External Storage for photo's: I need a GOOD backup for my photo's, that is easy to use. I have a Buffalo 2TB external hard drive, and for the life of me can not figure out how to store...

cannie Loc: Snellville, Georgia

I need a GOOD backup for my photo's, that is easy to use. I have a Buffalo 2TB external hard drive, and for the life of me can not figure out how to store or retreive my photo's. Some one told my external hard drives do not store photo's??? A suggestion was made to store on USB Flash memory sticks. Does anyone have a better suggestion. Also are some brand USB memory sticks better than others as far as picture quality?

Gidgette Loc: Boerne,Texas

Welcome to UHH. I bought a Click Free storeage hard drive from QVC. All you do is plug it in by the usb cord that comes with it and a box pops up and you click to start down loading, and if you don't click, it will automatically do by itself. When done, all you have to do is unplug from pc. It holds all photos and files on the pc. Then the next time you backup again, it only downloads what it hasn't downloaded before. Mine is 500gb. If you lost something, plug the Click Free in again and click on restore, then choose the file or photo you lost. Can also transfer from 1 pc to another. They do make larger also.

Jamers Loc: Michigan

cannie wrote:

I need a GOOD backup for my photo's, that is easy to use. I have a Buffalo 2TB external hard drive, and for the life of me can not figure out how to store or retreive my photo's. Some one told my external hard drives do not store photo's??? A suggestion was made to store on USB Flash memory sticks. Does anyone have a better suggestion. Also are some brand USB memory sticks better than others as far as picture quality?

I went through this about six weeks ago, I do not have time to go through it with you now, but check the arcives on this sight and you will find my solution. If you still have problems, send me a PM and I will try and walk you throught it.

Jamers

rebride

Your hard drive should store photos. If it doesn't have it's own backup software installed Windows comes with backup software.
Plug your external HD into your computer. Click/open Computer from Start menu. Does it show up. Open up external HD and look for auto-run, tools to install it's software on your computer. Some older external HD did not come with software.
If the hard drive is recognized by your computer you can store photos/files/folders manually, too. Right click your folder(s) and than 'send to'. If your HD shows up click it and it will transfer selection(s) to the external.

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

On a MAC, plug and play just select the drive, on Windows "good luck"

shiep Loc: UK (Durham)

For portability & use with my laptop,I tend to use several portable 2.5" hard drives, varying in capacity from 20GB USB2 to 1TB USB3 types, for photo & music backups and occasionally burn stuff to dvd. I find flash drives generally too small & more prone to fatal crashes.
One rule I ALWAYS follow though is to make sure that I have at least 2 copies (stored in in different locations) for anything I couldn't bear to lose :shock:

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I'm not familiar with the Buffalo but I use windows explorer to copy to two different external HD's, that's how I learned back in DOS days, still works, Bob.

cannie Loc: Snellville, Georgia

Gidgette wrote:

Welcome to UHH. I bought a Click Free storeage ha... (show quote)

Thank you all for the reply to my question, actually this comment sounds just like me, I want something quick and EASY. I will check with QVC. Also keeping two back ups is a great idea, I will also do that. Alot of my photo's are family, and we all know that they can never be replaced. Old ones pass on and the young ones grow up just to fast... Thanks again for the suggestions.

:P

marmesto Loc: Hamburg, NY

Are you sure that your external HD is formatted? You should have no problem storing your files on an external drive. Good luck!

VA7RS Loc: BC Canada

Hi Cannie. Keep in mind ALL hard drives fail. It may be a week, year, or 5 years, but they will fail. DVD's also have a limited life. I use on line storage and make several copies located at my son's, daughter's on thumb drives. It may seem cumbersome to update all the copies but not if you need them. Electronic memory is cheap and who knows what new technology is around the corner.

Roger

ge12kids

I have 2 wd 500g externals. With either one I have no problem storing pics. I use windows photo viewer. I save photo's in jpeg, then back them up onto my hard drive, or save them to a cd/dvd. I can retrive them for email, printing, and editing in PSE.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

I don't know whether this is an option. Maybe someone can point out the pros and cons...We have Carbonite as a back up for our computers. Does this work for this kind of photo storage? It's supposed to keep all of your hard drive files backed up in case of computer failure, but I don't know whether you can retrieve photos for other purposes whenever you want.

Mickey88 Loc: Central Florida

VA7RS wrote:

Hi Cannie. Keep in mind ALL hard drives fail. It may be a week, year, or 5 years, but they will fail. DVD's also have a limited life. I use on line storage and make several copies located at my son's, daughter's on thumb drives. It may seem cumbersome to update all the copies but not if you need them. Electronic memory is cheap and who knows what new technology is around the corner.

Roger

thumbdrives ?? what size are your files and how many ?/ I have about a dozen hard drives, most are either 1 or 1.5 TB drives, I can't imagine the number of thumdrives I would need..

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

I have a great many photos and with very few exceptions they are stored on external hard drives. I also use Carbonite to store my photos from a folder on my machine called my photos, that will also store the images off site, so in the event my external hard drives fail I can easily restore them from Carbnoite.
If you are using a PC you should be able to go to "My computer" and see the files on your external hard drive
If you are using a Mac you should be able to go to Finder and locate or see the external hard drives connected to your Mac.
If you wish to archive them and you cherish them I would suggest copying them to DVDs, depending on the media or brand of DVDs you should be have about 5-10 yrs of life on the average DVD or CD

cannie Loc: Snellville, Georgia

Dun1 wrote:

I have a great many photos and with very few excep... (show quote)

Carbnoite sounds like a good idea for a second backup, I will check them out. Thank you for your suggestions.