How to Back Up Or Archive Your Digital Photos

Digital photography is a great way to capture images of your life and the world. But just like traditional film photography, you need to save your work. Eventually your camera or memory card will be full. The following method will tell you how to easily archive and back up your digital images.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Set up and name a folder on your computer where all your pictures will be stored. Example: My Pictures. Within that folder, create a new folder with the year. Example: "2008". Within that folder, create a folder for the month that you are backing up. For example, for January 2008, name the folder "01-2008".

2. Insert your camera's memory card or transfer cable into your computer. Then move the pictures into your destination folder. For example, transfer all the pictures taken in January 2008 into the "01-2008" folder. Perform this for all the months that you have images recorded.

3. Double check to be sure that all your pictures have transferred. Then you can delete them from your camera's memory card and you are ready to take new pictures. Also be sure to create a second back-up of your photos, for example on a second hard drive or on writable CD or DVD disks.

Tips & Warnings

• This method will give you a well-organized and easily understandble tabulation of your digital pictures.
• Do this at the end of each month and you'll never get too far behind.
• Save disk space (and create some sanity in your computer!) by deleting unneeded pictures before even transferring the into your computer
• Don't bother renaming the photos, it will only delay from getting the real task finished.
• If you need to modify (ie, crop or resize) a photo, make a COPY and then modify the copy. That way you always have the original to work with
• Enjoy your digital photography!