help, digital storage what do you do?

[Faithnveggies]

I need to store digital photos, mostly, but maybe music too. I don't want to transfer 10 years worth of photos to my laptop. I'd like them all to be in one place where I can access them to sort, eventually. I'd like them to be safe and/ or have back up. I'd like to be able to access them from my laptop.
Big memory stick? Some kind of external hard drive? Cloud?
My dad talked me into using DVDs but I hate it...5 DVDs labeled "pictures ##megabyte" but I do need to get them off of an otherwise unused desktop computer asap.
Thanks in advance

 

[JeanneMarie]

I love the age of digital photography because it allows me to take so many photos relatively inexpensively. I remember well the days of 35mm film, developing, and printing. Back then, I used to take 3 or 4 rolls of film on a big occasion. Now it's not uncommon for me to go on a trip, or photograph an event, and end up with 500+ photos. So, storage is an issue for me as well.

When digital photography started, I used to make CDs of all my photos. As my photo numbers increased, I got behind in transferring them until I got to the point it would take me a year to get them all on CDs. Not gonna happen.

So, what I do now (and some of this may only help you from this point forward) is never delete them off the memory card. Since memory cards can hold thousands of pictures, I usually only have to replace the card a couple of times a year. I have a big drawer full of memory cards with photos on them. However, that isn't an ideal method to save them long term, but it serves as one form of back up for me.

I also save them on my laptop. That's still not ideal because laptops can crash, be lost, etc. The best thing I do is subscribe to Mozy online back up service. My laptop (with all my photos) is backed up every single day. All my photos are at Mozy.com if I need them.

The last thing I do is use an external hard drive to back up my photos. I do it about once every 6 months. I just copy my pictures to the hard drive and it doesn't take too long.

HTH! Good luck!

 

[Faithnveggies]

Thank you for your response! My quick and dirty solution was a memory stick 16 gb for around 12 dollars, I just transferred all I needed to the stick and will manage from there. I think cloud might be the way to go eventually.