Thank you for the good advice,we need reminding every now and then. I'm glad you have not lost so much. G

Thank you for the good advice,we need reminding every now and then. I'm glad you have not lost so much. G

YES, backup now and often.

I put my backup in the cloud!

I don't trust those sticks too much to go wrong, so I have gone back to DVD's.

OH, how many times have I tried to tell Cuties of just this problem?????

They will also FAIL for no apparent reason, so PLEASE take notice, it doesn't take much to damage them.

Thank you Linda for reinforcing all my warnings.

The best and cheapest way to store designs is to buy re-writable DVD's, you can use them just like your pc folders and they are so cheap nowadays you can afford to have multiple copies.

Hugs n roses, Meganne

I don't have 200,000 designs, maybe 2,000, however I just got carbonite. $60 for the year and I have no worries, it does it at night when I'm not on.

Linda, I use sticks BUT have an extension hub so the sticks are not connected into the port. That way if I bump the computer the sticks are safe. Have had 2 sticks that were damaged before but managed to get the designs from them. All my designs once sorted are on my portable hard drive and another computer, so mine are backed up 3 times. TOOOOO much to lose..

I have some on my laptop and a bunch on my desktop and I have an ext. hard drive always connected to the desktop except when I take it to the sewing room to back up from the laptop. I also have a bunch of them on sticks and have to finish that too!
Glad you had most of them backed up.

hubby had a back up external drive. everything stored on it backed up from the computer guess what. somehow it died. i have ALL my designs on an external drive guess what i will be doing today. yep copying everything to discs. but i must admit to useing "yahoo save" feature and forwarding all the new designs to my yahoo account and storeing them that way, then, even if my computer crashes i can at least get them back simply by logging into my yahoo acc, and downloading them again from there
annie in the uk

I do not trust memory sticks. I put the files on my stick, but also on my computer, on an external hard drive, AND back them up on DVD. There is a much smaller chance of ALL of them going out. And if that does happen, I'll probably have much bigger problems than a technology snafu. Good luck getting your files back!!!

Hard copies-cd or dvd. Make more than one, test first before you delete your originals to make sure they work, and don't keep all the copies in the same place.
I have copies cds of dl stuff, and copies of cds after I have sorted and catalogued. May seem like a lot of work, but I have copies of things all over.

Meganne, I posted a question to your answer but it didn't bring it to the top! So please look further down. Thanks, Linda

meganne is right the cost of a dvd is about 50cents sometimes less it is important to back up and burn a data dvd it holds so much info all you need is a burning programme such as nero it is really the best way to protect yor designs

I have learned to back up two or three disks, for my family photos, I have had disks go bad too, which I learned the hard way. Family photos are dear to me and have the scrapbooks to prove it! I will do the extra backups for designs too.

Yup, Cd's, DVD's, hard drive, MacAfee whatever it's called backup system thru MacAfee Super Wonderful Virus and Protection Plan (I forgot it's name, jeez). DVD's are cheap, and you don't really need re-writables. You can sort your designs into categories, like redwork, fsl, animals, flowers, etc. and keep a DVD for each type. Add them as you get them, till the DVD is full, should take a long time. And don't forget to label them, then remember which "safe place" you put the darn things. Sigh, a mind is a terrible thing to lose... Hugs, Marji

The absolute BEST way to store your designs would be a solid state hard drive. They are more expensive than a regular hard drive, but have NO MOVING PARTS. You do not have to pay a subscription, they are not so sensitive to the sun or UV, and they are like the Energizer Bunny...they keep going and going. If your designs are very valuable to you, you might consider that. Then store it somewhere safe, like a safety deposit box at your local bank. And just to be sure, get some ARCHIVE QUALITY DVDs (important little tidbit there) and burn a copy or three. Give one to your friend or family member to put in their safety deposit box or safe place in case of fire or other disaster. Or if you are having a storm or major event that you are worried about it surviving, mail it to yourself....the slow way :)

Well, this little net book has been doing so well, that I decided to let my daily backup slide until the end of the week. I put my daily downloads in a folder dated the day they're downloaded, then drop them on a memory stick. When I have put them into my final control folder, usually once a month, then I back up that folder (CD and the stick)and delete all the dated folders. For some reason I decided Thursday that it was time to put the designs on the stick. THANK GOD. So I'm back to doing the stick every day, as soon as I finish here in the morning. I don't think that you can ever back up too much!