Q. I am thinking it would be a good idea to scan all my older (before digital) pictures before I scrapbook them. I have thousands -- maybe tens of thousands. Do you have any suggestions on how to accelerate this? How can I be sure I am scanning them at a resolution that will be good enough for printing, should I need to do that someday? The scanner I am using is an HP 2210 all-in-one. I could buy another scanner, but I can't afford to spend a lot. I plan to store the pictures on DVDs. I have a new DVD burner.

A. Wow, I guess we know what you'll be doing this winter! Frankly, scanning pictures is a tedious process. Most scanners do one at a time, one at a time, one at a ... zzzzzzzzz. Oh, excuse me.

If I were you, I'd rethink this project. Start by winnowing out what you really want to scan. I have loads of pictures, but relatively few fall into the WOW! class.

Besides, film photos will hold up long-term, if you protect them from the elements. Keep your negatives. You could get reprints, if necessary, assuming you could find someone making prints from film in future years.

Once you have this narrowed down, think about your scanner. If you have a lot of photos, you need some automation. Hewlett-Packard has an automatic photo feeder that will take 24 pictures at a time. However, it only fits the ScanJet 4570 series. I found that for as little as $70 online. The photo feeder is as low as $112 online.