Is the USB FlashDrive really the best way to store pictures? I've filled up one flash drive with only 6 months of pictures. This could become costly. What do you think is the safest (and cost efficient) way to to store pictures?
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Anonymous
ANSWERS: 8
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If you are taking that many pictures, first, check what format you are saving them as. A .bmp file takes a lot more room than a .jpg. Then, if you STILL have that many pictures, I'd invest in an external hard drive. They are huge, portable, and work wonderfully. (ours is full of music)
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flash drive is convenient but a very expensive form of storage. DVDs are currently the cheapest way to store stuff off the computer, costing no more than 50c each and usually significantly less. Just remember even the best will fail eventually and make extra copies every few years. You can also use an external hard drive - $100 will get you about 500MB or more, rom for lots of pics. Once again remember they fail so make backups - maybe on DVD. ALso worth keeping one set at another location in case if fire flood theft etc
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An external hard drive is probably better, because than you don't have a bunch of small USB's (flash drives) laying around. They come on sale often and come in a range of different memory capacities. This could be more cost efficient, and if you are using a flash drive get the 16GB or even higher because they are just a few dollars difference. I got a 350GB external hard drive for 80 CND
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They are pretty good and a lot easier to use than a USB hard disk. A 64 GB flash drive costs around £85, which as much as a 640 GB USB drive. A 100 pack of DVDs costs just £9.99 though, and you get 470 GB of storage.
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I would go with DVD-R. most PCs already have a DVD burner and if you shop around you can get a *great* deal on the discs. Looking at it strictly from a $/GB viewpoint, that is the best way to go if you just want long-term storage. Until I see a 500GB external drive for under $40US, I stand by that, and I don't think I will see them go *that* low for at least another year, barring overstock/closeout sales.
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You can get a 1TB hard drive for 80 odd bucks: http://www.directron.com/wd10eads.html?gsear=1 I can get them cheaper again but the point is if you've a lot of stuff for storage then Flaah and Disc are hassle. Flash can only be written/erased 100,000 times before the chip "dies" as does your data. Discs only last a while as well before getting lost, scratched or mouldy plus the time you take to burn data on and verify it's the slowest option. The other option is tape as it outlasts mechanical hard drives but it's only useful for 100s of terabytes of data.
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how about just not take so many pictures??? are 50 shots of the same exact pose of your kid playing with his toys necessary???
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If you are taking that many pictures, you are goning to want an external hard drive. Make sure it has a very strong enclosure. You are also going to want to get an internal hard drive to back up that information in case something happens to the eternal (nature pics --> hard drive tossed in water, no bueno).
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