The Great Photo Migration: My 22-Hour Quest to Rescue 19,241 Memories

It’s noon on 19 January 2026, and I’ve just declared war on digital clutter. The mission? Transfer 19,241 photos from my phone’s gasping SD card to the safety of a backup hard drive.

It all started with a warning. My phone, in its infinite wisdom, suddenly switched to saving new pics to the internal storage. A quick check revealed why: the trusty SD card was down to its last 10.3 GB. It was time to evacuate.

Plan A: The SIM Ejector Pin Fail

My first move was the obvious one—pop out the SD card and use a reader. Simple, fast, done. Or so I thought. After jabbing fruitlessly at the tiny port with the phone’s ejector pin, I admitted defeat. That little tray refused to budge. Was it sealed shut by time? Dust? Pure stubbornness? We’ll never know.

Plan B: The Cable Lifeline

Undeterred, I pivoted. USB-C cable to the rescue! A direct lifeline from phone to hard drive. I connected everything, selected the mountainous DCIM folder, and hit Transfer.

The initial estimate was… optimistic. “2 hours and 50 minutes.” I could live with that. I made coffee, mentally patting myself on the back for my efficient digital housekeeping.

Oh, how naive.

I checked back an hour later. The estimated time remaining had ballooned. The progress bar was crawling. My computer, faced with the sheer scale of 19,241 moments—from blurry pet photos to vital screenshots—was having a existential crisis.

Current Status: 22 Hours Remain.

That’s right. What began as a sub-3-hour task is now a day-long saga. We’ve moved from a quick coffee break to a “check on it tomorrow” operation.

So, What’s the Takeaway?

1. Don’t Wait Until the Last 10 GB. Future me will definitely back up in smaller, more frequent batches.
2. The SIM Tray is a Fickle Beast. Maybe clean it once in a while, or have a backup plan (thank goodness for USB-C).
3. Time Estimates Are Fiction. Computers look at 19,000 files and make a wild, hopeful guess. They are almost always wrong.

For now, the transfer chugs on in the background, a silent digital marathon. Each ticking hour is a lesson in patience and the surprising, immense weight of memories we carry in our pockets.

By 1.07 pm, left 6 hours and 10 minutes. However my laptop battery left for 45 minutes for 27%.

At 1.13 pm, have successfully copied 6,180  pictures. Which is 32%.

Need 2 hours 40 minutes after continue back transfer copy by 3.03 pm.

Need 2 hours 50 minutes when continue to transfer back copy by 11.07 am, 20 January 2026.

By 11.19 am.

Cancel transfer by 11.54 am. As laptop Lenovo battery left 7%.

By 5.33 pm of 20 January 2026, I get free space of 105 GB in my SD card.

Glad for being able to safely transfer all my pictures from my SD card to my external hard disk. Until then, make sure to remember to back up and clear up your phone storage💪.