Once your project is created, it is ready to return to you.  The question then becomes: What is the best way to give it back to you that can serve both your short-term viewing needs, as well as your long-term archiving needs? 

While your individual answer may vary a bit depending upon your specific needs and situation, let us offer a little bit of general insight based upon our over thirty years' worth of experience in this field:

OUR RECOMMENDATION IS TO STORE AT LEAST ONE "MASTER" COPY OF YOUR WORK ON "BLU-RAY" DATA STORAGE DISCS, WHICH HAVE A LIFESPAN OF 30 YEARS, WHICH IS LONGER THAN HARD DRIVES OR FLASH DRIVES OR DVDs.  THINK OF THESE AS YOUR "FOR THE FUTURE" COPIES.

PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT SPECIFY OTHERWISE, BY DEFAULT WE WILL SAVE ONE FULL COPY OF YOUR PROJECT'S "ORIGINAL DIGITAL MASTER" TO BLU-RAY DISC(S) TO ENSURE THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR PROJECT'S LONG-TERM SURVIVAL.

IF YOU NEED A COPY TO TRANSFER TO YOUR COMPUTER FOR VIEWING OR SHARING OR PRINTING IN THE "HERE AND NOW" AND YOU DO NOT HAVE A BLU-RAY DRIVE, DON'T WORRY: WE CAN COPY SOME OR ALL OF YOUR MEMORIES TO FLASH DRIVES, HARD DRIVES OR DVDs TO MAKE IT EASY FOR YOU TO TRANSPORT, COPY AND SHARE RIGHT NOW.  THINK OF THESE AS YOUR "HERE AND NOW" VIEWABLE AND SHAREABLE COPIES.

NOW WHY DO WE MAKE THESE TWO RECOMMENDATIONS?  Well, to be brief, the Blu-Ray optical disc can be used to store large amount of data safely and accurately for about 30 years.  Compact Discs and DVDs are 1980s and 1990s technologies and did great at the time, but since the "digital revolution" we need large-capacity, safe storage for the digital "master copy" of your completed projects.  After many years and hundreds of customers, we recommend making the first copy of your "digital master" onto Blu-Ray data discs.  This will be the master copy from which you can make numerous other copies.  And, unlike hard drives, optical discs have no moving parts and they do not store your memories magnetically, so they are far less likely to fail on their own.  Data DVDs last 4-7 years, only a fraction of the time that Blu-Ray discs will survive.  And Blu-Ray discs hold TEN TIMES as much data as a DVD can, so it makes good storage sense and good dollar-sense for you.

BUT WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A BLU-RAY DRIVE/PLAYER?

No worries.  Blu-Ray discs have been in the United States since 2006 and are rapidly replacing DVDs.  Don't worry, your DVDs will always be around just like music CDs are, but they will be in far less use, and Blu-Ray players and drives also play DVDs and CDs, as well, so you will always have a player. 

In the meantime, we can COPY any or all of your precious memories FROM the digital master Blu-Ray disc TO anything you like: Hard drives, flash drives, movie discs...even your home computer.  But long after all of those things have broken down, worn out or gone to the garbage, the Blu-Ray disc holding your memories will still be safe and playable.

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages associated with two of the most common storage devices: Hard drives and flash drives.s.

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HARD DRIVES

Hard Drive Advantages: 

1) Affordable solution for storing large amounts of photos, videos, and data; and

2) Can be made portable in some cases.



Hard Drive Disadvantages:

1) Data can be compromised by moisture, heat, mishandling, physical breakage, or an overcharge of electricity, or a strong magnetic field;

2) They have limited lifespan, much like your car does and, after so many hours of running and/or so much use, they CAN and WILL fail eventually...it's unavoidable; and 

3) Attempts to recover data from damaged hard drives can be complicated, expensive, and the results are often incomplete.



OUR CONCLUSION: HARD DRIVES ARE AFFORDABLE STORAGE BUT CANNOT BE CONSIDERED EITHER SAFE OR PERMANENT. 

FLASH DRIVES