Basic question about backups/burning DVDs

[ann in ma]

First post, and I know it's something that's been posted about before. I did several searches, and as a result, got even more confused. I hope someone can answer my questions.

First, my setup: XP, Elements 3.0. Photos are on two networked computers (mine + hubby's). Each computer has the photos organized into one PHOTOS folder with subdirectories.

I want to do 3 things:
1. Backup all photos onto an external hardrive
2. Backup all photos onto DVDs
If at all possible, it would be nice to preserve tags that I have, but the main purpose is to back up in case of hard drive failure(s).

3. Backup selected photos onto DVDs. For instance, I want to select the best photos of 2005 and burn those onto a DVD, again preserving tags if possible.

I do not want to remove the photo files from their current locations. But I do want the entire photo (not just thumbnail) backed up.

Is this possible? I seem to have read that photos on a networked computer will not back up.

Thanks for any assistance.

Ann

[Wendy]

Hi Ann ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Being a Mac user I can't help on this one but I am sure that one of the Windows users will be along pretty soon and will be able to help :)

Wendy

[Ward Grant]

First, my setup: XP, Elements 3.0. Photos are on two networked computers (mine + hubby's). Each computer has the photos organized into one PHOTOS folder with subdirectories.

Ann, welcome to the forum. I'll try to give you some brief answers to your questions. If you need additional information, post back or check the Help section, typing "backup" in the search bar.

1. Backup all photos onto an external hardrive- Use the Organizer Backup/Restore command (which will copy both pictures and Organizer) and point the output to the external drive. Should not have problems.

2. Backup all photos onto DVDs- Same as #1, except direct output to DVDs.

3. Backup selected photos onto DVDs. For instance, I want to select the best photos of 2005 and burn those onto a DVD, again preserving tags if possible. This is a little trickier. You can use Organizer's star tags to assign 5-stars to these photos and then filter to only see these photos. Use Write Tags to Files to imbed the tags to these files (as a full backup will do the entire catalog and not a subset). Then you can use Backup/Restore to copy to the DVD, without using the Burn command.
I would definitely say run a test with a small number of files (both backup and restore).

Option B, depending upon how many files you are going to classify as "best", would be same tag and select and then Export files to a temporary folder. Outside of Elements, use your regular DVD software to make a copy of this folder. The advantage is you retain all your folder names (Organizer renames the files during a backup, but restores them during a restore), making it easy to share with someone or load back only one file.

Lastly, since you have two networked computers with the same main folder name, I would be careful when you backup to external drive. I'd create a folder with two different names, one for each machine, to avoid confusion.

Have you thought about moving all your photos to the external drive and sharing them (if you do share them)? Two people can't have the same catalog open at the same time, but it is possible to have one location for two machines. If you want to consider this, let me know.

[ann in ma]

Thank you so much for responding!! You have answered all of my questions -- I will experiment and see which method works best, but I'm happy to know that it can be done.

I have considered consolidating the photos onto one external drive -- just need to actually do it. Is it tricky to set up 2 machines to use one location? And would it matter if I was running Elements 4.0 on one computer and 3.0 on another? Would I still see the same tags on both computers?

Thanks again for your help.

Ann

[Ward Grant]

Ann
The two different versions of Elements on the two machines adds a wrinkle. The two versions of Organizer are not compatible. If you upgrade to Version 4, it will copy the current catalog and change it, saving the old catalog as My Catalog-1 (assuming you are using the default catalog name).

Just as an aside, the key to Organizer is a MS Access database with a PSA extension (example-My Catalog.PSA). It is normally a hidden file, but you can view hidden files in Windows Explorer under the Tools menu.

One last idea: Open Organizer and create a New Catalog (File>New>Catalog).
Call it something easy to find like JunkCat or TestCat. Find a suitable folder (say 25-30 pictures) and use Get Photos to load these into this Organizer. Add one set of tags to half the pictures (TestTag1) and a different set to the other half (TestTag2). Or tag some with both tags. You now have a nice sample file that you can backup/restore/move to get a feel for the commands. If you make an error, you've only lost a test file. When you are done testing, you can simply select all the photos in this catalog and delete them (do not click Delete From Hard Disk) to erase the test catalog.

[ann in ma]

Thanks so much .. the test file is a great idea - I will play with that tonight.

Ann

[Shari]

Hi Ann,
Can you please post your results. I still have trouble understanding saving and burning and therefore do not do it enough. I do not have an external but I would just like to save my "best" photos for the year or month and am not sure how to do this.
thanks.
Shari