"Your computer is NOT a photo album!"  This was one of the first statements that a photography professor told me.  I still took six thousand more photos and  thought I had a virus before I moved them to a hard drive.  

Not only did my computer speed increase dramatically but I now had my photos stored elsewhere.

Picture your desk completely cluttered.  Picture it with over four thousand photos and then try to find something on your desk like a pen or a bill.

 It may take awhile.  

This is what happens to your computer when you have too many images stored. It takes awhile to find things.  

Has your computer becomes sluggish?  Have your upload times are increased?  Do you wonder if you have a virus...

The culprit could be too many images stored on your hard drive.  

If you have never moved your images to an external hard drive, now is the time.  They are affordable.  Mine was $79 on sale and you can always find one on sale.

The reason back ups are so important is because your computer will crash.  If you have images that are irreplaceable, you would want to back them up to two different hard drives.  

After you back up your photos, and double check to make sure you can find them on the external hard drive, delete them from your computer.  You will now be amazed at how much faster your computer will perform.