I’ve never been very good at backing up my files, but fortunately my technie husband takes care of it for me. If you’ve ever lost your computer hard drive, you know that it’s one of the worst feelings possible. In an instant, emails, documents, photos, music, videos, etc. can all be lost for good. Now it can be possible to recover data off a broken hard drive, but the cost can easily start at more than $1,000, and sometimes recovery is not possible.
Without question the most important things on my computer are my photos. I can’t imagine losing the photos of my girls, so thanks to my husband its one less thing for me to have to worry about. Between my photos, photos from my professional photographer father-in-law and my semi-pro photographer mom, I have accumulated more 20,000 photos since my daughter was born in 2008. (Oh yes, that is a real number.) This yea, I have even challenged myself to take a photo of each of my girls every day for the next year – my very own Project 365 (x2). So far, so good.
There are many options for backing up your files, from external hard drives to USB flash drives. SanDisk recently introduced a new line of Memory Vault products especially designed for preserving photos and videos for long-term storage. Available in both 8GB and 16GB, the Memory Vault works with both PCs and Macs and has been tested for up to 100 years of estimated storage life. The first thing I thought when I read this was, “How do they know it will last up to 100 years if they have not been around this long?” After a little digging around the SanDisk site, I found the following information. While I don’t understand the explanation, I’ll take their word for it :).
SANDISK MEMORY VAULT TECHNOLOGY
As a leader and pioneer in the non-volatile memory market, SanDisk has been in the forefront of developing advanced memory technology for over 23 years. For the SanDisk Memory Vault, SanDisk engineers have built on this success to create an archival memory system with the capability for long term data preservation
The Memory Vault memory system contains a combination of a proprietary ASIC controller, non-volatile memory, and a system firmware to tie the two together. The resulting memory system provides users with a digital memory vault capable of keeping their most precious memories safe, at their original quality, for up to 100 years.
Test data collected during our verification process prove that the Memory Vault product is capable of up to 100 years of data retention under typical room temperature storage conditions, with humidity and static protection.
In use, the Memory Vault is as easy to use as any USB hard drive or flash drive, and files copied quickly from my computer. It has a very solid build and weight to it, and certainly feels more durable then my current USB flash drive. Yes, the Memory Vault costs more than a typical flash drive, but some things are worth it to me to make sure my photos are backed up as best as possible. To make things even safer, once my photos are backed up, I plan on storing the Memory Vault in our fire-proof safe. Yes, I am serious!
The SanDisk Memory Vault is available for purchase directly from SanDisk for $89.99 or at other retailers such asAmazon too. Photo-loving moms who don’t know what to put on their Christmas list should certianly consider asking for a SanDisk Memory Vault (or two) to protect their precious photos.
Who wants 20% off?
I have four coupon codes for 20% off a SanDisk Memory Vault purchase to giveaway to my readers. If you would like one of these 20% codes, leave a comment below letting me know. If there are more than four requests, I will randomly choose four people to award the coupon codes to.
Disclosure – I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of SanDisk and received a product sample to facilitate my review, and coupons to giveaway.
I was just thinking about buying an external drive after the holidays, as I can’t really afford one now. I can’t emotionally afford losing my data, either, but getting a coupon would really help with the costs. If you could spare one such coupon for me, I would be very grateful. Thanks.
Although I am sure this is a great product, you would have to buy several of these to attempt to store your 20,000+ images. That sounds very expensive. I did a quick search of the internet and found an external Blu-Ray burner for $80. You could then buy some Blu-Ray disks that store 25GB of data and back up your photos to several disks at around $1-2 per disk. You can store many more photos on a disk than on a 8GB or 16GB SanDisk Memory Vault. And even though the technology will be out dated the Blu-Ray will last more than 100 years. …just a thought.
I certainly agree that there are cheaper options for backing up files, but the simplicity of a USB drive definitely has an advantage over making backup disks with an external Blu-ray drive for the majority of people (you and Bobby excluded :)). I would certainly need more than one of the 16GB Memory Vaults to backup all of my photos, but again I’m certainly storing more than most people too. What I can recommend to everyone is to make backups one way or another, whatever works for your tech experience and budget.
Like you, I have TONS of photos since my daughter was born late last year. My cell phone went haywire shortly after I had her last year and I lost A LOT of photos from the hospital and shortly after I brought her home that I never was able to recover. I can’t tell you how much I cried at losing those. I didn’t know this product existed, so I would definitely buy it!
Sherri – My heart breaks for you to have lost pictures of your newborn baby… I would cry for days. Makes me tear up just thinking about it!
This looks like a great gift for my ‘hard to buy for dad’! He has tons of photos and it would be great to have them all preserved for generations! Thanks for sharing this product! I would love to win the 20% discount code!
I have really been meaning to get something like this as our computer did die on us earlier this year. Although I had most of my photos uploaded to various photo sites, I’m sure we lost some and I would prefer to store them myself. I would love one of the coupons! Thanks!
I completely agree with the convince of USB devices for backing up data, and finding a plan that works for your budget and technical knowledge. I am paranoid about losing photos, but don’t want to pay for cloud storage, so I have mine backed-up twice and one of those is a 1TB USB Drive that lives in a fire-proof safe. As a reminder to everyone, don’t forget to back up the photos you take with your phone. It is so easy to lose or break a phone and you don’t want to lose those photos too.