… but I’m at a real loss.
I have loaded all my pictures onto my computer. So far so good. But now, with about 3000 pictures of “fine” resolution on it, the computer doesn’t want to run at regular speed. I don’t have any CD’s to copy to … plus, it would require 97 hundred, give or take, disks … but do have 4.7GB, DVD’s. Can I copy my pictures (believe the word should be “burn”) to the DVD’s? If so, is the process similar to the burning to CD’s?
A computer geek I’m not!! 
Help?
Betty
Yes, you can burn your pics to a DVD provided that your CD/DVD burner can burn to a DVD, and the process is the same. CD’s only have 700 MB of space, while DVD’s have 4.7 GB of space. I stopped burning to CD’s once I got my new 12 megapixel camera because it was only capable of holdind about 100-200 pics. I only use DVD’s now and am much happier with being able to burn multiple picture files. Make sure you get DVD that are rewritable so that you can burn pics onto the DVD at multiple settings.
Hi Betty,
First off, I’m not sure why having pictures on the hard drive would slow up the operating speed of the computer. Maybe restarting the system may get things back to where they were.
Anyway, yes you can burn them to DVD. This is an excellent idea. It will give you piece of mind, so if your hard drive crashes, you will have copies. Assuming you have a DVD writer, you should have software that will allow you to do it in similar fashion to burning a CD. However, I’m not well versed enough to guide you through it via the bulletin board. If you have a friend or relative who can sit down next to you and guide you through it, you will become an expert at it in no time. Now, what I do, is back up my pictures to CD and keep them at work so if anything should happen at home, I have copies stored safely somewhere else. I also use an external hard drive to back up copies of pictures and documents. The nice thing is it does it automatically every day. Had the hard drive crash a couple of months ago and I was glad I had the irreplacable pictures of my family safely backed up. Storage is cheap, having to send out a hard drive to have data recovered is not.
Good luck, Tom.
Betty,
As others have noted burning your images to DVD is a perfect solution. I’m pushing more than 10,000 images on my desktop system and like others I burn them to DVD on a regular schedule. The DVDs are then taken to the bank and go in the safe deposit box should the unthinkable ever happen. In addition I backup my system to an external hard drive once a week as an added precaution (I’m an IT guy I have to think about “worst case scenarios”).
Burning your images to DVD is really no different than burning them to CD. As others have noted you’ll need a DVD burner drive (most computers sold in the last 2-3 years will have one), and the appropriate software. If your computer came with a DVD burner it probably came with the necessary software as well. If for some reason you don’t have the right software a couple of options are Roxio Creator 2009 or Nero Ultra Edition 8. I use Roxio Creator 2008 at home and like it well enough. Nero Ultra Edition is a better product, but is more geared toward the “tech savy” whereas Roxio is geared toward ease of use rather than an all encompasing feature set (like Nero).
I’ve pretty much used everything out there so I’d be more than happy to walk you through the process via PM if you like.
Brian
If memory is the issue, use a flash drive. Its a little memory stick, and can be found really cheap anywhere. Heres an 8gb for 30$, which is a good deal!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8472351&type=product&id=1185265539078
OK! … Spent the past 5 hours burning pictures to DVD’s! Gawd! What a process!! Did figure it out, but it wasn’t pretty!!:rolleyes:
Duh! Speed wasn’t affected by the removal of the pics (Scooter is right!), but it made a difference to empty the cache!
If I can now make myself backup everything more regularly it shouldn’t take near as much time, next time!
Thank you guys for your wonderful help!!
Betty,
I’m glad you’ve worked through the DVD burning. I’ve done a lot of that and have all my photos on numerous CD’s and DVD’s. I’ve never been comfortable with those little plastic discs though. I finally have some peace of mind since I started backing up on portable hard-drives (Mine is 175 G). They cost around a $100 (about 50 cents/gigabyte of storage), hold tons of photos and they are fast. I now have multiple copies of our photos and I am a happy guy. Who’d a thunk it that redundancy is so comforting? Several professional photographers, I know go this route (with much bigger drives, Terabyte size) and further back up their images “in the cloud” by paying for online storage space that also has multiple back-up servers…
BW
Portable hard drives are fast and can store huge amounts of data but there is a problem. They are fragile as my friend found out. His daughter wanted to use the laptop and the portable hard drive was connected. When she grabbed the laptop the portable hard drive fell to the floor and he lost all the family photos. Well nearly because some computer geek managed to retrieve most of them after a few others had failed. It was a close call and the portable drive was ruined just after falling down less than a feet. I would choose a more permanent sturdy storage medium than a portable hard drive.
Betty -
Burning to DVD is the right thing to do. Now, all you have to do is burn the new ones since you already have all the old ones.
Second, you may want to invest in one of the USB external hard drives.
Next, you may want to defragment your hard drive. (depending on the system, Visat or XP assuming you’re running Windows) the steps to get there are slightly different but the end result is the same. This usually speeds disk access a little bit too.
Hope this helps
Jeff
Hi Betty,
I hope you labeled your disk well or it will be a pain finding the pics you want sometime down the road. Here is a link to freeware for cleaning up your registry and temp files http://www.ccleaner.com/download. Its CCleaner. Great program. My brother who is an IT guy at Sutter Health turned me onto it years ago.
Select the download from FileHippo.com. From there it will walk you through the download process. Be sure after you run the analysis under Registry to select ‘yes’ when it prompts you to save a backup. After the backup, run the ‘fix problem’. You will be amazed at how much faster your computer will run. Be forwarned that all of your usernames and passcodes will have to be re-entered as these registries have been cleared. You can deselect certain cleanup criteria so you don’t have to go through the hassle of typing in your user name and passcode, especially those you may have forgotten.
Hope this helps.
I downloaded Windows Live OneCare and let it “do it’s thing”. Things seem much better on my computer now.
Jon,
That’s why I suggested that more than one is a good idea…
I didn’t read through the whole thread so forgive me if this idea was already posted. Betty, portable hard drives (Back Up HDs) are cheap now. It’s a good investment. I back up my important stuff to that now. It beats loosing everything when my computer HD crashes. It’s a whole lot easier than loading your photos to DVDs…and besides…unlike most people think, the DON’T last forever. I have a whole set of Gary LaFontaine tying videos (9) that have proven that. (not from use…they were just sitting there)
:shock: Holy smokes! I thought they were better than that!! Will be headed to the computer store today! <ha! just what I need … learn something new again today!!:rolleyes:
That you did and it is a good suggestion. It is never a good idea to keep all of ones eggs in one basket. In this case all of the same eggs can be kept in multiple baskets. CD’s, DVD’s, portable hard drives, USB storage, memory cards and online storage (many service providers out there). With all these options and by using a few of them no one needs to loose their photos anymore. 
Well, Betty, am glad you brought it up. Here is a lesson for all to learn. I bought a registry tune up program the other day, a highly recommended one, and did not back up my files prior to running the program. I had backed up my hard drive not too long ago on some bargain basement DVDs and decided not to make another backup set as recommended by the program.
You probably guessed where this is going. Not only did I loose everything on my hard drive but the cheapo discs that I used for the backup set failed! I only lost a few photos because I have them stored on other devices as well as online. A “Triad” of storage places is the way to go!
This was a real brain cramp for a guy that loves to build PC’s. My current PC really had nothing wrong with it. It is a purpose built H-P for Vista and has been running flawlessly for over 2 1/2 years. I got greedy and just had to push an already blazing fast machine a little harder, duh.
Before you go running off to the PC or Apple store take a look at these guys:
This is one great company for PC items and other electronics too. Reasonable prices, superior shipping and great live help both online and on the telephone.
OMG!!! Talk about brain cramp!! “Defragment”, “External hard drive”, “triad”, “hippos”, … Arragghhhh! Wish the grandkids lived closer!! All this comes as second nature to them.:roll: It’ll take me a few days (weeks, months! ha!) but I’ll get there!! Here goes that learning curve again!
Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY! I know the feeling, Betty. Can really make one feel like they are up over their chest waders in alligators. O.K. I will stop with the zoological humor. :lol:
Here is a terrific guide for the computer. These books are great and you can find them on eBay or amazon at reduced prices:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/Section/Operating-Systems.id-100014.html
Just do a Google search for windows for dummies or mac for dummies. These books are for real and a must for all of us. Should come as standard issue with a computer.
Betty, I have a question. If there are no fish in South Dakota, just what were you taking pictures of? And why so many?
For a fee, say a few furled leaders and a rod (Elk Horn I believe it was), I could make the 3 hour trip and help you with your computer problems.
