How to: Backup your pictures with Picasa

If you have pictures on your hard drive, you need to back them up.  All hard drives fail after time, it’s a matter of when, not if.  The easiest way to backup pictures is to use Picasa.  If you’re not using it already, you should be -  it is hands down the best (and free) photo management system available for the PC.

To backup your pictures, 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…

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