Welcome to the neighbourhood LOL.

I assume you are using Windows XP? The simplest way is to right click on Start and click Explore. Assuming you only have one hard drive click the plus sign beside the C:\ in the left side to drop the menu down. Click on the folder where your photos are located to highlight it and you will see the list of photos in that folder displayed in the right side of your screen. Assuming you want all those photos burned to a CD click on the top one listed on the right side then hold the 'Shift' key down and tap the 'End' key. Now your selection is highlighted, right click anywhere on the highlighted list then click 'Copy' in the pop up menu. This copies your selection to the clipboard.

Now return to the left side and find your CD or DVD burner, right click on it and in the pop up click 'Paste'. A balloon message will appear near the clock inviting you to click there to start the burn (at some point you will have inserted a blank disk). Follow along and start the burn. Done.

If you wanted to burn selected photos rather than the entire folder simply hold the 'CTRL' (or Control) button down and click each photo needed to be burned.

Thanks for the welcome owbist. :-)

Are you a musician by any chance? [g]

Yes, I am using XP. Maybe I have an older version because to get to the C drive it is Start/My Computer. Sounds pretty simple, I will give that a try. Thanks very much. I'll let you know how it works out.

:-)
Nice neighborhood! lol

Ah, perhaps you left clicked Start, you need to use the right click then proceed from there. The right mouse button is a valuable tool that many seem to overlook or ignore, use it often, you might be amazed.

No, I am not a musician but I listen to the radio, including internet radio

Hmmm...I usually use my right click alot but I never thought of trying it from the start button.

I saw your screen name and thought you might be an oboist. :-)

I'm going to try your suggestions tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again..
pm2

Hi owbist...

Well, thank you so much! I was able to do my first back up CD and your instructions were so simple that it was painless. :-) I did end up with some questions.......

I tried to put my whole folder on and of course it was too large. [g] So I ended up doing it in batches. Which was time consuming. I should have been able to figure out how many of my photos would fit on the CD, in one try, but I wasn't sure how many KB were in a MB. Do you have any tricks for quickly determining how many files will fit on your CD?

I also checked when it was finished to see if it was full by clicking Properties and it came up with a window showing the piechart and it indicated it was full. The problem was it said the used space was 262MB and free space was 0 MB, and the CD was supposed to hold 700MB. Any idea what that is about?

I put a file on it by mistake, that I would rather not have on the CD, but I couldn't delete it. Properties show the file to be read only and when I tried to change it, a window said 'access denied'. I was puzzled for a bit but then I thought...probably because it is on the CD and once it is on, it is on there. Is that right?

I made a mistake in naming the CD and I tried to rename it but it didn't offer that option. Is that right?

Is there a certain CD brand, size or format that you would consider the best to use? I tried using the rewriteable ones once but for some reason they wouldn't work. Someone mentioned backing up to DVDs instead because it holds more files. Is that possible or advisable? I have an older Dell notebook that is about 4.5 yrs old with a CD burner. Can I back up to DVD with that?

Do you label your CDs on the inside edge or on the top of the CD itself?

It seems that in creating the CD, it doesn't allow you much room for the name of the CD. All the rest of the files on the hard drive allow me to make long titles...any thoughts on that?

Is there anything else I should know about backing up or restoring my photos from the CDs?

Lastly...and really sorry for so many questions....do you know of a good reference book on these types of computer tasks? Like PCs for Dummies or something like that? [g] It's just that I have been putting off doing quite a few things I need to do on my computer and I hate to be here every day asking 100 questions. :-)

Thanks again for all your help!
pm2

Hi Prairiemoon. To see how much a folder holds you open Explorer, right click on the folder in question then click Properties. This will tell you the total size of the folder and how many files are in there.

There is no way to tell how many files can fit on a CD simply because there are files of just a few kilobytes and other can be many megabytes. In future you might consider creating a new folder inside ÂMy documents perhaps  (open Explorer, click ÂMy documents to highlight it, click File at the top, click ÂNew click ÂFolderÂ. Type a name you wish to use. Now you can copy your photos into that occasionally doing the right click/properties thing on the folder name to check for overall folder size, stopping when you either have all the needed photos or capacity is reached.

As you have 262 megs on the CD you can add about 438 more megs to fill it. You may get a warning about compatibility but continue on. I do and it is fine. No, you cannot delete anything from a CD once it is burned. Practise a little, you may make a few throw away disks but you will learn the right way. (Any I throw away I scratch across the medium a few times in case it gets picked out of the garbage  unlikely but I am a bit cautious with family photos) All files burned to CD are ÂRead onlyÂ, they cannot be otherwise because you cannot alter them. You can copy any that need editing back to your hard drive but you will need to give it another name before being allowed to modify it. I generally add a number to the end if it is a name or a letter if the title is numerical.

Again, once the CD is burned changes are not possible so the name remains the same. You can of course write what you like on the CD using a Sharpie or getting fancy with CD labels if you plan on doing quite a few. Labelling kits are around $20 Â and up for the kit and software or the opportunity to download software from the vendorÂs site. Using a Sharpie I write right across the middle of a CD or DVD so it shows through the window of my paper sleeves. I have no time or space for the plastic things CDs go in.

I use any known brand of CD or DVD myself, I do not use off brands. Why risk failing? If the material is considered important enough to save then save it confident that it can be retrieved at a future time. I would not burn photos to a DVD simply because of the huge numbers capable of being burned. Of course if you really plan ahead and get all you photos lined up as you want them in folders and sub folders then it might be feasible. On that note, why are blank DVDs so much cheaper than blank CDs these days?

Books to my mind are not the answer regarding computers. They are out of date before they reach the street at times and can be very expensive. Personally I am a big fan of Google. Type Âphoto editing tutorial or what ever you need to know ending in Âtutorial and you will get thousands of pages come up. Look through those and find perhaps 3 that are written in a style you personally are comfortable with and save those to your Bookmarks/Favourites.

I hope this helps and I have not bored you to tears, haha.

Has it helped? More than you would expect, I am sure. The things we don't know how to do keep us from doing what we need to and you just took a big obstacle out of my way.

Bored to tears? Hardly! I don't know, if I am getting this right or not, but a person who doesn't know enough and likes to ask questions and a person who knows a lot and likes to answer them...perfect match if you ask me. lol

Have you heard that the permanent markers go through the top label and after time corrupt the contents making them irretrievable? I read something about that on one of the computer websites not so long ago and they were recommending writing on the clear part of the middle of the CD. Not much space to label though..so some people use a numbered system. I couldn't work with numbers so I try to really use abbreviations.

That's too funny...I did create a folder and put all the photos I wanted to transfer to the CD into it..all I had to do was check the properties. Duh.

Perfect idea to use the web for answers. You are right, books are out of date so fast. I remember trying to get books on computer subjects at the library and of course, they are always too old. Great suggestion.

Well...now that I know how to do it, no excuses not to get it done. :-( As I was doing this first one, I could see how I should have been labeling my photos as I uploaded them and I would have saved myself this huge job of labeling them before I back them up. This is going to take me more time than I at first thought. Oh well..

Thanks very much owbist, couldn't of done it without your help. I'm sure I will be back with more questions on other topics hopefully not until I finish the backing up of the photos.

:-) :-)
pm2

Ah, but you will know if you are getting it because of any non satisfactory output. At that point you seek clarification for the minor error you may have made.

Yes, I have heard that markers are not wise. However, I have 4 year old CDs here marked with the old standard black magic marker and I can still read the data on them. Sharpies claim to overcome that and I now use those just to feel a bit safer.

Labelling and sorting photos can be a nightmare. I recently reduced my lot from over 9,000 to around 5,000, I still feel I have 4,950 too many LOL. Do you know that right clicking on a photo brings up a spot you can write a name or comments on? Also click Summary and Advanced and you may find a wealth of information on that particular photo.

Have fun.

Hello and back again.

Sadly, no sooner did I learn how to back up to CD but the CD player on my computer is now not working right. I tried to rip a music CD right after I had created my first back up CD and the machine froze up on me and I had to shut the machine off manually. When it came back on, the computer wouldn't recognize that the CD was in the player.

I think part of the problem was that I had deleted the folder that had my extra copies of photos for the CD and the recycle bin was full of photo files and the machine was slowed down. So I did a couple of scans and cleaned up the hard drive and everything was working better. The cd player finally recognized the cd in the machine and I tried playing the cd and there were two songs that it would only play a part of and then it would stop. I tried ripping it again, but it would stop in the middle of ripping on those two songs too. Plus, it put a good size scratch in a brand new music cd that wasn't mine. Later, that cd was played in the car and had no problem playing the whole cd.

So...now I don't trust the cd player and not sure I should continue to try to put my photos on cd with it. My computer is over 4 years old and out of warranty so we are just waiting out it's eventual demise and don't really want to replace the cd player. I still have a lot of files to back up. Photos, music, spreadsheets...etc. So thinking maybe I should buy some memory sticks and put them on those?

Is there some other idea that I haven't thought of?

Thanks
:-)
pm2

The computer freezing could be heat related. Do you know how many fans are in there and if they are still spinning? How long since removed the left side cover and cleaned out the dust bunnies?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space does it have? Click Start, click My computer and you will see your hard drive listed as C:\ and it will give the content, free space and total size. The free space should be 25% or more for the swap file to work efficiently.

How much RAM (memory) do you have now? Not sure? Click Start/Control panel/System to bring up the System properties window and it will tell you near the bottom of the window. Extra memory is the cheapest upgrade we can make and RAM is at a good price these days.

What were the 'couple of scans' that you did?

Funny you should bring up the heat. I was going to ask you about that. Yes, my computer does seem to get warm on the bottom all the time. Also when I take the CD out, the CD is hot. No, I haven't taken off the side panel to clean it out, I did have the hard drive replaced about 6 months ago and the tech would have had it open right? That would have been the last time it was opened.

I don't know how many fans I have or if they are working or not. Or how to take off the side panel and clean it out. I don't see any screws on the left side but the right side has a little door about 4 inches long that has a screw in the middle of it.

I have a 55GB hard drive and about half of it is full. 512MB of RAM.

The scans I did were Spybot and Adaware. I used to also use A squared, but I went to upgrade it and couldn't remove the old one to install the new one for some reason so I have been without it for a few weeks.

I use my computer wireless with a cable connection and a router. I didn't set it up though, a friend did.

List a make and model and I am sure someone here will know how to remove the left side panel - we are talking about a desktop computer and not a laptop I hope. Look on the rear, there might be 2 screws holding the side on.

If yours is a factory built computer you no doubt have 2 fans, one on the power supply that can be seen from the rear. The other is on the CPU, or processor, to keep that cool. These can and do collect dust to the point they clog. Also under the processor fan is the finned heatsink that can get clogged and cause the computer to overheat and shut down. Shutting down is your safety valve, computers are designed to shut down at a certain point to protect the components.

50% free space on the hard drive is good. 512 megs of RAM is adequate for basic computing, you probably would notice a speed difference if you had more. However any memory you buy will probably not be capable of migrating to a new computer in the future. So you would need to assess the worth of spending the money if you do not run high end games or heavy duty photo editing etc.

Spybot Search & Destroy, latest update August 1st and AdAwareSE, latest update July 31st, are both excellent programs. I run mine every week or 2, more often if I have visited doubtful sites.

Sorry, it is a Dell laptop that is 4.5 yrs old.

Actually, today I thought I heard a fan come on and I felt a little air coming out of the back of it. Plus, my computer never shuts down. Occasionally it freezes but there is usually a reason, like all the photos in my recycle bin, or I forgot to scan for awhile, or I have too many programs open at the same time. You know what, it just occurs to me, that I just developed a problem with the case. It is catching the plastic edge when I open it and I am going to have to have someone look at it before the whole thing comes apart. I was thinking of calling a local tech that I have a card for, that comes to your house. Maybe I could have him/her take it apart and check the fans and clean it out if I have to do that anyway. Although I wonder how they get parts from Dell? What is a reasonable amount to pay someone for tech support outside of your warranty, would you know? Oops! I bet you don't know...lol.

I do remember someone telling me before that the RAM was a little on the small side. I understand that is limited but really I don't do games and I use the editing program that came with the camera which is just your basics. For the most part I manage with the size and probably wouldn't invest in any upgrades because I am planning on buying a new one as soon as I have gone as far as I can go with this machine. I'm very happy with my memory size and upload all the photos I want without thinking about it.

With Adaware and Spybot, I update every time I open it and run it often too. I also have Firefox with NoScript and Adblock Plus. I just have the free versions of them. The asquared program is supposed to scan for hijacks, I think. It wouldn't allow me to update and I went to their troubleshooting forum and they recommended I upgrade. The upgrade instructions were to remove the old one first with add/remove, which I did, but when I went to install, it wouldn't. I went looking and found the asquared folder on my hard drive, despite the add/remove list showing it had been removed. I tried to remove it manually by deleting it and it wouldn't let me. So, I just left it.

I could probably do without my CD player if it doesn't work, as I already have a lot of music on my hard drive. So would using a memory stick to back up my photos be the best solution, if the cd player doesn't work? When I get a new machine, without a cd player, how would I transfer all the info from one machine to the other?

Thanks
:-)

If you are considering buying a new computer in the near or reasonably near future then why spend even a single dollar on this one? A tech might be $50 to $100 per hour plus any parts needed.

Your next computer will come with a DVD burner to burn anything you wish. In the meantime check out Best Buy before Saturday closing. They are offering a 2 gig Sandisk flash drive for $19.95 - an $18 savings. Others may have similar offers.

Once the new computer arrives you can burn the photos to CD

Wow, that is really expensive!! Guess that is out of the question. I am trying to be so careful with this casing. Everytime I open it I have to put my finger on the edge where it catches and hold it down so it won't rip it off. It appears that the hinge is not right on that side. I worry that if it keeps getting worse, it might effect the way it runs because opening and closing it puts it into hibernation.

I've been using 2GB Sandisk memory cards for my photos and I'm just about full right now. I was going to delete them off the cards and reuse after I backed up my photos that are already on the computer, but now I was thinking I may as well just get another 2GB memory card and leave all my photos on the memory cards they are already on. I have more photos than I could fit on a 2GB drive. And that won't help me to back up music and spreadsheets, etc on the current machine so I will be able to transfer them from one computer to the other, right?