? about computer discs

[Rhi-Anon]

I'm a little fuzzy on which applications to use the CD-R with and which to use CD-RW.

I am going to store photos on CD-R discs, after they're downloaded from the camera into the computer and edited. I'll just keep adding photos to those discs until they are full, then start another.

For data backup (my freelance invoices, my recipes, etc.) I will use CD-RW discs. That way I can copy the current files and replace the old files on the discs.

Am I doing this correctly? I've made a NY resolution to save my computer data regularly (last time I did this with my office stuff was last March!) and with the 1gb memory card in my camera almost full, I need to find a way to store all of the photos.

Also, I read somewhere that I should be making two (discs) copies of all photos, keeping one in a safe box. Does anyone do this?

[Gumbeaux]

The easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to back stuff up is to use an external hard drive. Rather than having to find, sort through, and unbox CD's, you can just click on folders and subfolders. Sorting through, loading and unloading dozens of CD's is not fun.

You can easily sort your pictures on an external hard drive using folders and sub folders like this:

2006>Winter>Christmas
2006>Spring>family reunion
2006>Summer>vacations>Hawaii

[blazedog]

Gumbeaux is absolutely correct as the best way to back up data is with an external hard drive. You can set up to do an automatic backup of everything on your computer because WHEN and I do say WHEN your computer dies unexpectedly, it will be the difference between a minor inconvenience and a disaster.

Externals are quite cheap -- I just bought my father a 250 gig model for $130 on amazon - you can get much bigger capacity but that was large enough for my father.

As to organization, I use iPhoto and my backup mirrors the organization on iPhoto -- If my computer died, it would just load everything back in completely with the database that keeps track of it, I would assume that whatever photo program, you are using has its own organization system for viewing. I also do manual backups of stuff (i.e. drag folders (documents) to my external just because I also want the peace of mind of knowing that I am not fully dependent on backup software to restore important stuff.

Redundancy for backup is critical. Although I have two external hard drives, I also keep those items which are absolutely critical (i.e. finances) stored off premises. In your case, you could burn photos to a CD each month (for example and label them January 2008). If a true catastrophe arose -- i.e. everything was lost in a fire or your entire computer system was stolen, you would be able to reload all the super critical data such as photos or finances.

[Rhi-Anon]

Okay, you got me thinking about external hard drives.

I would store photos, recipes, and a minimal amount of home business stuff. Saw this in the paper today:
Maxtor OneTouch III 60GB mini portable hard drive regular price $100, sale $60
Does is sound as though I could use this?

But for now, while I research this other option, I have the blank CD-Rs and CD-RWs.
What do I store on each type of CD???

[blazedog]

60 gigs is pretty small in terms of today's computing world -- All external hard drives have small footprints and unless you SPECIFICALLY need the portable aspect -- i.e. you travel and want to bring the external along, you are better off with a standard external -- The La Cie externals I have are each about the size of a book.

As to which to use (CD vs CD-R), I don't think it really matters although theoretically the rewritable one could be used to back up stuff that changes frequently -- i.e. your documents folder as opposed to stuff you want to archive.

I was never organized enough to really get a handle on that type of back up -- floppies, Zip Drives -- I have had them all and the easiest way for me to know that my data is safe is to use an external because everything is there organized essentially in the same way that my data is organized on the computer.

This is the one I went with from amazon ($250 gigs for $135 now but I paid $129 two weeks ago). -- I have a Firewire connection so you do need to make that you your external is correct (generally USB 2.0 versus Fireware. Incremental gigabytes are relatively inexpensive now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000117D9O/sr=8-1/qid=1168194104/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3351074-7095230?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

[Rhi-Anon]

Thanks! My office is small and cluttered and I thought a smaller external would be appropriate. But I'll keep looking. :)

[Gumbeaux]

I think a larger size would be better. Here (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1911206&CatId=2422) is a Maxtor 100GB for only $74.99.

http://images.tigerdirect.com/SKUimages/medium/M122-7200-main.jpg