I was going to reply but, I'll let Alfred or someone that fully understands the process backing up to Floppy, CD and or Disk spanning. I believe the disk spanning is for a large database which does not fit on a Floppy when "zipped"!!!! Then you use "disk spanning", which will prompt you for another floppy to be inserted. I hope I understand that OK. correct me if I am wrong Alfred, David or Bruce. HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! Jim Mahan --- http://james.mahan.tripod.com/ --- http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=jrmahan --- http://mahanscadsolutions.com --- "We will not waiver, we will not tire, we will not falter --- and we will not fail. Peace and Freedom will prevail." --- President George W. Bush --- 7 October 2001 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lois Blackburn" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 6:07 PM Subject: [FO] question I am a new member but I have been using an older edition of F.O. for years and have what is probably a stupid question. I want to make a back up to put on a floppy or a CD but cannot do it yet I KNOW there is a way. Actually I can put the files onto the floppy or CD but then I can't open them to look at them. I get an error message that says F.O. needs to know what software created the file. When I exit F.O. I always make a backup, I think it says compressed file so I know it is zipped. Is it the zipped format that is causing the trouble? I think I have software on my computer that will unzip files - maybe it isn't working? There are only two choices of how to back up F.O. - one is the compressed file which is the method I have used and the other is some disk spanning (?) file. Can someone explain any of this to me and let me know how to back up my F.O. onto a floppy or preferably a CD? Thanks, Lois _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ==== FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS Mailing List ==== Family Origins GenForum - http://genforum.genealogy.com/fo/ Tech Support Knowledge Base http://www.familyorigins.com/support/