So, finally we come to the question we have all come together to solve. The big million dollar question... "what are my options for storing my digital photography?" Well, the answer has its good and bad points and I'll attempt so answer them in depth without taking up too much of your valuable free time. I know we all would rather be outside shooting pictures than reading technical jargon about what we love to do so as usual, I'll try to keep it short and sweet whenever possible.

The goal of this series isn't to delve into every possible option available, but to focus on the most popular and reliable options and to point out the faults that some of these popular options don't usually like to spell out in their manuals.

First, the good side is that thankfully there are many, many options. Some are good and some are really poor and the options are improving on a daily basis. The options range from storing your photos right on your computer hard drive to storing them in a fireproof facility somewhere across the country or around the world. Your chosen media might be as familiar as CD (compact disc) and DVD (digital video disc) or removable cartridges, tapes, optical storage, internal or external hard drives and even remote storage locations. This list describes some of the most popular solutions and actually it only touches the surface.

Now, before we actually start investigating actual storage media options, lets start our exploration with a more immediate question... "How do I know my media will stand the test of time?" I really hate to keep delaying the discussion of the actual storage options but to make the best choice we need to fully understand all the important elements that make up a good storage solution. Hang with me and hopefully we'll all learn something.

How do I know that my media will stand the test of time?

This is the million dollar question. The big kahunah. How do we know that our storage media will stand the test of time? Well, the quick answer is that "we don't". That's the question that plagues us because there's no perfect solution yet. If there was, you wouldn't be reading this in the first place. In the past you could store your negatives in acid-free sleeves, shove them in a dark place, in low humidity storage or a bank vault and you could be pretty certain that when you went back 20 years later your negatives would be preserved and ready to make new prints.

Today, we're not certain that our digital photos will even last a year or two on todays media. Heck, they might not even make it through the transfer if we're not careful. For this reason alone, I want to try and provide reasonably sound advice on archiving your digital photos. This series and the advice contained within is to be used as a guide and not the end all answer to photo archival solutions. There simply isn't a perfect solution yet. Hopefully by reading through the next few chapters you'll have a pretty solid understanding of your options, their advantages and their limitations. Most importantly, I'd like to offer advice and draw on my personal experiences so you can use this information as a starting point to make your own decisions and to find out what works for you. Once you've gained a firm understanding regarding your options you'll be much better off when you decide on your back-up, archiving and storage solution. Plus, you'll know what works best within your schedule, budget and personal needs.