Backup! Backup! Backup!
by Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour:
I sometimes feel like a broken record, telling people to backup their photos. Just when I figure that *everyone* has the idea and I can rest, I read something like this post in the Picasa Help Group where someone lost 15,000 photos when their computer crashed. !?#!!??@!!
How can anyone possibly collect that many pictures without at some point wondering, “What would happen if my computer crashed, or it got stolen, or it fell out of the car, or it burned up in a fire or … “
One of the biggest reasons that I recommend Picasa so highly is that it makes backups SO easy. First, let me make sure we understand each other with the term ‘Backup.’ It means having a copy of your photos somewhere separate from your computer. These are for emergency purposes. I recommend using CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. I buy the discs in bulk, they come 50 to a spindle. I make a backup every month, of that month’s photos. Then I put the backup discs on an old spindle and keep them in a cupboard. I’ve been backing up photos and other important files this way for over 10 years. I had occasion to look thru some of the older backup discs the other day, and the pictures were in perfect shape.
Here’s a step-by-step of how you might back up Pictures, using Picasa, for a whole year:
- Tools, Backup Pictures
- Click ‘New Set’ give it a name of 2009
- Check the box next to every folder of pictures in 2009 (that’s easy for me because I store all my pictures in folders by month)
- Picasa reports that I’ve selected 4,347 files and I’ll need 18 CDs or 3 DVDs. I choose DVDs ( I use the DVD-R type)
- Put a DVD in the drive and click ‘Burn’
- Wait until it completes that DVD. It will spit it out and display a message requesting the second DVD. Then it repeats for the third.
- When it’s all completed, label the disks with a Sharpie marker then take the disks to another computer to test them. There’s nothing worse than thinking you have good backups and finding out much later (when you need them) that they didn’t process correctly. When you first put them in the drive, you should be prompted to do a Restore. You don’t want to restore, you just want to look and see that the pictures are there, so cancel the restore prompt. What you want to do is ‘Explore’ or ‘Open Folder to View Files.’ If you see that option, just choose it. If not, you can go to My Computer and right click on the DVD drive, then choose Explore. You should see a folder called $My Pictures. That’s where all your photos are.
Do it! Do it now! Here’s a very short video I made a while back that goes thru the process:
A longer, more detailed video on Backup is available as well.
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Hi, Chris. Two questions: is there a reason you back up to DVDs rather than an external drive? Do both work fine?
Is it fine to backup my photos using the old “copy” a folder to the disc/external drive method? Or is there something special about backing up using the Picassa software? I find it easier to just copy my picture folders at the same time I copy other folder to my external drive… and I am assuming it works fine…
Thanks for all you do for us bumbling travelers.
Hi Laurie,
External Hard Drives are great. I use one for nightly backup. I see DVDs as more permanent. I burn them once then never touch again. I have some DVDs of old photos that have long been deleted from my computers and external hard drives. But the CDs/DVDs are still on their spindle up in the cupboard.
I also leave a set of disks at my Mom’s house. If the motorhome should go up in flames, my computer *and* my external hard drive goes with it. My backup disks (actually these are ‘archival’) wit my precious photos are still at my Mom’s.
As for simply copying a folder – yes, that’s fine. Both the original photo and Picasa’s .ini record of edits will be there. The one thing you would lose is ‘Albums’ since that data is stored with your User profile. Picasa’s Backup command gets that as well.
Chris,
I tried your back-up suggestion with my almost 1100 Alaska pix.
Picasa said it would require 3 CD’s. I followed the prompts as it asked me to add subsequent CD’s. However, I did somehow miss the labeling step. After burning all 3 CD’s I put them in another computer to check them. CD #1 and 2 were blank and CD # 3 had an entirely different folder copied rather than my Alaska pix.
When I try to redo, Picasa thinks I’ve already backed them up so it no longer shows Alaska folder visable. Because I didn’t label, they are not in the drop down box. Help
Judy,
The way to fix the ‘Picasa thinks I’ve already backed them up’ problem is to create a New Set. With a New Set – you’ll be starting from scratch.
I thought using picasa WAS a form of backing up my pictures? They’re stored online, right? Even if my computer is destroyed, can’t I go to picasa on a new computer and view/download my pictures?
PS I haven’t downloaded the program yet. Still looking around for what will work best for me. My main issue is lowering the amount of space pictures take up as I have an older computer without much space. Backing up hadn’t actually occurred to me but now that you mention it……DUH! How could I not?
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the ‘Backup’ reminder.
I run a scrapbooking store and I have been told by one of my suppliers that the Sharpie pen is not recommended for marking on CD’s and DVD’s, due to an ingredient that can actually ‘eat’ through the CDs and destroy information on the disc. It becomes corrupted and ‘missing’ bits. They recommend the Identipen which is safe on the discs.
Just thought I should pass this on for your perusal.
Trying to back up pictures to a cd. I get a message that Picasa cant properly write the disc. What am I doing wrong? thanks for any help
Not sure. I’d try a different disk – sometimes they are bad.
I’d try rebooting the computer – you’d be surprised all the problems that fixes.
Hello,
I have a backup strategy to backup all my photos already, strategy that include the use of external drive, DVD and even cloud storage. What I would like to know is if you would have some good advice on how to backup the picasa database only regularly : which files, which method to be used, etc. In an situation where a restore/recovery would be necessary, I would like to avoid rescanning the drive the rebuild the database, specially that now with the new tag feature, it take a lot of effort to create such database.
thanks,
Pierre
Copying the folders gets the basics … all the photos plus the edits stored in the picasa.ini files. When you backup it also gets the album info in C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2Albums
The ‘database’ is stored at C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\Google\Picasa2 but it’s not just a simple matter of copying pasting. Go to the picasa user’s forum (http://www.google.com/support/forum) and search for ‘backup database’ for lots more info.
Isn’t there a better way to backup the database? Shouldn’t the picture backup just do that too! =(
[...] I don’t Need Backups because I use Picasa This one truly surprises me, but I hear it over and over. People have heard that Picasa includes Picasa Web Albums and, for some reason they think that it automatically puts all your pictures on the Web Albums. No, No, No. Picasa is software on your computer, PIcasa Web Albums is a free online photo-sharing website that is a companion to Picasa. First of all, even if you do upload your pictures to Picasa Web Albums, I don’t consider that a backup. Picasa Web Albums is a method to share your pictures with friends and family. You still want your original safe on your computer and backed up to CD/DVD or external Hard Drive. Secondly, Picasa doesn’t do anything automatically … it’s good, but it’s not magic! Picasa includes a command to ‘Backup Pictures’ … it’s very easy … USE IT! See past article: Picasa Web Albums Also: Backup! Backup! Backup! [...]
Hello, Was told Picasa might be able to help me with a problem. Don’t use Picasa but I am interested now that I know it exists. I backup my digital photos to a USB memory stick. Purely an amateur learning as I go along. When I load my stick the computer doesn’t pick up. I was told I have a corrupt file on it and the computer wont read it. I had been dragging photos and puting files in order when something went wrong. What can I do now? Would appreciate your advice.Anna
See if you can view the pictures on the USB drive using My Computer. If so, all is well – although I would use another backup method then. Picasa makes it very easy to backup to CDs – it will burn the CD for you. Here’s the article on backup: http://picasatutorials.com/2009/09/backup-backup-backup/
Hello, Thank you for your reply. Tried your advice but to no avail. The computer doesn’t recognise the memory stick. Is all lost or can the ’stick’ be fixed? Anna
I would try the ’stick’ in someone else’s computer and see what happens.
Yes, Don Lind is the best. He knows more than anyone, and he explains in depth. But … realize that the post you refer to is from 2007.