What type of storage device should I use?
I have an old computer that we have not used in years but still have in our house because it has pictures and other things on it that I don't want to lose. I am sick of looking at it and want to store the information that is on it and get rid of it. I have never done this before so I am looking for help in doing this. Any ideas?
Hi!
That depends on your budget and if you plan to continue adding to the pictures and other things in the years to come.
(1) The cheapest solution is to store your pictures/treasured files on DVD. It is also safer than the others since your data is stored on a reliable medium offline so crashing hard drives, attached storage devices, and even on-line storage solutions risk attacks. However, it may seem not as accessible as other methods since you need to find the specific disc and physically open it.
(2) External Hard drive is an attractive option especially now that prices are really low for big volume drives: less than $100 US for 2 TB and slightly over that for 3 TB of storage. However, since hard drives do fail at some point you should also consider a back-up process like to DVD or a home server/attached network storage solution (not particularly cheap)
(3) Home Server or Attached Network Storage solution. A home server solution is around $500 US and the Attached Network Storage is around $300-500 US. Prices continually drop so check out the prices for all your options before making a final choice, I use a Home Server because it does more than automatically back-up all your hard drives on multiple computers. It also makes all my photos, movies, videos, and files accessible to all my PCs/Laptops from one location. It also streams these files to my HDTV in the living room (requires a wireless router and a streaming compatible HDTV or another device to receive the routers stream like a media extender, Apple TV, or other device.
the Attached Network Storage device will automatically backup your hard disks and some may have other features.
(4) Backup in the cloud (On-line backup sites). The rates for these are variable depending on the provider and size of space allocated to your backups. There are free sites also although the free ones are usually small and non-expandable, Yahoo and Live! have free on-line storage/sharing programs but are really small. Google! On-line Backup for a list of a huge number of options here.
While you decide on the most affordable and reliable solution for you particular needs and cost, I would recommend using the (usually) included CD or DVD recorder in your old computer to back up what you have onto CD or DVD. Blank Discs can be dirt cheap if you Google it. As many of us know, hard drives are apt to crashing without warning and then it is usually too late to get them back or too costly to possible have them recovered from the failed device. Hope this helps you!