Hi Norma I'm a dedicated Dotto's Cafe fan (Sat AM twice and Sun AM in southern Ontario) and tape his tv programs. I'm not a techie but have learned a lot through that program and the nice thing about taping it is that if he is covering a subject not pertinent to my needs, then I can fast forward to the next part. One thing he has stated repeatedly is that with good quality photo paper and ink, the longevity of photos home printed is even better than store printed photos. With the ever changing tech needs, I'm opting to hard copy all my photos as well as store them on CD - which will be recopied every 2 years now. My feelings are that if a photo is worthy of saving, it's also worthy of printing. Cheerio Sue ----- Original Message ----- From: "nhaines" <matrix243@sympatico.ca> To: "Sue V" <genealgal2@execulink.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 11:32 AM Subject: Re: [Grey Co.] life expectancy of your back-up files You know Sue, things just get more complicated, don't they? Now that you've mentioned this, and I just got a new digital camera for Christmas, I'm wondering about the photos printed on the home printers. I lean toward "hard copies" of things, but what happens down the line when there isn't the same technology to view photos? What if all your photos are stored on disks, what good are they 50 yrs. from now? What about the ink that's used in the home printers? Is it the same process as used in the photo labs? Is one better than the other? I'm sure we all have some old photos from the 1800's that are still in wonderful condition. Wonder if the new technology will still hold up? Just thinkin' ....... Norma. Sue V wrote: >Like most of you, whether it is a family photo album or precious family >tree >research, I back up, back up, back up. Now I'm going to add another >feature >to my back-ups - a date of purchase written right on the CD and an annual >reminder on the calendar to check for reburning needs. Why? CD life is 2 >to 5 years according to folks more knowledgeable than I..... > >>From >http://computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,107607,00.html > >"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span >of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke >said in an interview this week. "There are a few things you can do to >extend >the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but >not a whole lot more." > >The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for >burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a >layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation >process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming >unreadable to the laser beam. > >"Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life >span of around two years," Gerecke said. "Some of the better-quality discs >offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years." > >Check out the website for the more complete article. (Thanks to source >Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter) > >Cheerio >Sue Visser > > > >============================== >Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the >last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: >http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > > > __________ NOD32 1.1376 (20060123) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com __________ NOD32 1.1376 (20060123) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com