Backup Question

[Honeydew]

i have PSE5 and about 3000 photos in the Organizer. I have a Dell XPS 600 with 2GB memory. When I click on My Computer>Properties it shows 232GB Capacity. Used space=167GB and free Space=65.5GB.

I have an 320GB external Hard Drive which I got for Christmas. My main concern is memory space that is running low on my computer and I'd like to back up my photos and psd files onto my EHD and then remove the photos and psd files from the computer to free up some space.

Now my questions are:
1) what file path do I need to use to back up everything that is in my Organizer as the photos are stored in the Organizer and My Pictures folder?
2) If I backup all the photos, does it also back up the property details as well?
3) Is removing photos and psd from the computer hard drive a wise idea or would I encounter problems later on?

Any help or suggestions would be great.

[dj_paige]

If you "back up my photos and psd files onto my EHD and then remove the photos and psd files from the computer", then you haven't really made a backup. A backup is when you have made copies of your photos on a different physical media, so you have both originals and at least one backup on a different physical media of each photo. That way, if one hard disk fails, you still have copies of your photos. Under your scheme, after you remove the files from your computer, and the EHD fails, you now have zero copies of your files. This always ends badly. So ... make actual backups. Do not go another day without making real backups of your precious photos.

Next, if you have 65.5GB free, I don't see a problem. That plenty of space for quite a lot of things. Leave the originals on your hard disk, and make legitimate backups on your EHD.

Make a folder on your EHD to hold the backups. You can name it anything you want. I name mine "Backup". I'm not terribly creative. Then, use the PSE command Backup Catalog, point it at this folder on your EHD, and let it go ahead and make the backups. This saves your photos, tags, captions, notes, GPS locations, creations, collections and probably some other things.

Lastly, since we are here to learn ... your computer's hard disk and your EHD are not "memory". They are are hard disk space. I can recall a thread where someone was advised he needed more memory, and he went out and bought more hard disk space (not the same thing as memory!) and it didn't solve his problem... caveat emptor.

[bnk1953]

Just my 2 cents worth on this - it's not only backing up photos (which is a necessity) but I've also created a bootable backup - that is a complete copy of my internal hard drives (yes that's plural) onto an external hard drive. I back this up weekly (more if used a lot). That means that when (not if - because hard drives will fail sometime) an internal drive fails, I'll have a way to take my complete backup and put it on a new internal drive - and be up and running in no time. Better safe then sorry.
~bruce.

[Candy3]

I use 2 EHD one as a working drive to store photos on and the other as a backup drive. If you have the photos in Elements you MUST move them in elements otherwise they will become disconnected and you will have a mess on your hands! trust me.

I moved all my 2008 photos off my laptop the other day I renamed the tags in the organizer to note that I have them stored on my EHD. TO move the photos choose all the photos you want to move then choose move in the file menu and in the browse section choose your EHD and name a folder to put them in.

I highly agree though this is only a move and NOT a backup. I actually have heard of several stories of EHD failing lately so I went and backed up my photos on Cd's as well as my EHD

Good Luck
Candy

[dj_paige]

I use 2 EHD one as a working drive to store photos on and the other as a backup drive. If you have the photos in Elements you MUST move them in elements otherwise they will become disconnected and you will have a mess on your hands! trust me.

I moved all my 2008 photos off my laptop the other day I renamed the tags in the organizer to note that I have them stored on my EHD. TO move the photos choose all the photos you want to move then choose move in the file menu and in the browse section choose your EHD and name a folder to put them in.

I highly agree though this is only a move and NOT a backup. I actually have heard of several stories of EHD failing lately so I went and backed up my photos on Cd's as well as my EHD

Candy,

The advantage of using the PSE command Backup Catalog is that it makes a copy of your tags, collections/albums, creations, captions and other metadata as well. If you haven't made a copy of your catalog file (which contains the tags, captions etc.) then you need to do so.

This is why I always recommend the Backup Catalog command, it takes care of everything for you. It also makes restoring everything after a crash simple, you use the Restore Catalog command.

[Candy3]

HI Paige

Oh yeah! I agree 100% I do a complete backup that way regularly I was just talking about moving files outside of her computer to an EHD - I have over 22,000 files in my organizer if I ever lost any of it I would be besides myself

thanks for the great reminder!!

[MRaiser]

I don't want to lose anything important so am getting my most precious stuff to photobucket, making CDs of all photos and backing up all files weekly to an EHD. (this ClickFree finds everything new for me so I don't have to specify any locations and it is REALLY quick)

I have a separate EHD for nothing but graphic files like PSE and PSP stuff. Also clipart, backgrounds and wallpapers that I get from the internet and will use more than once. This stuff is sorted by subject like Sports, Easter, Nature, etc. Want to make a Christmas graphic? I just open my Christmas folder and see what clipart, backgrounds and wallpapers I have collected!


btw - I don't use the Organizer...

[Honeydew]

If you "back up my photos and psd files onto my EHD and then remove the photos and psd files from the computer", then you haven't really made a backup. A backup is when you have made copies of your photos on a different physical media, so you have both originals and at least one backup on a different physical media of each photo.

Ok, when I shoot a photo from my camera, the compactflash cards where photos are stored is one physical media. When they're full, I don't erase the pictures but I get a new one for the camera and store the previous one. I also have physical USB flash drives as well as 320gb EHD.

My EHD came with a software installed from TotalMedia (Arcsoft), would that interfere with trying to use the Elements Backup Command?

[dj_paige]

Ok, when I shoot a photo from my camera, the compactflash cards where photos are stored is one physical media. When they're full, I don't erase the pictures but I get a new one for the camera and store the previous one. I also have physical USB flash drives as well as 320gb EHD.

Most people don't save their compact flash cards, which is why I didn't mention it. Yes, this counts as having a backup. However, I do not know if these are good long term storage solutions, compared to CD, DVD or EHD. Further, backing up from compact flash cards would be very time consuming compared to backing up from an EHD.

My EHD came with a software installed from TotalMedia (Arcsoft), would that interfere with trying to use the Elements Backup Command?

I am not familiar with this software. However, as long as the software is disabled and/or closed, it shouldn't interfere with anything PSE does. You should make sure you disable the software and/or close the application before you do a backup in PSE.