UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

I have many memory cards (I do not trust any digital storage alone). I keep them in a box, in labeled sleeves. Does anyone have another system? I was thinking about something in a large loose leaf notebook, but I do not know how I would set up the holders for the cards.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

To me, memory cards were not meant to be, and aren't, a good long-term storage medium. So, the cards I have that aren't in the cameras live in an Altoids box, while I store my photos on a high-capacity hard drive, and back up to another high-capacity hard drive.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

I think I'm about to make a lot of people cringe pretty bad with this one.

I keep one of those Lowepro odds and ends pouches in my bag with the random small things that may be needed. I have an extra SD and CF card stuffed in one of the pockets.
As I have a tendency to just keep the same cards in the camera and do not shoot enough to fill them on any given excursion out, I just have the one set as a backup just in case.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I don't archive my cards (or USB sticks).
My working cards are in a hard plastic waterproof card wallet.
My images are backed up to hard drives in two places locally plus the cloud.
Cards and USB sticks are CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices). Over time (years??? How many???) the charges in the cells will bleed off and corrupt the data. I, myself, will not use any CCD for archival storage, I trust a hard drive more for data longevity.
But many people save them.
I also don't want to keep buying cards.
I'm surprised no one makes loose-leaf sleeves for them if it's a popular archival method.

Addendum:
Here ya go: https://www.amazon.com/StoreSMART-Plastic-Binders-25-Pack-RMSTWPF-MEMRY-25/dp/B006QW9SWM.

Leitz Loc: Solms

I store mine in their slot next to the battery. They've never gotten damaged, dirty, or corrupted.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

My memory cards are either (1) in one of the camera bodies; or (2) in a pocket in my bag.

When I take photos, download the files, do some postprocessing, and back it all up, then I reformat my card and it goes back to one of those places.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

In my cameras, I take them out long enough to up load to external hard drives X3 put back in the camera and reformat them.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I don’t use memory cards for long term storage.
After I upload the pictures to the computer I put the card back in the camera, reformat the card and use it again.

juan_uy Loc: Uruguay

If you store in memory cards, you are indeed trusting digital storage, and probably one of the worst options.
Read Longshadow's message

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Good advice, Bill. I confess that I do have my photos in two different external hard drives, but I am concerned about storage failure because I have had three LaCie external hard drives crash. Your point on deterioration is good, so I will probably change my ways. Even an old dog can learn new tricks.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The safest way to store your files is cloud storage (from a well-established provider).

As you have noticed, hard drives fail occasionally. But they are still an important element of a robust backup system.

The three things you need for backup are: Duplication; Distribution; and Maintenance.

Duplication is easy. Just have two or more copies of your backups
Distribution is more work but still fairly easy: some of your backups have to be off-site.
Maintenance is the hardest. Since storage media can fail you have to keep things in good shape. That means replacing drives occasionally to prevent age related failures.

Cloud storage can do the duplication and distribution easily. They have storage locations across countries if not continents. That makes them resistant to regional disasters. In addition, cloud storage media are maintained by professionals, while local media are maintained by amateurs for the most part.

Cloud storage does have bandwidth issues.* Local storage is much better there. For that reason both local storage and cloud storage should be elements of your backup strategy. Local storage for convenience. Cloud storage for safety.


* Some cloud providers can send you a disk with your backup on it. It still takes a few days to get that to you so the bandwidth issue may be reduced but not eliminated.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That's the point in the second local backup. Gives one time to get a replacement if needed.
I had one local backup drive fail one time, still had the other local backup (plus cloud).
I quickly got another drive and did a backup to it.
Days with only one local backup: 3.

You can use the CCDs, but at least every six months I'd plug EACH one in and look at the directory contents just to rebuild the cell charge to be safe. I just would never put them in a box or drawer and forget about them for a year or three. Hard drives do not loose the data as it is magnetically set on the platter. It will not "bleed off" or change.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I store mine in the little plastic cases made for them. They are, however, blank cards. I never leave images on my cards.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

You can buy wallets that will hold hundreds of them . For the life of me I dont understand why you dont move them off of the cards. Cards overtime will begin to corrupt the data. Your pix will be gone.
I have a small wallet for my unused cards... its water resistant meaning if it rains its ok, if I take it swimming I have wet cards.

I back up everything to an external hard drive. and because I have an alexa and because the wife loves amazon I have prime and get free unlimited photo storage. If you are keeping these pix for personal use , not someones wedding etc that may want copys. Upload them to facebook. You can create directories as needed and its free.