I'm interested in know what the best way to store my pictures is.  I currently have around 3,000 in my pc now and it has 2 gb of memory.  I take my pics in jpeg at 10 megapixels and I'm unable to put them all on a disk b/c the disk won't hold enough.  I know there are cyber programs that store pics but I'm not comfortable with that.  I was thinking external hard drive? Is this the best way?  How much will it hold?  Please give me your thoughts.

Julie 

I shoot weddings and in a wedding I will have about 2 to 3  gb of photos per wedding. The first thing I do is burn them to DVD as a safe hard copy of the photos and stork them in a air tight fire safe box. Then I copy the photos to a USB external Hard Drive and I keep my working photos there for about one year. After I am done with them, then I achieve the photos from my Hard Drive to the safe and delete the photos from my external Hard Drive. Sense I started this system I have yet to lose any photos due to hard drive failure or a natural disaster.

Here is what you would need:

1. You can buy a USB external DVD burner drive and burn them on DVD cost about $100.00 give or take.

2. You can buy a USB external Hard drive and save your photos there cost from $100.00 to $400.00 be pending on size of Hard Drive.

Multiple storage methods are best. Make a DVD/CD of your files and store in a safe place. Also make a copy of the photos to an external hard disk, but only turn on that external hard disk when you need it; DO NOT leave it running all day long. Heat is the enemy of hard disks, and most external drives are not designed to reduce heat buildup.

My process.  I do this for each session and each wedding.

-Burn RAW files to DVD (DVD holds a LOT more than a CD)

-Back up RAW files to external hard drive

-Process them

-Burn JPGS & small JPGS to DVD (or CD, if they will fit)

-Use multiple DVD/CD's if necessary

-Back up JPGS to external hard drive

-For most weddings, I try to make two copies of each, and put one in my fire-proof safe, and another in the client's hard copy file

-Delete RAW files from my hard drive

-I usually keep the JPGS on my hard drive until after the initial order, and then delete those

By the end of it, everything is on at minimum an external hard drive and one set of DVD/CD's.

As for buying external hard drives, I get mine at Staples when they are on sale.  Last week they had a 500gb one for under $100.

Here are a few posts about this topic for you:

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/16392/151865.aspx#151865

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/4788/38841.aspx#38841

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/30037/268116.aspx#268116

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/41522/374361.aspx#374361

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/26775/237972.aspx#237972

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/40861/368150.aspx#368150

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/60784/540882.aspx#540882

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/29799/267376.aspx#267376

http://community.mpix.com/forums/p/46917/421735.aspx#421735

500 gb That sounds huge!  I love the idea of that.