An idiots guide to storing photos onto DVD please?

[MrsGJones]

Am a complete idiot and a little bit scared when it comes to technology but I am wanting to copy my photos from the laptop onto DVD. Am doing this to hopefully release some file space and to have another copy of our hundreds of photos. Am also copying them to an external hard drive. What type of DVD do I buy? So many to choose from! Will probably want to view the photos from the DVDs on our DVD player or another laptop/computer. Thank you!

Bump

There are rewritable (more costly than standard) and write-once type DVDs.

Just to add confusion there are different types, marked as DVD+R and DVD-R.

To further add confusion, there are some which are Dual Layer (a second layer holds separate data, so the total capacity is increased).

There's a Wikipedia article *> here

First I'd ask - how much data do you wish to store ?

Remember each DVD can store around 4.5 GB but if you groups photos and music into 4 GB chunks, it will give you an idea of how many DVDs you might need.

Once you know how many you can see whether it is worth seeking some online supplier for DVDs in bulk (to save cash) as packs of 10 in supermarkets or PC World would work out far more costly, in my view.

Next, you need to know what your laptop's drive is suitable for using (the DVD+R or DVD-R difference) and then test out the drive... Poundland or a supermarket might do a pack of 4 DVDs for a quid or three, so you can play experiment without having spend 25 quid on 100 of the wrong DVDs...

I (or others) can assist, but finding out the specification of your exact model of laptop, and/or checking what the make and model of the drive, will help.

Right, that's a start... Might be worth searching for past threads about "reducing duplicates" because having two or more copies of the same photo seems a regular problem...

Thanks for that. I'll definitely buy both types and give them a try. Tonight's job is to get rid of duplicates and any unwanted photos. Thanks for the link too.

These days 32 gb memory sticks can be had for about £23 (Amazon.co.uk). I have my personal stuff ie photos and important docs on such a stick as well as on a 500gb external disk as back up to the back up :)

If you do decide you need a larger pack of discs I can recommend UKDVDR for great prices and great service. I've had loads of stuff from them and they are always the cheapest for what I've wanted and deliver very quickly.

May I also add a word of caution. Especially if you buy the cheaper discs.

DVD-R's fade over time and this can cause problems in the future. I would never recommend storing photos on DVD's only for long term. As a backup to your main disk yes....as the only copy....no way.