False alarm! Restarting fixed the problem. I have my 'F' drive back! Yay!

Lydia, I'm glad your problem is solved, but it reminded me of a question I've been wanting to ask here and for some reason have not thought to do so while I've been here.

Perhaps you or someone else here can answer the question for me.
I want to put some pictures onto a CD, I noticed you said a CD-r. Is that the kind where you can go back and add photos at a later date or is it a CD with other letters on it that I need?

Also, are DVDs used just to put videos on, or can photos be put on them too?

I just need to know what to buy when I start scanning photos.

Thanks ever so much...

Linda

I want to know the same thing as Linda! I want to save pictures from wherever they are in the computer to a disc that I can keep safe in case the computer crashes. I have some discs by Dynex that say DVD+R.

Thanks!

Linda,

I wasn't really sure which type to buy either, but the CD-R works great and I was able to add pictures, then go back and add more later.

This is how I did mine. Put the blank cd into the drive first. Went to 'my computer' clicked on 'floppy disc' (cause that is where some of my pictures were), then right clicked the one I wanted , then clicked 'save as' 'F drive' (yours might be 'E drive'). Once they were all there I went back to 'my computer' and chose 'F drive', then my wizard comes up automatically and writes the pictures to the cd (with a few prompts by me). Then it is ready to use!

I don't know about the DVD discs.

Also I wonder if you will need to resize your pictures before saving since you are scanning them?? Maybe someone else can tell you.

Thanks Lydia.

You can go back and add photos to a cd-r at a later date if you don't finalize your project. But if you want to access your files from anything other than the computer you burned them on, you need to finalize. (this is the case with my burning sofware - Roxio. It may differ with other programs)

A cd-rw is a re-writable disk - you can use it over and over.

You can certainly put pictures on a DVD (you must have a DVD burner - you cannot use a burner that is only a CD burner to burn DVD's - but most DVD burners will also burn CD's!)

I store all my pictures on DVD's - as they hold so much more. Twice a year I back up ALL my pictures onto DVD.

As soon as I download my pictures onto my computer, I back them up to an external hard drive so that I have them stored in two places. I store the twice yearly DVD backups in a different location - so if we have a fire or such - I have my pictures, video's and documents.

Thanks to you all. I have made a backup of something or other on these DVDs before, so I guess I have a burner. I seem to have more computer than I am using. I will be brave and try saving the pics.

I'd like to know if you can put photos on a CD that are on 110 Kodak film.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

I want to back up my computer info. I'm not sure what I need to put it on. What I have is a LightScribeDVD SuperMulti Drive/CD-Burner. I know it takes more than a regular CD, but can't remember what it is I need.
Leslie

Iowagirl - you said But if you want to access your files from anything other than the computer you burned them on, you need to finalize. How do you finalize it? Mine have been 'burned', but I'd like to be able to use it on a new computer if I get one.

In my burning software - I have the choice to finalize or not to finalize...I am sure that doesn't help you much! LOL

Karen - you can scan the photos - or if you have the negatives - you can buy a scanner that also scans slides/negatives. I bought a great Epson scanner for $60 that does an awesome job on slides/negatives. It will do several slides/negative frames at once and put them in seperate files. Then you can put those files on a CD!

Be aware that a CD-R and CD+R are 'write once' and read many times media. That is, once a apace on the disk has been written to, it is no longer available for writing. You can delete a file, but the space it occupied will not be available anymore.

Now this part, I'm not to sure about - I'd have to do some checking - but, I recall that a space is reserved for the directory which is about 50 KB. Anytime the disk is 'opened' and new files added, a new directory must be written when the disk is closed. This new directory gets written into ther reserved space and the space where the old directory was gets marked off limits. After awhile, the disk runs out of reserved space for directories and can longer accept new files because there is no more "new" unwritten space available either for new directories or for files. Clicking on "properties" will show the disk not full when in fact it has no more 'new' space to write to.

CR-R and CD+R work best for a one time mass file transfer, i.e., 20 files are written to CD from a hard drive in one drag-and-drop opertion. Or maybe, a folder (containing a bunch of files) is dragged and dropped to the CD. One should check for the amount of space needed for the files, else the copy process will balk before the entire set of files have been transferred (when the file transfer runs out of space).

CDRW refers to read and write. It operates just like any other magnetic media, e'g', floppy disk and hard drives. The space on a CDRW can be erased and written to again. It does have a limited re-write time, however. Any one area can be rewritten from 1000 to 10,000 times and then becomes 'worn out'.

I have heard arguments both pro and con about which is the best media for archiving - CR R or CDRW. The CD R proponents say that since any specific region on the disk is written only once, it will retain the data best of all; Others say that a CDRW can do just as well so long as it has not been overwritten on a regular basis.

I tend to use CDRW for everything and format before using. I keep a few formatted disks on hand. In that way, I don't have to think about a bunch of stuff when I suddently need a CD - I just grab one out of my formatted stash and go.

Very informative Jemdandy! Thank you!

The newest and best way to preserve your pictures is really on a memorystick, or some call it flash drive...

One of these:

Moni

Here is a link that might be useful: usb flash drives

Moni - I have had 3 of those fail (and I have lost a couple to boot - where do I put those things!) I wouldn't use a USB drive for any long term storage - same goes for your camera's card (they are the basically the same thing in a different package - flash memory)

DVD's are around $1 each and hold over 4 GB. The last 1 GB flash drive I bought was $12. Not that DVD's and CD's are perfect for long term storage either - it is possible for them to fail also. I try to be redundant and store in more than one location and type of media. I also have most of what I really want to keep printed.

When I do a full backup of My Documents - it takes 5 DVD's - that would be a lot of $$ in USB flash drives.

This is something I would like to know more about.

When I find, or scan, a picture and click Save, A box comes up that says CD burning. I click on the arrow and go to a list like this:Recovery..D, DVDRW..E,Removable DiskF,G,H,I. I save the pic to E.

CD burning shows the same list as E. ???

What are F,G,H,I used for?

What I'm doing works, but I don't understand those other choices.

Are there any good Tutorials online?

Sue

F is just the second cd slot. I use F because my E doesn't work. G, H and I are camera memory card slots I believe. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me.