I am thinking it is quite fitting to talk about photo CDs and DVDs at this time of year because they truly are best used as Christmas ornaments. Last week, one of our clients gave us over twenty photo discs dated from 2004 and 2005.
Our rule about photo disks: get the photos saved onto your computer and backed up in two locations. Discs are no place to store photos for long term saving. Here’s an example of why we want you to get your photos off discs as soon as possible. Click on the photo to see what it sounds like when your computer can’t read a DVD. (Warning – real life scenario with one of the 2004 CDs. . . don’t cry!) Listen to the cachunk cachunk sound!
The clicking sounds represent your computer attempting to read the DVD. If your CD/DVD player isn’t reading the disc, you can try it out on another computer with a disc drive. After four computers and CD/DVD drives, I did finally get the photos off the DVD. However, this was frustrating and slow. Ugh . . . save yourself some future anxiety and anger by setting time to copy all of the photos off your discs.
Moral of this story – Copy the photos off your discs to your computer’s Pictures folder and then back up the files in two locations. Back-up options can include external hard drives, one in the house and one outside the house.
Need help with your photos, check out our book . . .
A Simple Guide to Saving Your Family Photos – Available on Amazon.com