So my Mum passed 16 months ago at 94. She still had her mind 100% and physically was pretty good. Fell down the basement stairs. She was an outstanding genealogist and left many albums, books, and researches. I've asked here before about how to post this stuff on a website forever, but I reluctantly agree it is not possible. 2nd choice is to reduce all this stuff to files and put on as many usb drives as possible. But 1st, I have to figure out how to scan all this stuff...a thousand plus pics and tens of documents. And how to do it efficiently. I don't say $ is NOT an issue, but I have a cooperative bro who will help fund this. I am only used to, now, using a plate glass 8.5 X 14 scanner. There is no way this would be sufficient. TIA...Randy

Why USB drives? Wouldn't an external HD be better (with another as backup)?

---

Paul D

Thanks Paul. Ya, for more permanent storage, yes,. but I'm also looking to disseminate many copies....

It sounds as if, for quality of result, and faster scanning, you need something like an Epson FastFoto FF-640 High-Speed Photo Scanning -

https://www.amazon.com/Epson-FF-640-High-Speed-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B01HR89FNK/ref=sr_1_5/141-8433220-8137806?ie=UTF8&qid=1526946559&sr=8-5&keywords=autofeed+scanner

I don't know anything about this device, but found your question interesting, so I searched Amazon.com to see what might be available.

There appear to be less expensive options but they likely would have trade offs for costing less.

And, I can imagine there are much more expensive machines available.

Jim.

Thanks, Jim. mmm...reveals another question...do I want to auto-feed old, brittle, precious to me photos, vs....putting each on glass one at a time...mmmm...

Alternatively, something like this might be easier, cheaper, and faster if you could determine how reliable the company is:

https://vistapixmedia.com/photo-scanning/

I know nothing about this company or any other similar scanning company - so a lot of research should be in order before entrusting anyone with the photos.

Jim.

I'm in a similar situation. My wife's grandmother passed away almost four weeks ago. I had offered to scan her photos, like I did for my grandmother. Instead of one album and assorted loose photos, though, I have three big BOXES full of albums and another with a lot of loose photos.

My plan is to do this in stages. I'll take the oldest photos first (e.g. her wedding photos) and scan those. Then, I'll move onto the more recent ones (e.g. photos from the 70's/80's). Finally, I'll get to the most recent ones.

As I scan them, I'll put them in an area (to be determined) where family members can download them. (Likely something password protected and share the password among the family.) If I can, I might also set up a WordPress site where people can mark up photos - listing who is actually in the photos.

This isn't going to be a quick thing to do, but it'll definitely be worthwhile.

Thanks for sharing. Jason, what is you method of scanning, and equipment? Randy

Just a normal flatbed scanner. The last time I did this, I had software that could scan multiple photos and save them into separate files. I'll re-locate that software (or something like it) and use that so I'm not limited to one at a time.

Apparently I havn't asked this here. I DID ask, personally, among people I know who are familiar with the web. The question was, how can I store these photos on the web in perpetuity? Answer I got back was "not". Because I would have to guarantee that the website was owned and maintained in perpetuity and nothing could change.

So Jason, how would YOU store these photos so others could see them? And for how long?

The easiest way would be to put them into a Google Photos photo album and then share it out with as many people as you like.

I'll likely use my Virtual Private Server to upload them to a password protected WordPress site, give family members access to it, and have them able to comment. I'll also provide an all-in-one download link to get all of the photos (or album by album downloads as I scan them in).

Thanks to all who replied. I finally got around to doing what I should have done some time ago....reading all things on the net about scanning photos. Especially negative reviews of self-feeding, "fast" photo scanners. Especially by Epson, but also others. And especially the Epson FF-640, their current model. The 'fail' rate for this unit may be as high as 10% of users. Another option is a more conventional flatbed targeted to photoscanning. Higher success rate, but slower. All the commercial services have their own drawbacks and oddities. mmmm what to do. Don't know, but gotta do something!

I have been using VueScan for years. https://www.hamrick.com/
You can scan multiple pictures at once. All the options you need are in this program. Much better than the programs packaged with a scanner.

I use VueScan for my flatbed and my Nikon slide scanner. You can download and try before you buy. It puts a watermark on the scans until you buy the program. And supports hundreds of different scanners.