NanaCsews2

I would suggest anyone with photos on hard drives/ pc's to copy the files onto an external drive. Paying someone upwards of $200 to try and recover those photos if the pc crashes is simply misdirected funds. Downloading pics from phones and cameras is fairly easy, and old photos scanned using my HP printer is also very easy-I can edit, put them in seperate files for family and then transfer the file to a flash drive and my external hard drive for later use. Once all the work of scanning etc is done, Using the external drive saves a lot of unnecessary worry that the pictures may be lost for good.

AZ Jane

I love your scrapbooking idea but I have an alternative. #1, mark your pictures of who is who (do this while there is someone who may remember) (I made my Mom sit down and go thru all hers and I wrote on the back, I am so glad I did, she had dementia before she passed). Don't save a lot of landscape pictures. That tree in Utah looks a lot like that tree in Maine, unless there is a human in it. #2, Get a small scanner if you don't have one. They have portable ones that weigh nothing, I take it everytime I go to family reunions!!! Once youhave photos scanned in, upload to your computer and then it is easy to organize, you ca make as many categories as you want. From there, you can make copies for family and friends on CD/DVD, depending on your equipment.

My Uncle did this of old family pictures, even went up into the mountains to get as many as he could. Sent all the remaining kids a CD. I up loaded my Mom's into ancestry.com (sorry, I just love that site). The future generations will be able to see who is who and my grandmothers old homestead.

AZ Jane

I have a big HP printer/scanner/fax etc machine that scans directly to my computer when I am at home. Quality is excellent and have never had a problem with injury to the original photos. Then I have a portable one. It is several years old so I have no idea if it is still available. It is a Kodal P811. (here is a picture on Amazon but I surely did not pay that price LOL, but this one had the most pictures) http://smile.amazon.com/Kodak-P811BK...rds=kodak+p811 Well, I guess it is still available LOL

This one uses electricity or batteries, download onto a microSD, which I then upload to my computer. I take it to all the family reunions and scan old pictures. It will scan up to 8X10. I love it!!

cajunowl

I have been doing the same things with our photos. We have been married almost 34 years. Many times, we had duplicates made to give away except most times, none were given away. I sorted the photos by years, as best as I could, since many did not have a date printed on the back. I have created photo albums of our first 10-15 years; after that I became discouraged. My solution was to scan the photos on a high end scanner that can scan the photos through a document feeder. Then I sorted into folders by activity and year, sometimes per child or family member. Once they were scanned, I shredded the photos, unless I knew someone specifically wanted the paper copy.

I am happy with this solution because I have two sons, and I know they will not do anything with photos that are not sorted or labeled. My in-laws left us two plastic tubs of photos, many without names or dates. I have no idea what to do with those items.

I think the younger generations will be glad to have a thumb drive or DVD with photos to keep.

Prism99

cajunowl, what brand/model of scanner did you use?

sparkys_mom

Hmmmm! I had five full metal boxes that you store slides in. I solved that problem very easily. I took them to the landfill. I did not want to sort through all those slides!! I have a similar, but worse, problem with negatives and I have a feeling they are going to go the same route.

A lot of years ago, I TOSSED all the family photos of relatives I could not identify. If I don't know who they are it really doesn't do a thing for me to have the photos.

Boston1954

Jim got me a scanner a few years ago. I have scanned EVERY picture I own, and over some time, I have put them into categories. I am not into scrapbooking, prefer to have them in a flash drive that I put in my purse and it goes with me. (I have a great fear that my house will burn down someday when I am not at home). This actually happened to the couple who sit behind us in church.

Boston1954

For Prism, this is my favorite picture of my parents. I have the original in my hand and it looks the same. I have a Canon scanner. The number says MP250. It is also a printer.

Boston1954

While I'm thinking of it, I have to say having all of my pictures in a flash drive gives me an enormous sense of calm. I cannot tell how many times I've seen some story on the news, where a hurricane has gone through some area, and after it is gone they show some poor soul standing in the middle of their mud soaked living room holding a ruined picture of one of their kids when he was five years old. If I ever had to leave my house in a hurry, due to a wild fire or something, I know I've got all my photographs with me.

solstice3

You need to figure out how you are going to approach them. I ran into the same dilemma. I divided them into groups such as child 1, child 2, my life, parents, friends, ancestors. You may also want to do a separate album for special life events such as wedding, special vacation, etc. (I have one dedicated to concerts that I have photographed.) I started with child 1 and sorted them into years 0-1 yr, 1-2, etc then sorted those into specific events. when you get that far, pick the best of them or the ones you can't live without and scrap those. The sorting was the hardest part for me. The second hardest part was being creative. The movies I would have pt on CD and slides can either be printed or converted to CD. Hope this helps