By Request: How to Backup all My Pictures?

Thanks KF for asking a great question, and something that almost everyone with a digital camera is going to ask at some point in time!

There are several ways to backup items on your computer; burning files to DVD (See Infra Recorder), using online backup services such as Mozy, or as simple as taking your flash memory to any photo processing location, and letting them archive the pictures to CD/DVD.

But in this case, when talking specifically about pictures, I only have one way that I will back them up: Picasa!

That’s right, you read that right, Picasa! I’ve told you before about how much I love Picasa, especially Picasa 3! Well, now, here’s one more reason to love it even more!

Open Picasa, and go to Tools, Backup Pictures.

At the bottom of Picasa, the Backup steps (all two of them) appear:

First, either accept the default backup set name, or create/edit the set in Step 1. The set can be customized to backup to DVD, or to a drive (good if you are backing up to an external Hard Drive, or network drive), as well as choosing All file types, All Pictures, or only JPEG with Camera Information. I go with the default, because I want my movies backed up as well (I have Picasa “watch” my home movies folder as well).

If this is your first time backing up your pictures, you will want to choose “Select All” in step 2, otherwise, Picasa will automatically select all the pictures that have not been backed up since your last backup.

Also, if you wish, you can manually select the folders that you want to backup.

If you have a lot of pictures, it may take a couple of DVD’s to backup, but trust me, it’s a LOT better to have a backup of those precious memories, than your hard drive going “clack clack clack” with the only copy of your pictures on it…

Restoring from the Picasa DVD Backups is just as easy as the backup process. Simply insert the DVD, let the auto-play run, and a nice restore wizard asks you if you want to restore to the original location, or a new one. Easy as pie!

REMEMBER: ALL HARD DRIVES GO BAD! It’s a matter of when – not if!

Backup often, cry less…