correctmyphotos

Where do you put your digital photos when you download them to your computer?
A couple of weeks ago I posted and article on Downloading Photos to Your Computer. In the article I suggested using Windows Explorer to download the photos from the camera or memory chip (via a card reader) and putting them into the My Pictures (XP) or Pictures (Vista) folder. If you have sufficient hard drive capacity that is a good place to put them. However, you should also create a backup copy of the photo files other than on the C drive on your computer. In fact, I have gotten into the habit of downloading the photos to my external hard drive and not to my C drive. There are two reasons for doing this. One, is that my main drive is getting full and the second is that I make sure I create a backup or archive copy of the photos external to my computer.  When I go to edit the photos I will either edit them directly on the external drive or copy the photos to the Pictures folder on the C-drive.

Should you archive or create a backup file of the photos?
The answer to this question should be obvious–absolutely! But, how many people actually do that? When I ask my friends if they archive or create a backup of their photos, they  generally look at me with a blank stare. These are, of course, the same people who don’t back up their computer or back up files on their working C-drive. Think I am kidding? We get calls and emails from customers all the time that either did not backup their software file or backed them up on the same hard drive that just crashed. Duh!! (continue reading…)