Do you download your photos on your computer or on a security device regularly? If the answer is no, it is good to start doing because there is nothing worse than losing photos that we consider important. This also applies to the photos we take with our cameras. Save your photos always.

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What is the best way to store digital photos?

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If you have a lot of questions when looking for storage solutions for your photos, I'll give you some tips. You will decide the best option to meet your needs, taking into account how much you want to spend and the amount of photos you have. The more capacity the device has, the more expensive it will be. But I am sure that it would be much sadder and more expensive not to be able to recover your photos.

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Pen drive

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One of the most common ways to store and transport image files is the thumb drive, a compact and portable device that can be taken anywhere. Its storage capacity is variable, and models from 2 to 256 GB can be found but, despite being the cheapest option, this device is fragile and susceptible to virus attacks. It tends to have more read errors or corrupt files. Therefore, it is not the most suitable for storage, being safer only to transport files from one machine to another.

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SD (Secure Digital) cards

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SD (Secure Digital) memory cards are very similar to pen drives. The difference is that they are connected to the devices through specific ports and not via the USB port. Most digital cameras already come with a memory card included to store the images and, later, to download them to the computer. In addition, not all computers, whether desktop or notebook, have specific SD card slots, requiring the purchase of a USB adapter.

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A cloud

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A practice that has been widely used by many people is to store images online in services known as clouds. The files are stored on an online server, and can be accessed and managed by the user at any time through various devices (including cell phones and tablets), as long as they are connected to the Internet. There are several servers that offer free plans with reasonable storage capacity, such as Google Photos, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud among others.

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If you don't have a large volume of images to store, this is a good option, and you can always hire a paid plan if the need arises. The ideal is to use the cloud as a backup, a backup that you can access when you are away from your main device, but without dispensing with the physical copy.

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Internal HD (Hard Drive)

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A tip that is always worthwhile for those who like photography is to increase the storage capacity of the computer itself. This can be done with the purchase of a powerful hard drive, which will guarantee the security of your files and a better performance of the machine.

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External HD (Hard Drive)

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An external hard drive is a portable hard drive. This is a device suitable for safe backup of your files, since it has large storage capacity and can be connected to other devices quite easily due to its USB connection. The price of this device varies depending on its internal capacity that can be between 200 GB and 8 TB, but in general it is quite accessible.

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However, despite the security and portability, it is not recommended to keep your files exclusively on the external HD, as this device is very delicate and does not support drops or "bumps". That is, a simple accident can cause you to lose all your photos.

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SSD (Solid State Drive)

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It is a new storage proposal that has many advantages. SSDs do not suffer from possible mechanical failures and are unsurpassed in terms of speed. The worst SSD you find will be at least three times faster than a good quality hard drive. They have a very low energy consumption, are small and light. As disadvantages, SSDs are much more expensive than other devices and the storage capacity is still not very large.

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Tips: in addition to purchasing a reliable and efficient storage device, there are other precautions that you must take to ensure the security of your records - after all, when it comes to digital devices, no one is free from eventual failure or damage.

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• Keep at least three copies of your files on different storage devices (on your computer, on your external hard drive and in the cloud, for example). Thus, if any of the copies is lost you will have the other saved.

• Backup your photos frequently. At least once a month or according to your need.

• Transfer the photos from your computer to one of the backup copies.

• Migrate your backup from time to time.

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Keep in mind that all storage media has a useful life and can simply stop working at any time. Therefore, it is ideal to renew these devices at least every three years or as needed.

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