Ron I agree don't alter the originals. Pix resizer and power toy both save a new copy at the reduced size without altering the original.

  I also use a card reader to transfer them to my computer. I learned the hard way to copy them then paste them. Was once in the middle of a transfer using the cut method and lost them when I had a computer glitch. The other thing I do is download the card to the computer every day I take pictures. I make folders with that days date. Guess I learned that after looking through boxes of print pictures with no dates on them. The only way to approximate the date is by looking at the surroundings and  knowing when certain things were changed or modified. (buildings changed, trees missing etc.)