What discs do I need to store photo's please - transferring from laptop?

[MaggieW]

I want to get photo's developed and need to transfer them from laptop onto a disc - I thought I had the right discs but they are DVD ones and won't work. What should I be using please?

Also, If I then wanted to back my pictures up onto a memory stick what size memory would I need for approx 1000 photo's? TIA.

"What should I be using please?"

That depends on your computer, there's no generic answer as different computers have different capabilities in terms of what discs they can write to.

If you're taking the photos into a shop the best bet might be to use a memory stick.

However if you do need to use a disc then probably the safest best is to buy some CR-R discs as they're probably the most widely supported thing.

This sort of thing: www.amazon.co.uk/TDK-CDR-80-25pc-Cakebox-T18767/dp/B00063WUWW/

It's quite possible that your computer supports discs that can hold a lot more and/or can be erased and reused, but without knowing more I wouldn't like to guess.

"f I then wanted to back my pictures up onto a memory stick what size memory would I need for approx 1000 photo's"

Again more information is needed, the answer depends on how big your photos are.

If you say what sort of Operating System you use (Windows XP, Windows 7, Mac OS X, etc. etc.) then someone will be able to tell you how to find out how much space your photos need.

Thanks BP. It's a Dell laptop and we use Vista. Not sure how I tell how big my photo's are, but I suspect they're big, as we have used the camera on the setting it came on and haven't altered it. Can the many that are stored on the laptop be reduced in size once they're on there or is the size determined by the camera when the pic is taken? Thanks again.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that holds your photos.

Then right click on that folder and select properties, it should give you the size of the entire folder.

Yes you can reduce the size of the photos on your computer, but I'd really recommend against that. My rule of thumb is to keep the images as big as possible, that means that if I ever want to crop or somehow edit them the computer has as much detail as possible to work with and can do the best job it can. Disk space is pretty cheap these days and it's well worth paying for it to keep your photos in the best condition possible.

"It's a Dell laptop and we use Vista"

Someone would need to know the exact model before they could tell you which sort of discs you could use. As said CD-Rs would probably be the safest bet as they're the lowest common denominator for writeable discs, however it's possible that you don't have a drive that can write to discs at all....