your photos as well as retrieve them by using WiFi. The NAS makes it easy to access photos from a smartphone, mobile device, and desktop. If you run out of memory, you can upgrade the box’s hard drives.

Rely on Cloud Storage

Storage gurus suggest using at least one off-site solution, such as cloud storage. Major suppliers, such as Google and Yahoo, provide limited to paid storage solutions. Some providers allow you to store original photos online while others only allow for the storage of files.

Consider Compact Flash Cards

CF or compact flash cards use flash memory to store data on small portable devices. CF cards are used as removable memory tools for digital photo cameras and smartphones. Go to RS Components for a variety of CF solutions.

Organization Matters

One of the worst things about keeping a lot of photos is organizing them to find what you want when you want it. An orderly process uses folders and subfolders. Mark each folder by year and then create subfolders for each month. You could further label sub-folders according to vacation, activity, etc.

Know the Grades of Storage

Many digital photographers prefer magnetic storage options, such as an external hard drive. Hard drives are reliable, portable, and hold vast amounts of digital data. The downside to ownership is having it vulnerable to fires, floods, etc. Optical storage, such as CDs and DVDs, are less reliable, and sometimes errors occur when transferring data onto discs.

Realize Limits of USB Flash Drives

USB drives may be the most convenient of all digital storage solutions yet they are incredibly limited as far as how much can be stored. They may be best used while working on a short-term project or when traveling and in need of a gadget to aid in bringing a limited amount of files.