Backing up Pictures in PSE 3.0 Help!

[labdogs42]

We have PSE 3.0 and we've been doing the incremental backups periodically. We also back up our hard drive to an external hard drive so I have two backups of my pictures. The other night when DH was trying to do the incremental backup, PSE froze up. Another time, it told him he needed 51 CD's (which would be our entire catalog, not the incremental, but he had chosen incremental). Has anyone had these problems with PSE? Do you know of any boards I can go to to ask these questions?

Similar topic -- how do you backup your photos? Do you use PSE or do you just use the file manager? Any suggestions are appreciated! Oh yeah, I have the Scott Kelby PSE book and the way he tells me to back up my pictures doesn't seem to work. I'm so confused!

 

[PaulD]

I just bought a Simpletech external hard drive. It has a little backup program that seems to work nicely enough. I also back up to CDs and DVDs periodically so that I have multiple copies (what if my external HDD fails?). I used the demo version of Genie Backup Manager Home Edition (http://www.genie-soft.com/products/gbm/default.html). I actually liked this software better than the Simpletech program but it would have cost me $50 (vs free with my hard drive).

It's nice to use a backup program rather than the file manager because you can be sure that you didn't miss any files. Once you set up the backup parameters it's a lot quicker than the file manager. Also, these programs usually have the ability to save multiple versions of a file in case you mess one up.

I tried the PSE3 backup once but it didin't retain the directory structure of my images which really annoyed me. I would suggest that you back up your photos to more than one medium. I even upload mine to a website (smugmug). And keep in mind that CDs and DVDs degrade with time so it's a good idea to repeat a full backup on occasion.

I probably sound a little AR here but I would be devastated if I lost all my photos.

 

[manning]

I backup on an external HD PLUS CD's. You don't know when the HD will fail, and at some time it will. I had one fail one month out of the box. When that happens you will have to have recovery done professionally and that is BIG bucks (if you don't have it on a CD)!!! Make several CD copies. It's cheap!!!!! Eventually I will be including DVD. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[labdogs42]

I also upload a lot of my pictures to smugmug and winkflash, but only the best ones. I take a LOT of pictures! I have the external harddrive backup going and I have most of my pics burned to CD, but I think I just need a better system. That backup software sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out.

How often do you back up your files? Every time you download a card?

 

[manning]

Everytime I fill a card the first thing I do is burn two CD's, then copy to the external hard drive. Only when I verified that the CD and HD have been correctly copied will I put the card back into the camera and delete.

Put the CD's away for safe keeping.

If you feel you have to reformat the card, DO IT in the camera, NOT in the computer!!!!!

When I have done corrections on a picture and am satisfied it is done I will burn it onto a new CD(s) and also save it to another folder on the HD. Don't close out the CD until you are done adding pictures to it.

Also get yourself a recovery program. They are cheap. You use this program to recover a card. A friend had a card go bad while taking pictures and I accidently deleted a card. The recovery program retrieved the pictures. There are programs to recover from a HD, but only if it is spinning. If it won't spin you have to pay a professional to recover it and that is expensive.

Another method that involves HD is raid1 drives. It is two hard drives. When info is copied to one hard drive it is automatically copied to another at the same time. It can also be done with one drive if it is partitioned, but doesn't make sense. If the drive crashes and won't spin you have lost everything.

 

[labdogs42]

Where do I get a recovery program? That sounds like a good thing to have!

So, I guess you don't delete pictures form a crad using the computer, you always delete them using the camera? Is that right? Is that the better way to do it?

 

[manning]

Where do I get a recovery program? That sounds like a good thing to have!

So, I guess you don't delete pictures form a crad using the computer, you always delete them using the camera? Is that right? Is that the better way to do it?

HERE IS A GOOD ARTICLE ON HOW TO STORE AND BACKUP YOUR PHOTOS !

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/General/Storing_Your_Digital_Images_01.htm


I always delete from the camera. I have never done it from the computer. However you should always format/reformat in the camera.

You can find recovery programs in a computer store. At the time I bought mine it was the only one I saw. I believe there are more out there.