--Gigabyte (gig) = 1,000 Megabytes (MB) = 1,000,000 Kilobytes (K)
- Floppy disk ---1.44 MB ($1.00)
- Thumb/flash/USB drive ---32MB–8gig ($5-$150)
- CD ---700MB ($0.10)
- DVD ----4.7gig ($0.50)
- External Hard Drive ---20gig+ ($75 and up)
- Internal Hard Drive ---60gig+ ($50 and up)
- Online ---1gig–100gig ($75/yr and up)
How much space do I need?
- PAF file with 3000 names --- 1–1.5MB
- Digital picture (5 Megapixel camera) --- 2.5–3.5MB
- Picture attachments --- 100K–3MB
- 4 page document --- 40K
- Scanned images --- 300K–30MB
How often: As often as possible.
How do I do it?
- Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and other shortcuts can make this easier.
- Make sure you name the files so you know which ones are which.
- Some storage options come with software installed.
- Some will help you recover all files if your computer ever crashes.
- Backup/restore software: This helps you recover your files if they are ever lost.
Online Backup: This is like another hard drive but kept in another state for safe keeping. You have access to it at any time. - http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,4798,00.asp
- Open the folder that has all of your FH files in it.
- Click the Up Arrow button. It looks like a yellow folder with a green arrow pointing up. You should see another set of folders, one of which is your FH folder.
- Right click your FH folder and select Properties. A window will open and you will be able to see the Size of your FH folder. This is important because if you try to save 200MB on a 128MB drive you will get an error. Make sure wherever you are going (destination) to save the copy has enough room.
- Right click the folder again and select Copy.
- Open your storage drive (destination) and open the folder where you have your FH folder. If you haven’t created it, the computer will create the folder the first time you make the copy.
- Right click in the destination folder and right click and select Paste.
- You now have your copy on the other drive.
The most basic backup is making a duplicate copy of the files you want to backup. You then put this copy on one of the storage options and if you ever need it, you have another copy.
When you have an excessive number of files or large file sizes that change frequently there are software options for making backups easier. These can automate the tasks as well as compress some of the files so the backup doesn’t require so much storage space.
Hopefully you’ve organized your files as we discussed in the previous class. Ideally all of your Family History related files are in one place.
