Photo Storage???

My mom has recently purchased an 8 megapixel camera and she doesnt own a computer and I have no interest in her owning her own computer as it would make my life miserable since she has no computer experiance what so ever. The problem is she is taking endless amounts of photos and with the photos I already have, it is getting to be a bit of a strain of the system.

What do you folks use for photo storage and backup. I was using cds but that got way out of control and now I have several cds that we will never look at because we really dont know what is on them. We are also looking for a safer system of storing them other then a pc and laptop.

we would use an external hard drive. easy to use and to store most come with usb hook-up. i would also check out www.newegg.com they have a large selection of different storage devices or you could go back to prints and get a storage unit to keep them in. another idea is to store them at a photo hosting website one of these would be www.winkflash.com or www.snapfish.com or www.flickr.com . investagate and see what you like best.

When CDS aren't enough, DVDs are next!

I try to organize mine in folders, then back up to DVD. Eventually I want to add some NAS (Network Attached Storage) So either of us can access each others photos or music even if the other computer is off. But NAS or an external hard drive alone is not enough for a safe backup, IMO. You still need CD, DVD, or a remote storage site.

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Originally Posted by brdad

When CDS aren't enough, DVDs are next!

I try to organize mine in folders, then back up to DVD. Eventually I want to add some NAS (Network Attached Storage) So either of us can access each others photos or music even if the other computer is off. But NAS or an external hard drive alone is not enough for a safe backup, IMO. You still need CD, DVD, or a remote storage site.

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I just purchased this tonight and it appears to be working fine. I will let you know more as I figure it out

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1185271084209

Although a NAS system would be nice, I had two empty slots for hard drives not being used in my computer and I have two hard drives given to me so I put them in my computer. I am using one right now just for music and the photos are currently on my main drive right now. The other one is not being used yet. I am debating on getting ride of these two and getting two 1TB hard drives and raiding them together and using them for photos and music. You can buy a 1TB hard drive for about $150 now days.

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Originally Posted by dave1976

I just purchased this tonight and it appears to be working fine. I will let you know more as I figure it out

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1185271084209

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I have looked at those, but have feared some of the reviews. keep us posted.

I may just build my own.

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Originally Posted by brdad

I have looked at those, but have feared some of the reviews. keep us posted.

I may just build my own.

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There are some share issues I am running into right now. I think the reveiws where low because folks where "over"using them. For photo storage and music I think it will be fine. I have slowly started moving things over.

I have had a 500 gb my book and it has done great for archiving and backup. It has performed great and works better than the one that I had that was made from spare parts but is not quite as flexable.

I have an external hard drive that my husband and I share just for photos. It is an old 80GB Maxtor but I love it. I think I will upgrade pretty soon to a larger drive.

If you have room in your desktop for another hard drive, it is a lot cheaper to add a 1TB to it. It is almost 1/2 the cost. If you don't have room or want a portable hard drive then here are some more 1TB through NEWEGG that are from Western Digital.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136061
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16822136061R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136172
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16822136186R

Sheesh! I can remember when a 20MB hard drive for my Commodore 64 was just a dream! LOL!

does anyone know why I can only move a few files at a time before it tells me that the disk might be full or write protected or in use at this time. None of those things are true. When I go to delete them off the new harddrive it wont let me I get the same message. I restart the hard drive and I can delete them and send those file it wouldnt let me before. I may be sending this one back to Best buy and try another one to see if it is defective. I have checked all the settings. There aint very many places to go in the hard drive and poke around. It seems to straight forward for any setting to be off. Any help would be great.

I've had this problem a few times while copying folders. Windows sometimes has some hidden, read-only files in there. Also, I have had some files I have copied off from CD be registered as read-only. This seems to be worse when trying to move the files, instead of copying.

You might try right clicking on a folder, and selecting properties. if the read only box has a gray check mark, some of the files are read-only. If you click it it will take care of the read-only problem.

Hope the fix is that easy...

Is this a common problem or do you think this drive is defective?

I would doubt that the drive is to blame for the error you are getting. As I said, I have gotten this error many times while copying/moving files.

One of the reviews states this drive does not support files larger than 1.9 GB without being specially formatted, but unless you have a large backup file that should not be your issue.

Sometimes it helps, if you know what group of files are bothering, to keep narrowing the list down to determine what file is the problem. Or does the error message state which file was the problem?

I suppose there could be an issue with the file name as well, if we knew which file(s) were bothering.

I am unclear why I would have to reset or restart the hard drive to get it to take more files:mad: This seems like a pain in the ass

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Originally Posted by dave1976

I am unclear why I would have to reset or restart the hard drive to get it to take more files:mad: This seems like a pain in the ass

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Well, that part seems odd. Not much online for answers either from what I can see...

Ok.....

I returned the world book and got another one. I came home plugged it in and didnt even install the software. It came up as a networked drive and I opened my photos and selected all and moved them in one shot. It was a little over 5 gig and it took about 15 minutes. I am doing the laptop right now. Its doing the moved wirelessly and its taken about 25 minutes to move a little over 5 gig. No rights problems or anything.

Best buy was trying to sell there for 319 dollars while circuit city was selling theres for 229 dollars so with tax it was 241 dollars, best buy price matched and I got it there. Compared to buying an external hard drive that was usb and 500 gig for 180 dollars I would say this worked out quite well.

I agree that the ratings seem a bit low but for what I am doing with it I think it will be fine. I wish I would have returned it when I suspected something was wrong with it instead of trying to make it work. It would have saved me lots of hours of flustration. LOL Thanks for all your help Dave.

So it sounds like the installation software might have been a factor? I know a few of the posts mentioned that. Glad it's working anyway!

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Originally Posted by brdad

So it sounds like the installation software might have been a factor? I know a few of the posts mentioned that. Glad it's working anyway!

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Yesterday I uninstalled all the software and started with a clean slate and it still didnt work. I am beginning to think it was just defective. The software that came with it was for accessing it from a remote computer.

I download my pictures to a folder on my desk top and when it gets to a certain size then I burn to a DVD. My new Pentax camera automatically puts the pictures in folders by date so when I down load to my computer I just change the date around to 2008_Month Day (with a few words to indicate what is in the folders like Vac pics, Hike pics etc) so that the folders are in order by year and month. I always burn two DVD's and mark one backup and place it in a different place for safe keeping. The DVDs that I use are in little "notebooks" that Walmart sells and I mark the year on them...easy to find pictures!

To bad you won't let your Mom have a computer. An elderly friend of mine bought her first computer two years ago at the age of 84 and she really has enjoyed it and has had no trouble learning her way around the computer.

Mom can have a pc if she wants to make the investment but I think that she would be disappointed with all the other expenses that go along with it. Software, internet access and maintance are not a cheap thing and for what she thinks she would use it for just doesnt warrant the expenase.

You can get a bran new Dell with flat screen and everything your mother would need for $489 delivered to her door. Now that cheap. How much money has you mother spent on you in your 32 years you have been around.

The only thing you would have to add to this package is speakers, also a modem if dailup is going to be used.

Inspiron 530= $489
Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2180 (1MB, 2.00GHz, 800FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1
17 inch SE178WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
No Floppy Drive Included
No Modem Option
Mouse included with Keyboard purchase
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Windows Vista™ Basic
No Entertainment software pre-installedCompatibility Alert
Recalculating Price

Software & Accessories
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days
Microsoft Works 9.0

I will never buy another Dell. They ripped me off out of a rebate ("lost" it and then wouldn't accept the photocopy of the UPC code and accompanyng paperwork). :mad: I have purchased 3 laptops since Dell kept their $250 rebate and let them know that I didn't even consider their product in my buying decision. Made me feel better :D

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Originally Posted by pjpreb

I will never buy another Dell. They ripped me off out of a rebate ("lost" it and then wouldn't accept the photocopy of the UPC code and accompanyng paperwork). :mad: I have purchased 3 laptops since Dell kept their $250 rebate and let them know that I didn't even consider their product in my buying decision. Made me feel better :D

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Hmmm and to think I was thing about buying a Dell laptop. So what did you go with PJ?

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Originally Posted by pjpreb

I will never buy another Dell. They ripped me off out of a rebate ("lost" it and then wouldn't accept the photocopy of the UPC code and accompanyng paperwork). :mad: I have purchased 3 laptops since Dell kept their $250 rebate and let them know that I didn't even consider their product in my buying decision. Made me feel better :D

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There used to be a consumer group in Bangor called COMBAT - they have since changed their name and I can't remember for the life of me the new name. But, they would go after things like this for folks - and they were Bulldogs! at it! As a matter of fact, I don't know how long it has been but they might even take it on now.

I have a Dell and have had good luck (this was after 3 other laptops which did not survive my abuse so well). Just hate paying the sales tax now that companies sell them here in Maine LOL.

Regardless of the company you can always get a lemon.:eek:

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with Dell PJ. I own four Dell's and have not had any problems with any of them. As of right now if I were to need another one I would go with Dell again. i have found that all my Dell's have been very reliable and dependable and affordable.

I have never had a problem with the Dell either. It has been a very reliable machine. My issue was with the cheapskates not honoring their rebate. I have bought 3 laptops from lenovo (IBM) and have been very satisfied with their product, price and service and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again.