backing up PSE to external HD

[mom to 4]

OK, before I load all my vacation pics onto PSE, I think I need to move whatever is on there now off, but before I do that I would like to back up my PSE to my external HD. I have been told that it just does a general backup. Does anyone know how I could get my Maxtor External HD to back up my PSE4 and all of its photos to the external HD??????????

Am I making any sense:D :confused: ????????

[Ward Grant]

Hi Colleen
Do you want to
1) back them in up in case of hardware failure? I would then use the Backup command and point to the EHD.
or
2) make space on your internal drive but still have access to the pictures? Use the Move command. With PSE4 you should be able to change to folder view and grab the top folder.

Either way, this will keep the Organizer intact.

[mom to 4]

Hi Ward....

Actually, I guess I kinda want to do both..... How would I point it to the EHD...go into PSE and back up through that???? I have just used the Maxtor icon before and had it do a backup through that.....I think I understand what you are saying though. So, if I back it up to the EHD through elements, then I would back up to DVD and at the end of the backup where it asks if I want to move the photos......I would check yes....Is that correct?

[Ward Grant]

Hi Colleen,
If you use Elements to Backup/Restore, you get the photos, your catalog and support files. If you do it through Maxtor, you would have to manually select the photos and then the catalogs. Not a big deal.

Here is what I would do: (A peek-behind-the-curtain as I don't know the answer to every Organizer question and often have to test things before answering).
Create a New Folder and put in five to six pictures-copy from a folder so you don't lose the originals
Open Organizer and do File>Catalog>New and call it something like TestCat.
Bring in the pictures from this New folder, make some quick tags, stack one or two-gives you a quick sample file.
Do a Backup of this catalog-you'll go through all the steps, but it will only take a minute or two as there are not many photos.
Now delete this folder from your unit and, if you want, the associated catalog folder.
Do a restore and then see if all the pictures, tags and stacks come back.
It will let you go through the steps with pictures that you don't care if you lose if things go bump in the night.

As for moving any files, just select the photos and use the Elements Move command to put them on the EHD.