Archival Media

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 4. May 2009 - 23:00
  1. I store my photos on the hard drive. I process them on the hard drive, then store them in another folder once processed.
  2. I back them up on 2 other hard drives.

Media

Digital photos can only be stored on:

  1. Floppies: 5¼" and 3½"
  2. CDs / DVDs
  3. Internal hard drives
  4. External hard drives
  5. Tapes
  6. Flash
  • The useful life of these medias is only between 5 and 10 years. It does not matter that what the manufacturer tells you.
  • The software format changes to the point that you can't read the photos in the old format. Companies such as Adobe have changed their file format to support new features.
  • You can't find anymore 8" or 5¼" floppies or floppy drives.
  • Hard drives have had so many standards from ATA, IDE, and ScSI to the current SATA... that the older ones cannot be connected to any current hardware.

The only archival media you can use for the long term: 50 years + is either print/negatives... or every 5 to 10 years you will have to transfer/convert your digital archive to the new/current format/software/hardware.