@jennyfurr (Pats self on back) well yes, I am a genius, but my grandkids pronounce that geek. 😜

I just have a MacBook Pro laptop with a Video conversion program installed so I can convert random files to MP4 format, a DVD Drive, external SD card readers, external 5TB hard drives and an Brother MFC Color printer sheet feed scanner with slide and negative adapter and of course my pelican case. I choose the drop tested hard drives that gamers use. You can get the drives on Amazon for less than $100 each. The whole setup cost me less than $4,000, the laptop being the huge expenditure. I also pay for cloud storage just in case. OCD? Well maybe just a little, but hey any family member who wants a photo or video knows I have it scanned and organized right at my fingertips.

I keep giving other people passwords to the online storage but so far everyone just comes to me for what they want. I’m hoping someone will at least be able to find them when I die (a few dozen years from now I hope).

PS The first project I did it with was all my old scientology docs including old Auditor Mags. They accidentally fell in the fireplace after being scanned, though.

Same here….😖

OMG, Val, I can’t believe it what you’re telling me. Because in addition to 35 years of absolutely-necessary-to-keep dox for work (properly filed but still taking up far too much space, and I find file cabinets depressing) I also have a gazillion photographs – loose. In several large bags. “Living my dream”, I’m tellin’ ‘ya.

Val that is SO smart! I really need to implement the “Val S & S Tech” here. Some extended family lives in Sonoma County/Santa Rosa where the Tubbs Fire was and had to evacuate. Recognizing how little notice they had and all the info that’s important to have (people who lost birth certificates, ID, policy numbers, etc. had to take months just to establish who they were in order to take advantage of any programs designed to help) at a moment’s notice?!?! Well it just makes you seem like the absolute genius you are!
Now… sigh… to embark on that journey!
If I might ask, what type of scanner and equipment did you get and find to make it faster/easier to do?

Awww, @aqua, living the dream. Tell my poor aching neck ;-). Nah, actually, I’ve discovered some real treasures. The nice thing is that with our parents and aunts and uncles dying off, some of the younger generation are getting to see their progenitors in living, moving color. Being able to share things digitally instead of having everything stuffed in some damp dark hidey hole is a dream actually.

How is “having CF in order” going to allow any expansion? Rhetorical question, don’t bother to answer. Current scientologists are in hiding, it is apropos that their filing system is also in hiding.

Took the words right out of my mouth.