I have thousands of photos on a computer now and I haven't backed them up for ages.  The other day I tried backing up onto a CD and it only took 2 months worth of photos out of my 2008 ones.  This way it is going to take many discs to back-up.  I know I can get memory sticks but don't know it they are suitable to keep as a back-up.  I would be grateful if someone could advice me what to do for the best please. 

I bought myself 4gb memory sticks and it's the cheapest and easiest way for me.  I have 4!!!  One for spreadsheets, one for photographs etc.

Wish I had done this years ago, but after losing data that I really wanted, have learned my lesson.  Go for it! 

An external hard-drive may be a good option if you have that many. My OH bought me one as I was just getting into photography and couldn't part with any I had taken so had loads

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=730

This is the make I have, But obviously you could find a cheaper one/ different model.
They are easy to use and holds literally millions of photographs and any other data.

ETA - Ebay might be a good place to look also

Definitely go for an external hard drive so you won't run out of space -quicker than using a USB stick as well. I have 6 GB worth of photos on my computer (over 13 000 photos) so I'd be lost without mine.

Another vote for an external hard drive.  I have two!  One for music only and the other for documents and pictures.  Have a look at Argos - they usually have good prices.   I also saw a very nice calculator sized one in Tesco today although I can't remember the price, sorry.

Thanks for that - I wouldn't have thought of an external hard drive at all.  It is finding something that is going to last.  I intend printing some out so we have hard copies.  My OH has taken thousands of our house build which is now coming to the end.  I thought of selecting some to put into a photo-book to give him for Christmas.  I just need to copy them onto something so I can browse at my leisure on my computer.  Thinking that made me realise that they all need backing up. 

I have a Seagate Ext Drive and it's been 100% reliable (fingers crossed) had it 3 years and it has thousands of my pictures on.  We did buy two cheaper ext drives from a computer company online and the adaptors died on both of them, found out the adaptors aren't available in the UK (even though the computer company was UK) and if I wanted to buy them from abroad they were £40 each plus postage......which is so annoying as it does contain lots of my music - thankfully my pictures are on my Seagate drive which is definitely more reliable.

I have got my drive and set it up - however I haven't a clue how to put the photos onto the drive!  Help would be appreciated please. 

Ditto verbatim 4GB for all photo's, Sage everything never had a problem.

RE: help

plug it in
if nothing appears on your screen straight away or in a few seconds,
on your start up menu, click 'Computer'
Under the heading 'Devices with removable storage', this should show you disk drive (if you have one) and the external hard drive.
click on it and it should open as an empty file.
Then simply open your pictures or where ever your photos or data is saved. Select what you want to back up.
right click and copy
back to the empty hard drive file and paste.
This should leave your files on your computer and a copy on the hard drive. I wouldn't delete anything from your computer until you have switched off the hard drive and checked it has copied what you wanted over
bearing in mind, this is without using and programmes or software that may have come with the drive
Let us know how you get on!

Thanks for that - my son has also got back to my text and told me to copy and paste.  Duh that simple!  I just never thought of that.  I was afraid of messing up the originals.  Will have to wait for OH to be off the computer for a while.  Apparently if I try to copy the lot it will take several hours!  Well I am learning something new today.  Of course then I will need another one just in case this drive corrupts at some time.  It is not like the old days is it.  We have lots of old family photos which are great to have if you are interested in family history.  I wonder whether anyone will pick up this drive some 100 years down the line and be able to look at my photos!!!!?????

Hi if you open 2 explorer windows you can drag and drop to copy between drives - makes it a bit quicker.  If you are able to create new folders and sort as you go it'll make the job seem more worthwhile too, even if all you do is file according to dates!!

I made a start tonight.  I think I have got all 2009's photos on so far.  Will check tomorrow.  I will certainly have to sort out the files because my hubby seems to have photos all over the place.  Thanks for all the help. 

wish i to had done this my pc had a nasty virus ands away with a friend at mo being fixed he's not sure if he can save anything on it, i have most of my pics on imageshack but not all and all my videos of my dogs will probley be lost forever now gutted.
im on my sons mini laptop at the moment cant get used to this thing,