Are Digital Camera Photos really safe long term?
We first bought a digital camera last year and while they are a brilliant piece of kit and extremely easy to use in comparison to old 35mm cameras, I am a bit concerned about the long term safety of photos taken with them. Photos taken with a 35mm camera are usually printed straight onto paper which is pretty safe unless they are hit by fire or flood, however photos from a digital camera seem to be a lot easier to loose. An accidental press of the delete button or a hard drive failure can cause a precious photo to be lost forever. I have my digital photos stored on my external hard drive but how long do hard drives last, should I make sure I have them backed up on a DVD or another hard drive as well or are they safe just being on one? I know I’m sounding a bit pessimistic but we have print photos dating back 20 – 40 years and I want to look back at my digital photos in the same way in 20 years time.
