Okay, I just bought an external hard drive. Now what? Do I move all of my files onto it? I'm scared of losing them. HELP!

My external hard dr. I DL all my designs and unplug it after each DL. this way I don't ever worry about losing the designs. All r checked 4 viruses prior to DL so I'm set if Laptop ever crashes. *

1 comment

by americangirl 15 Sep 2008

I have been turning off, I thought that was enough. I will start to unplug it.
Thanks so much for your help. I appreciate all the imput I get.
:o)

Thanks for asking, now there is a lot of info!

1 comment

by americangirl 14 Sep 2008

Yes, I needed all the help I could get.

My suggestion is 1-Copy all yr embroidery Design into the External Hard Drive.

2-Keep yr existing file intact. So its just a 'Control+A' to select all files and 'Control/CTrl + C" to copy; "Control/Ctrl + V" to paste them into yr external hard drive.

3- Burn yr existing files from yr Hard disk to DVD disc. Make few sets since DVD disc is cheap now.

These are my suggestions. I dont think embroidery designs are that big?

1 comment

by americangirl 14 Sep 2008

Thanks for your help.

I don't keep my files on my machine...they're all on my external (slows the computer down too much to house all of them locally)... HOWEVER, I do back up the content onto DVDs weekly, since external drives have been known to fail. xoxo

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

This is what I was thinking. To help speed the computer up.
Thank you.

I copied and pasted mine then checked to make sure they were there before I deleted them off the computa but please make sure you do do regular backups on cd or dvd as they to can fail.

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

Okay, thanks for your help.

I have mine in files on hard drive and have copied and pasted them onto a flash stick and also saved them onto DVD

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

Good idea. I hate the idea of losing them. Thanks so much.

Yes, don't move them over, copy them over. My new drive just burned up. I'm so glad I copied instead of moved! Whew!

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

Yeah - I bet. There is so much to learn.
Thanks.

DO NOT MOVE your files COPY them. putting them into folders

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

This is why I'm nervous. I don't know what I'm doing. I have so much to learn.
Thanks. :o)

You actually should use your external hard drive to store your backups.
write me before you do anything and I will explain how to set it all up. hugs, Meg

1 comment

by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

Thanks Meg.

Whatever you do, always keep copies of your files in at least two places - then at least if one drive crashes, you still have copies of your files.

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by americangirl 09 Sep 2008

Thanks for the tip. I need all the help I can get. :o)

I would not delete them from your computer. Just copy them and paste them to your External Drive. I would also burn DVD's with the designs on them. Even External drives can crash. I store mine in all of the above. Now, there are also online services, that backup the files for you, for a fee, like the link I am enclosing. I hope this helps. :)

1 comment

by americangirl 08 Sep 2008

Thank you so much. I will check it out.

Joye, to be save - just copy them over - until you are comfortable to delete them - LOL!

3 comments

by americangirl 08 Sep 2008

Do I need to burn a current back-up first? I really don't know what I'm doing. Is this how you store your designs? Thanks.

by meganne 09 Sep 2008

You actually should use your external hard drive to store your backups.
write me before you do anything and I will explain how to set it all up. hugs, Meg

by shirlener88 09 Sep 2008

There you go Joye, Meg will assit you!