Organising Photos Digitally

With all of the time I have been spending on the couch lately, I haven't done many projects at all.  One project that I could work on from the comfort of my beloved couch was backing up and organising all of my digital photos.

Earlier this year, I bought myself a 1 Terrabyte External Hard Drive.  I wanted something that would last for years, and hold all of my photos, movies and computer files as a back-up.  I have backed up my work laptop, my portable External Hard Drive which has all of my work files on it, my Digital Frame USBs plus all of our photos. 

With the photos, I started by making folders for each year that I have had a digital camera - starting from 2003.

Within each year, I made one folder for each month.  I put the number of the month in front of the word for each month, (eg: 1 - January).  This helps to keep the folders arranged in chronological order.

Then, as I like to sort the events that happen in the month in chronological order too, I put each event in its own folder.  I name the folder with the date, then with the title of the event:

And that is about it!  I have also saved a back-up of the home External Hard Drive onto my work External Hard Drive.  This means I have at least two copies of everything, which is comforting to know. 

I have also been told that it is important to run your External Hard Drive at least once every three months, in order to keep it in good running condition. My next step is to create myself a system, to help me remember to do this :)