The Best Ways To Back Up Your Old Photos and Videos
Digging through your collection of vintage photos and videos can feel exciting. You get to resurface old memories of days long past, and you get to experience old stories. Whether you have vintage videos or photos stored away in your closet or had gifted them from your grandparents, revisiting the past is always a wonderful experience.
However, old photos and videos can get worn down, no thanks to time itself. They get worn out, torn up, dirty, and even destroyed in some cases. As a result, your vintage media will long outlive their expected life. However, finding the best ways to back up your old photos and videos are plentiful and more accessible than you'd think.
Get Your Photos Scanned
While preserving vintage photos and videos in your closet is a good option, it can further the wear of your collection. Interaction from dust, debris, and other external factors is a potential risk for damages. So, a great option is to have your vintage photos scanned digitally to preserve their quality. Consider a digitization studio like DiJiFi that can convert all of your photo media, including prints, slides and negatives of all formats, into digital files. Their expert technicians will preserve them to allow you to revisit these precious memories and to share them with generations to follow.
Use a Cloud
If you know technology, using a cloud service is a massive benefit for storing old media. When you upload your vintage photos onto a computer or smart device, you can send them to the Cloud for safekeeping. There are many options to choose from, ranging from small fees to free, depending on what you go with.
Luckily, many smartphones come with a cloud storage option that offers about a gigabyte of storage. If you don't have a smartphone, you can use the cloud on your desktop computer instead. You want to make sure you can save files in a folder on internal or external storage that's ready to sync up to the cloud with easy access.
Find a Photo Backup Website
While the cloud is a great option, one of the best ways to back up your old photos and videos is using a backup website or library. The concept is straightforward: a standard photo-storing website offers roughly a thousand pictures for free. If you wish to keep more, you can subscribe and pay a small monthly fee that can include editing features and additional storage.
It's a great way to store your recently uploaded vintage photos and videos in a safe location without the risk of quality and longevity. It also offers protective measures to prevent accidental removal, and you can even create different collages and categories for designated folders.
Store Them on Your Computer
Preserving your vintage photographs and videos is as simple as storing them on your computer. Computers provide an internal hard drive that is simple and easy to use. Since computer storage is readily accessible, it makes the uploading process quick. You can simply plug in whichever uploading device you choose and have your media placed onto your computer in a matter of minutes.
However, make sure you have an additional uploading storage format prepared just in case. In some instances, computers can crash or fail, compromising the photographs and videos you store. So, make sure your computer is up to date, protected against viruses and foreign files, and use additional storage options.
Use an External Hard Drive
Sometimes your computer or phone might not have enough space to allow more files on their hard drives. So, a great option is to upload your photographs and videos to an external hard drive. It's affordable, pocket-friendly, and simple, all while having travel abilities. It comes offered with USB flash drives and external hard drives, commonly used for cheaper and quicker options.
However, make sure you stay careful with copying your photos to an external hard drive. You don’t want to disconnect in the middle of an upload, as it can cause file corruption. Otherwise, an external hard drive will do you a world of good.
Create Hard Copies
Sometimes the best option for preserving your vintage photographs is by creating hard copies. It's a great way to have a backup version of your pictures if your digital copies get lost, destroyed, or compromised.
You can either do it at home or through a professional photo printing service for a small fee. From there, you can store the newly printed photos in a safe place while providing an additional option for photo preservation.
Use a Digitizing Service
You can quickly transfer your videos to digital format through a professional digital service. The purpose of the video to digital transfer services is to allow photographs and videos to be transferred onto discs and drives.
At an affordable price, photographs and videos can get digitally archived for modern devices and stored wherever suits your preferences. Depending on your videos, most digital transfer services can work with VHS, DVDs, and various others.
Use Photo Recovery Software
If you have any digitally transferred photos, you're at risk of potentially losing them due to system crashes or shutdowns. So, you must update your computer system and maintain the longevity of your computer. However, sometimes the situation is unavoidable, and your computer has completely gone dead, leaving you without your precious photos and videos.
Thankfully, using photo recovery software helps with finding lost files. Most people fall victim to photo loss, so it's a great backup system to have. The photo recovery software will help you recover your favorite photos without having to break a sweat. So, before you find backup software, make sure you have extra copies of your favorite vintage photos.
At the end of the day, your photographs and videos of times long past stay close and precious to your heart. That's why we at DiJiFi can help you preserve every memory you have in your family archive. We take your vintage photographs and videos, then transfer them onto an external hard drive of your choosing, and we can print your photos as well! If you have any questions, please reach out to us today.
