Have you backed up lately? I

aw man! Sorry this happened to you. :( How often do we need to back up our files? I don't know that I've done it to this computer in at least a year. (long time I know...)

Oh nooooo!!! Now that you've reminded me, I can't think of the last time I did a backup. Gotta talk to hubby about that.

Thanks Amy for this important reminder. My husband just recently learned that too, by not backing up those little memory chips one can plug into the computer. I've always used the rule... "Will it make me cry if I lose anything on the computer?" If the answer is yes I back up. During my college days I had typed up a paper and not saved it and then it was gone. Made me want to cry. haha

Lynne

Oh no Amy. I feel your pain earlier this spring I was preping a CD to take in to get printed and accidentally deleted 400 pics. At which point I turned to my husband and asked "by any chance when did you back up recently". At that point he did not regularily back up the photos. But we were able to retrieve all but a dozen and they had been posted on his website in a smaller format. So I have them but they are fuzzy. Now the photos are in the regular back up schedule. Thankfully my family is scattered and we were using the web to show them photos from that event.

Hopefully you can recover some (or all) of your photos.

oh, and how do I go about doing all of this? do I just put the photos and files/documents on disk? then do I keep them on the computer or do I delete? And how often?

How and how often to back up?

Well that depends on a lot of factors... For me, the most important thing on that computer was my photos. I KNEW I should have been backing up each and every time I downloaded the photos from the camera to the hard drive. I could have done this in a few ways:

1. I have networked computers in my house so I could have send copies to the other computer.
2. I use Yahoo to share pictures. I could have created a private album and stored a copy there. (I did that to share Christmas pictures with family so I have Christmas 2005)
3. I have a 512MB memory stick (hard drive that plugs into the USB port). I now plan to use this as my photo backup. Every time I dump the pictures from my camera, I'm going to make copies on the memory stick. When it gets full, I'll download to CD.
4. You can use R/W CDs. They are more expensive than regular CDs. I have not yet tried them, but you are suppose to be able to "add" files as you go. This is why I didn't backup before. The thought of putting

1. Hard copies. I didn't want to invest in having hard copies made and I didn't want to have to store hard copies because I felt I could get them printed at any time. They're gone now and I will never have the chance again.

These are just a few ways. Frequency depends on what you can stand to loose. I like Lynne's reference to "will it make you cry if you lost it" reference? Yes, it made me cry to know all those pictures are gone.

-- Amy L.

CDRW's aren't as stable as cdr's... and as long as you don't "close out" a cd, you can continue to add to it until it is full... even a cdR... ;)

I thought the same thing until my brother in law told me now I just burn them to cdr's... or dvd's...

Sorry to hear about this Amy..... and thanks for the reminder!! I'll get DH onto it right away... lol. luv Cec...xxx

Oh no! Sometimes I think technology puts us 5 steps back instead of forward. Hope you can save some of those pictures.

Judy, SA

Judy, welcome back :o) I've missed you too.... it's good to see you back posting again!!

Christina, It is totally your discretion as to whether you delete them from your computer after backing up. Once you back them up you can retreive them anytime. If your really into saving computer space, then by all means, delete them afterward, but otherwise you can use the back up's in the event a catastrophy happens, then you wouldn't lose anything. HTH

Ang.

WOW I know that really hurts and Thanks for putting a bug in me to get it done. I do not save anything on the pc, except for pictures since I more or less just started using a dig camera a few months ago. Heck last weekend it took me like forever to figure out one of at least the 5 programs I can use to copy pictures on a disc to my satisfaction - I know MEN!! I hate to read instructions and as we all know, technical stuff makes no sense anyhow, just try it and see.

So I plan on working on that project this weekend after I go buy some blank disc then will delete them from the machine.

OKC Dave

Check out my pix and crafts!

Dave, Glad I could be of assistance. Anytime. :) Ang.