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.
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.
Printable version
