External Hard Drive?

[2sp_]

My PC is on it's last legs (I think).

It's about 6 years old and is beginning to creak and groan. I have thousands of photos stored on here so I was wondering what would be the best way of storing them externally so I can either clean up my PC (I say that like I know what I'm talking about) or get a new one.

Would I be best getting an external hard drive and transferring all my pics on to it? Or should I put them on CD or memory stick?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

[2sp_]

Thank you fender.

Brace yourself for a stupid question (or another one...) - Are they pretty simple to use? Just a case of plug it in and off you go?

[Sharingan]

I have everything on my external hd including backups fro other family members stuff ( and they have mine) in case of dropping horrors:)

[Sharingan]

Yeah they are all just plug in, your computer picks them up then you can choose them as a storage place when you save or copy over files.

[ChillDoubt]

External. I have a WD, same as fender.
Very easy to use.

[2sp_]

Perfect, thanks Sharinghan.

Off to see what I can find on tinterweb. Really should do it before the PC goes up in a puff of smoke!

[SlackAlice]

I tend to back up my photo's,video and documents using an external HDD weekly and also 'burn' them to a DVD monthly. Best to have double strategy, just in case.

[VHG]

Everything important should be backed up AT LEAST once, probably twice (or more).

A CD wont hold many pictures but DVDs probably will.

So I would copy your pictures to a set of DVDs, AND buy an external hard drive and copy the pictures there as well.

External hard drives are "plug and go". You plug it in and Windows allocates a drive letter to it (G or H or whatever).

You then just copy the pictures from your computer to the external hard drive.

[2sp_]

I'm ashamed to say that I have nothing backed up at all right now!

I've got photos going back years, lots of people who have passed away and I know I would be devastated if I lost all the pictures.

[Old_Geezer]

Try to store what is important to you in more than one place. Were they just on a memory stick I'd not hold out a lot of hope for their long term survival.

External drives are easy. The hard drives from all my past PCs are now in enclosures and I can plug them in. (Although, to be honest, most probably hold stuff no longer relevant.)

[ChillDoubt]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wd%20external%20hard%20drive%20500gb&sprefix=wd+external%2Caps%2C385

And as VHG says, I back up important stuff doubly. I'll leave one hard drive here when I go on hols and take the other as I'll need it to transfer video footage etc whilst away.

[2sp_]

Thank you for the link, Chill.

Will get ordering today!

[hc4361]

No harm in burning them to DVDs as well as the external HDD.

[2sp_]

Thank you fender, I've ordered the 1TB version (in red!).

I think I'll make up some albums and burn them onto DVD too.

Thanks again for all of your answers. Where would I be without you?

xx

[james412]

Buffalo external HD and DVDs (twice).

[2sp_]

My lovely shiney hard drive has arrived!

All 10,000 plus photos are now copied along with all my documents.

Thanks everyone for your input. My PC is now free to die...

[sunny-dave]

Now get another hard drive, copy everything onto that as well and take it "off site" to a relative or friend's house and hide it in a nice dust free drawer ...

[sunny-dave]

I have copies of all my photos etc in (at least) two other people's houses as well as on two computers and three hard drives here.

[ belt and braces AND spare pair of underpants ]