Josephine It's not a good idea to rely on a CD/DVD for long term backup because they have a limited life. From experience I have seen some become unreadable within a few years. At work we received some software on CD but after a couple of years we started getting errors and had to try the CD in different drives to read it but it got worse and the disk became unreadable within about 3 years. A good branded CD/DVD should be better but these days when things are made to a price its difficult to know just how good they are and how long they will last. I do have some backup CDs which are 5-6 years old and still appear to be OK. There were stories several years ago that some of the older music CDs beginning to disintegrate. Better to have backup in depth perhaps making a new CD/DVD backup every few months or annually and keeping them away from the house in case of a fire etc. With having multiple copies if a file gets corrupted on one CD there is a good chance it will be ok on some of the other CDs. As an intermediate backup you can regularly copy your data to another internal or external disk. Once you have done an initial copy you can setup Windows to copy over any new or changed files at regular intervals. I also keep a backups of some files on my laptop computer but you do have to be careful. I once started editing the version of the Family Tree on the laptop but later realised that it was not the latest version as it did not contain some recent additions. It took some time to identify the differences and make the changes!! Chris Jefferies Cheltenham Glos From: bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Josephine Jeremiah Sent: 08 January 2011 10:09 To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com Subject: [B&S] Saving family photographs (was Midsomer Norton Library closed after damage caused by burstpipes) On Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:45:16 -0000, Kathleen Starr <starr2010@bigpond.com> wrote: > It is sad to hear of loss of property. I don't know if you have heard of > the floods occurring in Queensland at present. > A large number of people have lost the contents of their homes. I was > sad to think of all the family history lost. I have heard that wet > photos can be saved but I don't think too many people will know that and > will throw > their photos on to the growing piles of damaged household goods. Hi Kathleen, Your mention of family history and photos lost made me think of my old family photographs, which are saved on a CD along with my family history search. The CD is left in a safe place so that if disaster strikes I have something saved. However, I know that I must take steps to distribute copies of the photographs to family members. I must add that thought to my New Year's Resolutions for family history. Josephine -- Josephine Jeremiah www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1191 / Virus Database: 1435/3366 - Release Date: 01/07/11

On Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:50:09 -0000, Chris Jefferies <chris.jefferies@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > It's not a good idea to rely on a CD/DVD for long term backup because > they have a limited life. From experience I have seen some become > unreadable > within a few years. At work we received some software on CD but after a > couple of years we started getting errors and had to try the CD in > different drives to read it but it got worse and the disk became > unreadable within about 3 years. Hi Chris, Thanks for reminding me about this. I already had a CD, which I couldn't use any more and then recently, when I was doing a look up, one of my other CDs wouldn't work properly. So this is useful advice and I will heed it. I'll also make copies of precious old photographs and store them safely elsewhere. When doing so I must make sure to name the people on them. I know who they are, but other family members not into family history probably would not know. That reminds me, there is a photograph among Ian's family memorabilia, which says something like 'Sarah, my mother'. I'm pretty sure it's of the mother of Ian's great-uncle -- the family went to America and the great-uncle was born in Cuyhoga, Ohio, before they returned home. However, I don't expect that anyone else but me would know who it is because those who would have known are now gone and those who are left are not as interested in family history as I am.. Josephine -- Josephine Jeremiah www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com