What is the criteria needed for storing photo's on a laptop

Will an older laptop costing not to much second hand be suitable for storing photo's , would it matter if the operating system was out of date etc.

An example of spec would be useful. My advice would be to use an external hard drive that is new as if the hard drive has never been replaced then it could be on it's last legs. A heuristic guide to Hard Drive life-span averages 3-5 years. The older drives in Desktops still seem to be going years later but then they haven't been used much since upgrading other bits.

Actual HDD life is far longer than swarfendor43 states. Just make sure you run a full verify over the disc every month or so.

But as swarfendor43 it depends what you're actually asking. Laptops have no requirements for storing photos and you wouldn't use a laptop for storing photos, you'd use an external HDD or if a desktop probably the internal HDD.

Albert smith - are you wanting to use an old laptop because you have one that you are not using or are you thinking about buying one? If it is the latter, it would need to be cheaper than the cost of a new external hard drive to make it economical. You can take the hard drive out and put it into a caddy - they are cheap and it is an easy job. However, the laptop’s hard drive could have had a lot of wear and tear. If you do go down the route of using an old laptop, partition the hard drive and use the empty D drive for the photographs. As has been said, much easier and better to buy a new external hard drive. Get a good make though.

Albert smith - are you wanting to use an old laptop because you have one that you are not using or are you thinking about buying one? If it is the latter, it would need to be cheaper than the cost of a new external hard drive to make it economical. You can take the hard drive out and put it into a caddy - they are cheap and it is an easy job. However, the laptop’s hard drive could have had a lot of wear and tear. If you do go down the route of using an old laptop, partition the hard drive and use the empty D drive for the photographs. As has been said, much easier and better to buy a new external hard drive. Get a good make though.

Cheers would an external hard drive work O.K. an old Dell 505 .

I would use Dropbox. It’s easy to use and don’t have to worry about HD failing or anything like that.