One way to keep your spouse happy...

... and keep you out of the doghouse:  Do not ever lose any wedding photos; photos of children and family; or any home videos of your kids - even if it is just an impromptu recording on your mobile phone!  It does not matter if your computer dies; or if you accidentally deleted them; or any other reason.

Today, we do not see as many nice photo albums on the coffee table; or a deck of tapes and/or DVDs of all those home videos lying around.  Instead, we see an increased presence of digital photos on a computer, iPad, cell phone; or videos on those same devices.

In the past, there were fairly easy ways to make sure these things were around for our grandchildren; or at least 10 years down the road.  For example, it was a family fun project to arrange all those physical pictures in any number of photo album books - and those could last up to a century or more!    We could turn to video services to put our home videos onto "golden masters" for a price.  Photo negatives tend to last a very long time, so that even if the photos were lost, it was easy to have them re-developed.

With our increased reliance on digital photos and videos on a myriad of devices, there are many more questions surrounding how long we can preserve them.  It is assumed that because it is digital, and on a computing device, that it will last forever with full fidelity.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  There are many factors that can shorten the life of a digital photo; or those home videos.  Here  are some of the factors:

• Computer / laptop failures
• Damaged discs and hard drives
• Failed external hard drives and USB sticks
• Old CDs and DVDs
• Accidental mismanagement of digital files
• Lost memory cards
• Losing possession of digital cameras or camcorders
• Mismanaged digital file library

With all these things that can cause us to lose our precious memories; it becomes especially important to be aware of these issues; and do what can be done to preserve them.  Can you imagine what would happen if you were to ever lose a family photo album; or those home videos?  I plan to write an article that will expand on this subject and give more information, options, and resources you can take advantage of to deal with this issue!