Comments on: Backup! Backup! Backup!

By: Nancy

Nancy — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:45:07 +0000

Can someone please tell me whether I need multiple picasa db files? I have about 7 of them and they are taking up a huge amount of my hard drive space. I have googled and found lots of info on how to move databases and use databases with multiple computers, but I just want to know if I can delete these db files (which are all approximately the same size). Thanks in advance!!

By: jbtibor

jbtibor — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:00:13 +0000

With Picasa you only get 1 GB for free so unless you use more accounts the 1 GB runs out very fast.
If you are looking for free storage there’s Dropbox where you get 2 GB and SkyDrive where you get 25 GB (not a typo, twenty-five GB, however there’s a 50/100 MB limit on file size).

Flickr’s 25 USD per year for unlimited storage, bandwidth _and_ file size is very cheap.
Look at online backup solutions, there you may find similar prices _and_ backup software too.

For cloud backups you may also look at Amazon S3, there are backup software what can backup there.

By: jbtibor

jbtibor — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:47:22 +0000

Picasa doesn’t make backups easy, it makes it more complicated actually because there’s no single location where _all_ data is stored so if one wants a complete backup needs the image files, the .picasa.ini files and Picasa’s internal database.

By: Dennis Murphy

Dennis Murphy — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:55:39 +0000

I also used to use CDs, DVDs, and External Hard drives (NAS drive evetually) for backing up my photos. But I finally bit the bullet and am now paying for a subscription to Dropbox. I use it all the time anyway to sync my work and home pc & iMac together, so I figured for some peace of mind I could sync the 70Gig I have of pics onto their cloud. I have noticed some data corruption previously using CD’s/DVDs/HDD’s, so I’m hoping that the cloud backup plus my NAS drive at home should be a bit more reliable.

By: Brian Wood

Brian Wood — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:40:54 +0000

The rule of thumb as I have heard it around our IT department and other people I know of who work in IT is that CDR or DVDR media is not good for anything you want to store for over 2-3 years. With the price of external hard drives so low that seems to be the safest option.

By: Jason Young

Jason Young — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:32:17 +0000

Do you backup (check the folders) the people albums, too? I see this doubles the backup size. If I don’t include people albums will it have to rebuild faces again??

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:24:34 +0000

I am restoring pictures using backup discs I made with Picasa. Three of the four discs worked perfectly. Unfortunately, one of them seems to have a corrupted file. Once it hits this file in the restore process everything stops and it won’t restore the photos that follow. It won’t allow me to delete the corrupted file either.
Any suggestions?

By: Marvel

Marvel — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:07:56 +0000

Just a quick note, you should use DVD+R in preference to DVD-R disks if you drive supports them. The DVD+R format has additional error correction written to the disks which make them more durable and less likely to coaster. The only thing DVD-R disks are useful for is to copy DVD movies that you are playing back on a really old DVD player that doesn’t support DVD+R as well.

By: Andy May

Andy May — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:09:14 +0000

I used to back up all the images on the USB drive too. Somehow, I felt that it was too bad to let the images be lost on account of a USB malfunctioning. I went ahead and bought a pro account at Flickr. Too bad, it did not dawn on me that I could have used Picasa and save the 2 year cost I incurred.

Does not hurt to add a backup on Picasa too.

By: Chris Guld

Chris Guld — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:04:15 +0000

When you use Picasa’s backup command, create a New Set and choose the option to backup to a drive and folder rather than to a CD.