HP Digital Photography

Why archive?
Your precious memories are irreplaceable, and when you archive them, they’ll be well-protected against corruption, data loss, or accidental deletion.

Here are more reasons to archive your photos:

• Free up hard drive space. Your PC will run faster, and you’ll have more room for other important files.
• Storage is affordable. Discs are inexpensive, and flash drives are reasonably priced, too. Personal media drives cost more, but you get much more storage space.
• Disc options are plentiful. CDs and DVDs vary in storage capacity and the number of times they can be burned (written on). Depending on the type of disc and the resolution of your photos, you can store hundreds to thousands of images on a single disc.
• External hard drives are portable and easy to access. External drives are compact, portable devices that connect to your computer. They can be taken anywhere and connected to other computers for quick access to your images. And depending on the drive capacity, they can store many more photos than a DVD can.

Before you begin
Organize your digital pictures before you transfer them to an external hard drive or burn them to disc. Clearly name your photo files so you know exactly what they are. Event names, dates, and/or location are all good identifiers. Example: Family_Reunion_Aug_05.jpg. Learn more about organizing photos.

Archiving tools and methods
Both external hard drives and discs are excellent storage media. Here’s more information about drives and discs, and how to use them.

External hard drives
It’s fast and easy to transfer images to an external hard drive, and they have a higher storage capacity than discs. They’re perfect for frequent archiving of large batches of photos. But be aware that the length of time files can be stored on them is shorter (up to 10-15 years) than discs, and they can be damaged if dropped.

• Flash drives offer up to 4GB of storage and plug directly into a USB port on your PC. Because they’re thin and narrow, they generally don’t compete for space with other devices, such as a printer.

• HP personal media drives are ideal for large files, if not your entire digital photo collection (up to 400GB of storage!). They connect to your computer with a USB cable, or can be inserted into the personal media drive bay included on some HP desktop PCs.

To archive photos to an external hard drive, just connect one to your PC and drag and drop files to it (the process may vary). Usually, it only takes seconds.

CDs and DVDs
Burning discs takes longer than simply transferring data to a hard drive, but it’s wise to have extra copies of your files for safekeeping. If properly cared for, CDs and DVDs can last from 30 to 100 years. If improperly stored, however, they can be scratched and, therefore, corrupted.

Here are steps for saving to CD or DVD:

• First, choose media that is compatible with your disc burner (check your product’s specifications). If your PC doesn’t have a burner, you can buy an external one.

• Next, select a disc that meets your needs.
  
  » Explore HP’s CD and DVD media

• After burning your disc, add a label for quick identification. LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology lets you create personalized CD and DVD labels using the same drive that burns your data. You could use one of your photos along with a list of disc contents for at-a-glance identification.
  
  » Getting started with LightScribe

Tips for storage
Here are more suggestions for preserving your digital photos:

• Create a schedule: Archive once a month or every 100 photos.
• Make two disc copies. Keep one close at hand and one locked away somewhere safe (like a safe deposit box) in case of breakage, data corruption, theft, or fire.
• Print proof, or contact, sheets of images stored on each DVD or CD and keep them with the discs.

Storing photos online
Online storage is another great way to preserve and share images with friends and family.

Back to top