Getting your digital photos off of
your computer’s hard drive isn’t just a good way to
keep them safe, it can also make sharing them with friends and family
a whole lot easier. Learn more about storing on an external hard
drive, memory cards, and CDs and DVDs so you can improve your photo
storing habits.
Good storing habits
Archive on a schedule, like once a month, or when your memory card
fills up.
Give files descriptive names to make them easy to find.
While it may be the less glamorous side
of photography, storing your digital photos is important and can
make keeping track of your memories a lot easier.
Create a schedule
Archive your photos once a month or whenever your memory card
is full—whatever is convenient for you. But stick with
your decision. Too many photos to sort can be daunting.
Use descriptive names and be consistent
Whatever your unique approach, stick with it. This will save
you a lot of time when searching for images later on. For a
step-by-step tutorial on naming, adding tags to your photos,
and more, visit Easy
ways to organize your digital photos.
Upgrade your memory card
Try as you might, sometimes you just can’t get around
to downloading your photos when you want to. In that case, having
a back up high-capacity memory card is good. If you have an
empty card on hand, you won’t be in a position of having
to delete images to make room for new ones. Learn more about
Transferring photos from your digital camera.
A basic DVD holds 4.7GB of data, which translates to more than 15,000
high-quality pictures—about seven times the capacity of a CD.
High-quality CDs and DVDs are good options
for digital photo storage. If stored under the right conditions,
this media can last up to 100 years! They’re also affordable
enough to copy and share with friends and family. When storing to
CD or DVD:
The right media matters
High-quality CD or DVD media from manufacturers you recognize,
such as HP, is less likely to deteriorate.
Always have extra copies
Burning discs takes longer than simply transferring photos to
a computer or external hard drive, but it's wise to have
unalterable copies of your files in case of computer crashes
or accidental deletion.
Treat discs with care
If properly cared for, CDs and DVDs can last from 30 to 100
years. If improperly stored, however, you run the risk of data
loss.
HP personal media drives can plug directly into any HP Media Center
PC, as well as any desktop or notebook PC via an included USB cable.
There are a number of reasons storing
your digital photos on an external hard drive makes sense.
Save space on your computer
Your internal hard drive is often tight on space (it has to
run your operating system, applications, and much more). Saving
to an external drive is the easiest way to give yourself some
breathing room.
Longer life
A dedicated storage drive is less likely to become fatigued
and fail than your computer’s primary internal drive.
Easily shared
Because your external drive can connect to any computer, it
makes sharing with the family a breeze. You can even take it
when you travel to connect to friends’ computers.
HP storage solutions come in sizes up to 750GB.
That’s more than 150 DVDs worth of photos!
Scanning your precious photo prints allows you to make high-quality
copies and stow the originals safely away.
The HP Photosmart C8180 allows you to print and scan photos, as
well as burn CD and DVDs (including LightScribe).
So, what about your hard copy photo
prints (you remember, from before digital cameras?). There’s
a simple storing solution for them too. Scan your originals and
stow them away for safekeeping.
Scanning is the perfect way to get quality reproductions of photo
prints that are either too delicate or precious for general circulation.
And now that they’re digital, you can finally upload them
to the Web or email them!
The copies you print from a high-quality scan will look every bit
as good (if not better!) than the originals if you’re using
HP scanning software to clean up dust and scratches and rejuvenate
faded colors.
If you want more information on HP scanners, check the Scanner
buying guide anytime for complete specs and answers to frequently
asked questions.
Even if it’s your first time scanning your photos, you will
get exceptionally rich results from the HP
Scanjet G4010.
For brilliant photo printing and scanning, as well as a built-in
LightScribe disc burner for archiving, take a close look at the
HP
Photosmart C8180 All-in-One.
Explore a step-by-step tutorial for Disc
burning with the HP Photosmart C8180.
Once you’ve got the right tools at your disposal, get more
Quick
tips for scanning photos.
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