Backing Up your Digital Photos with Picasa

Ever since I switched to a digital camera. I have become far more prolific a photographer. While I take more pictures, I actually print far, far fewer pictures. If I average, say, 300 photos a month, I may print 1 or 2. Most stay in the digital realm — either on the various Ceiva’s I have purchased for relatives, on Flickr, in email, or simply on my hard drive.

This tutorial assumes that you have Picasa and a CD Burner on  your PC.

Many of the photos are precious, and I would hate to lose them, so here is how I take steps to avoid that loss.

I store all the photos I take for a month in a folder on my hard drive, using the following naming convention:
   YYYYMM – Month Year
 Example:   200606 – June 2006

This affords to benefits, the numeric date format allows for chronological sorting and the text date is for easy reading.

At the end of every month, I can select that folder in Picasa, then choose “Gift CD”

Picasa will then bundle up all the photos for that month, into a nice CD.

My personal Preference are the following Settings:

In the Selection and Settings Section Choose:

• Photo Size: Original Size
• Include Slideshow: Checked.

In the “Name the Gift CD” Section.

• Enter the Numeric Date (as above) for the CD title, it will always fit. 
• Include Picasa: Checked. That way If I need to restore to another computer I know I;ll have workflow software to get prints, make adjustents, etc. Hoping, of course in 10 years that PIcasa will still run on the PC I have, but that’s a rick I have to live with.

Once you have your Settings. Click “Burn Disc.”

After the First CD Is complete. Do it again, and burn another one. The extra $0.25 spent on a CD will be worth it if copy number 1 is scratched.

Now, take copy number one and store it in a safe place. I keep mine in a CD binder. Take copy two and store it in a safe place. Like your monthers house. Or your safe deposit box. This is in case of a real disaster at your house, and the primary copy of all your photos are destroyed. You’ll have another copy off site. It’s worth the effort if your memories are important.