Comments on: Are Your Memories at Risk? The Best Way to Store Digital Photos Forever

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 07:48:47 +0000

By the looks of it, an M Disc is basically a Bluray disk. While they “may” last up to a 1000 years, an optical disc will always suffer the same fate as any regular optical disc (DVD/Bluray) in that they’re still susceptible to scratches. So you only have to accidently drop it, scratch it and you’ve lost memories as well.

Personally, I still think having multiple backups is the answer – so have a backup of your backup (whether that be cloud storage or a couple of HDD). As for HDD not lasting that long, well that depends on how they’re treated. Every year HDD’s get cheaper and larger by the terabyte. Changing your HDD every 5 years or so as it starts to get full shouldn’t cost the earth either.

My backup solution is a home server that keeps everything on it, arranged in a RAID configuration (so if a disk starts to fail, it can be swapped out and rebuilt). Failing that I have a total meltdown when this is happening, there’s also another stack of disks (JBOD) to backup the server at regular intervals. So again, if one of these disks dies, I don’t loose everything, only whats on that particular drive. And photos are also backed up on a third drive, just to be sure.

By: Stefanie Garcia

Stefanie Garcia — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 03:11:03 +0000

Thanks for sharing! As a photographer I know how vital it is to store photos. I enjoy reading other peoples new ideas.

By: Dayana Pears

Dayana Pears — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 10:34:07 +0000

Great article and nice tips! I could just add that one more useful tip. To save on space no matter where you are going to make a storage of your photos, you should use this: http://www.winzip.com/win/en/features/photo-sharing.html to compress them to save on valuable space

By: Katelyn Fagan

Katelyn Fagan — Mon, 08 May 2017 13:06:55 +0000

In reply to Billy Bob Greyback. 1) All it takes to burn on one of these discs is a bluray burner that is compatible with burning on M-Discs (and many are). They aren't very expensive. 2) A simple bluray or DVD player will read the disc just fine. And while technology is constantly changing, we still have microphish readers, tape players, and other such old reading devices, often specifically to access old information, for archival and history purposes. Will that be the case in 100 years? I don't know. But, perhaps there will be a different, better method created in 50 years where all of these discs can then be stored in that way.

By: Billy Bob Greyback

Billy Bob Greyback — Thu, 04 May 2017 18:34:52 +0000

M-disc sounds like a great idea. Can’t help but wonder what aliens will think of all the history of digital imagery when they enjoy our photos and videos over coffee.
My concern are 2; “What does it take to burn onto these discs?” And “What does it take to read these disc now, and in the future”? What reason is there to believe anyone will be motivated to continue makeing the hardware and software required to access the digits on M-discs in 10 or 25 years, much less when your grandkids want to see it?”

By: Mary Fran

Mary Fran — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 01:43:22 +0000

I ALWAYS print my pictures. I have never trusted digital. I want a hard copy that I can hold in my hands. I don’t want everything to be on a computer. Although I do burn discs of pictures, I have never trusted them either. PRINTS. PRINTS. PRINTS. Call me old fashioned.

By: Katelyn Fagan

Katelyn Fagan — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:39:01 +0000

In reply to Hezzi-D. We almost never print out pictures... Always on that "to do list."

By: Hezzi-D

Hezzi-D — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:37:23 +0000

Hmm.. That’s interesting. I’m always worried my photos will be lost. I only print out a few a year now, which is sad. I used to love looking at photos, now they are just on my computer. I do need to back them up though!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 23:41:34 +0000

This sounds really great. I actually have a triple back up of my stuff, the cloud and 2 different hard drives. Oh, maybe 4 because I have a google storage thing too. I will check this out.

By: Montserrat

Montserrat — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:07:33 +0000

Oh man, I am so bad at backing up my photos! I do have an external hardrive dedicated to just photos but it is over 8 years old. Thankfully it still works! I better get crack-a-lacking on finally printing off the photos books I have been trying to make with those past photos.

I’ve never heard of the M-Disc. I’ll definitely be checking it out. Thanks!

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 05:20:35 +0000

I almost learned the hard way how important it is to back up my photos. We switched computers and not everything was transferred over like we’d thought. The old computer is no longer with us, and I panicked when I couldn’t find some precious photos. I was literally sick to my stomach. Thankfully I had backed up some of them on an external drive. Thankfully it still worked. But I need a better option. This may be it. Thanks for sharing this great product with us!

By: Lara

Lara — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 01:35:03 +0000

Sounds like a really cool solution! I have just been fighting with one of our computers today because the USB port stopped working and I couldn’t access my external hard drive. I finally fixed it, but it is true that it isn’t going to last much longer limping along the way it is! I will have to look into the M-disc. Thanks for the coupon code!