Computer back up question

[Ken448 10+ year member]

I have an Ext HD that I keep all out kids pix on (7 years worth, and the wife is a scrapbooker so theres a TON) I really need to back them up. Is there a way to dump them onto a set of CD's and not have to go through and set up the file sizes. IE can I just keep inserting new disks when the last is full, and not have to compile 20 separate 800mb files??

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[Lugnutz 10+ year member]

Don't you have a DVD burner? Seems like it would be easier to burn them to DVD's vs. CD's. How much stuff do you have? Why not share pics of said wife?

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

no dvd burner.. Havent entered the 21st century in computing yet.., and theres about 16 gig that need to be backed up.. No thank on wife pix //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[Lugnutz 10+ year member]

I suppose you could get some 8 gig thumb drives.

 

[orangecounty1 10+ year member]

they're on an external HDD, why are you backing them up?

 

[Lugnutz 10+ year member]

I guess he is backing the external HDD

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

I'm not understanding that if they are on an external hard drive why you need to back them up.

Easiest way is to go to Microcenter if one is near you and buy a 30 dollar dvd burner and a 10 dollar 50 pack of dvds. 16 gigs of pix is roughly 4 discs. Otherwise, burn them all to CD and store them away. You could also buy a bigger external hard drive and copy them to both and never use the old external. Or you could buy a 32 gig flash drive, copy all the pix to that and stash it somewhere. There are many options, you just have to come off some money.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

To answer your question OP, simply buy a DVD burner and some media. You will spend about $25 on the drive and as little as $5 on some discs. For $30, I would call that a cheap fix. DVD media if stored correctly should hold your data for at least 100 years. Your HDD should fail within 5 years. Thumbdrives will fail in about 10 years.

Let me put it to you this way. If I stole your HDD and was holding it for ransom and my price was $30, would you pay me for it?

There is your answer.

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

because if my Ext HD failed Id be out thousands of pix of my children.. Kind of important things to keep around....

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

how much space do DVD's hold?

edit: nvm

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

$22 DRIVE

$7 MEDIA

That will give you the ability to back up ~25GB of data for about $30. That is about a $1 a GB. And it is not going to fail in time like a HDD or thumbdrive.

 

[orangecounty1 10+ year member]

buy a 17 dollar drive from newegg or something..

lol