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I bought an external hard drive and put only my designs on it for 3 years, so it got light use, and I had intended on backing up the designs when the kids went back to school and the whole drive died a week before school started this year. I almost cried. Repairmen could not fix and told me that external drives only last 3-5 years. I will never buy an external drive again. From now on, I only use thumb drives. They do not heat up and do not have moving parts. I download all designs into a file for each website where I got it, that way I know where I got it and can go back and see the design on the screen and know what colors were used. Then I transfer to a different thumb drive for back up that is sorted different, by categories : heirloom, food, cartoon animals, Easter, Xmas etc. By the way, I was making phone calls trying about fixing my external drive in a doctors office as I waited for my appointment. The lady next to me overheard me and gave me the name of her daughter who happened to be a vice president at Western Digital, the manufacturer, and they are in the process of paying to fix my original hard drive. What a miracle.
20475I initially save all designs to a thumb drive, then when time permits I put them on RW DVD's and also on an external hard drive, not so organized as some of you cuties but they are in 3 places if one crashes I have a back up. By the way all thumb drives do not work on my Bernina 730 I have found only the Sandisk cruzer micro is the only one so far, except for Bernina's own brand, if any one knows of any others that would work I would appreciate the information. Thank you.
by drcindyl
15 Oct 2010
It may be your machine only reads designs off thumb drives that are 1 or 2 GB. I bought my machine used from a local sewing instructor and she warned me about that. I find that my machine wont read off an 8GB thumb drive, only the 1 or 2 GB sticks.
882
4503Good Morning....I AM GOING THREW...REDOING ALL DESIGNS right now....I LOST ALL a week ago....I have thousands on a stick, BUT did not save those on y machine for over two or three months.....WELL..when on this cute site that numbered THOUSANDS more, and they are ALL GONE...so let my mistake be huge lesson to us all...BACK UP DAILY, I do now, on an external drive AND save only to the stick.....and from there will make a CD when it is full.....I cried for days and the frustraction level is the worst...I have lost so much, but now learned my lesson...I also lost ALL email addresses, and everything else soooooo let my loss be a lesson....get that stick first, then the external, and then burn.....then all are in two places....take care, happy hunting, happy saving, and welcome....ALL here have been so kind to me so I hope I might "someday" be able to return alittle help to others....Hugs
1952I agree with egar
save all your designs on an ecternal hard drive..
mine is portable so i can just move from pc to lap top with it :-)
Also save slowing down your pc...
Big hugs from London
Maria xxx
20276You are soon going to get the hang of it, and be a whizz at filing and saving and sorting and downloading and unzipping and searching for days for that design you know you DL last month but can't find???
Welcome to Cute.
Hope you have lots of fun like we all do.
From Bev
7875backup you bet instead of cd I use SDHC cards you get them in the camera dept I use 4 gb sandisk plugs in at what is usually call a picture port also known as a flash memory card then put only what I am using at a time on the thumb drive I was told that the have a limited life due to battery in them and over time they can go bad I keep two set of one with every thing on it then ones that have file and groups that I may like to use together and store them in different places so I can't loose every thing if something go bad
1091a hacker messed up our p/c, had to have it gutted and the guy sold us a bigger 'black box'by VANTEC and I have allllllllllll my folders on it,,,it will hold PLENTY of files........Sue
973If you save this to your 'my documents' location you can then file your designs in the appropriate place. It makes it much easier to find what you are looking for.
http://www.spoolsstash.com/Design...
by theduchess
16 Oct 2010
WOW! This works GREAT!Thanks so much.
Now you know what I plan to do tomorrow.Stella
3061I have a single folder for embroidery with sub-folders for each site (like cute embroidery, cute alphabets, etc.) on my hard drive. I also backup to an external hard drive (they have become very reasonably priced) and to DVD's - just in case (because drives can die). I use Ann The Gran's Catalog Xpress organization software so I can find my designs (I have tens of thousands). That software is similar to the Buzz Tools software and I understand you can organize designs in Embird too.
11257Purchase An External Hard Drive and put nothing on it but your designs
by ezzemml
14 Oct 2010
I do that also but i back up on dvd disks incase the external decided to crash.
1163I started out 7 years ago, purchased some 4" binder notebooks, and plastic sheets. When downloading a set say Christmas, I burn all the Christmas designs on a CD and assign it a number. I also keep an index as to what the designs are, sometimes samples or notes in the plastic sheets. I constantly add the numbers of CD's to the index, when searching for a project, I look under "C" and I get the correct CD and then d/l the images of what I want. I'm going on CD #83 now; and know exactly where all of the designs and sets are; of course I have a miscellaneous CD. This for me works out very well. Costs a bit to get started buying rewritable CD's, notebooks and a CD carrying case but well worth it. Of course I use the 12 MB thumb drive if doing a large project, and also when traveling to a sewing/quilt show I carry the thumb drive, never know when someone offers to give you a design you are ready. I only save for a few days until I find the time to burn the design to the correct number CD and then add it to the list in My Favorites.
by betley
02 Sep 2010
Thank you it seems like a lot of work but I know it will be worth it if I can find what Iam looking for when I need it.One question How many designs can you put on a CD? THANKS
2133Welcome to the CUTE family betley. I see that other's have posted what I would have told you. *4U Shirlene
211078Don't just put your designs onto an external harddrive! They, too, can malfunction! Ask me how I know? Be safer and download them to CDs, as well. The external harddrive is nice to use, but mine froze up after a couple of months; would not work at all. When I took it to be checked, I was told it would have to be sent back to the manufacturer, and even possibly, they could not retrieve the contents, but would send me a new harddrive. As I had personal info on it, as well as my designs, I opted to destroy it. Thankfully, most of my designs were on CDs!
Angel
12500You could put a shortcut on your desktop to your main design files,then organize as you like in folders,subfolders. Keeping all folders on your desktop does slow down your computer. I agree with the others, backup your files with cd's, external hard drive or usb keys-they are less expensive now and easy to use.Happy filing!
by betley
02 Sep 2010
Thanks, I am learning how to use my computer and I do not know how to do a shortcut.Ihave like 15 folders in my desktop with designs.
18403Welcome to you, betley.you are right to worry about saving and put in order all you downloadings.During 3 years, I have pile a great lot of designs and now I think that i have for ...months or years to put order in them. good luck
Claude
by betley
02 Sep 2010
Thank you, I have some in order some are not.After a while I learn how to make folders and is a lot easier to find the disigns.
25533I keep 1 folder on my desktop but within that one are many files and subfiles. I also back it up on an external hard rive.
462557My husband gave me a removable drive that will hold thousands of designs. It allows me to open them when I want, get designs I like that come in other formats other than PES, and then change them later. I know I have to have over 7,000 designs on it now and there is still room for a great deal more.
1028I have subfolders as well as folders. And the designs are saved to an external hard drive and CDs. Welcome to Cute. We love new members.
168893
267142671426714I agree with sorval or back up on cd's as if you get a virus you may loose all you designs as the virus will only only affect you working drive eg: windows 98 windows 7 etc.
4865i think the best saving for designs is on a externe drive
i use 2 externe hard disk 1 reserve
hugs Sonja and welcome in te cute family
by betley
31 Aug 2010
thank you I been thinking in getting an external hard drive I do not want to loose them.THANKS
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