Ok, I have finally Poser working with most of its textures, freebes and characters; now I would like to back this up because I don't want to install all of this again. I thought that Roxio that came with Norton would help me but this software is to restore the computer in case something goes bad. I use to have in my old computer Colorado back up tape and its software automated the procedure. Now all I have is my cd burner and Nero burning software. So should I burn a cd with my runtime folder? It is already more than one Gig. If I need to reformat my computer, should I reinstall Poser and then copy back the runtime folder? Or do I need to reinstall everything back. Thank you.

Yes! Yes! Yes! :) You have the perfect combo - CD burner and Nero! Burn a CD (or so) at your earliest convenience to back up your Runtime directory. If you've read any of the horror stories in this forum about people who've lost everything because they don't back up, well, let that inspire you to do it. Since you're dealing with more than 1GB, you should 'divide and conquer' the Runtime. More than likely, the two largest folders within it are the Geometries and Textures folders, so see what size they are and how each can fit onto a CD of its own if necessary. If you have more than one physical drive, I'd suggest making a copy of the Runtime to the other drive first and dividing and backing up that. Although it takes a while to copy all of these small files, it will allow you to create folders representing each CD that you will create with just the right amount of data in each. Don't be cheap - use the largest CD's that you can find (700MB, I think). Make sure that you are creating a data CD and that 8.3 and DOS compatible are turned OFF. Good luck! :) BYS

Wonderful explanation! Thanks, lets say that I need to reformat my computer, so I would reinstall Poser and then I would just copy the geometries, Libraries, textures, etc folders out of my cd's into Poser? The installers from DAZ would not put anything else in Poser that I would need? I guess there is not a software like Colorado that it would automatically restore the files you choose. Andres.

Another way of doing it (this is what I do) is to compress the Runtime with something like Winace, and tell it to make volumes. Then you enter how large each volume should be - in case of a CD: 700Mb and sit back while it compresses the files. This way you won't need 20 cd's to back up a 15Gb Runtime either. Oh and this reminds me that it's been quite a while since I last made a FULL backup of my Runtime...

I backed mine up last month and ended up with 27 CDs! Each has about 650 Mb's on it. Maybe the time has come to learn about compression utilities for the Mac ;)

I would be careful putting that large of a compressed file onto CDRW.... alot of the time they turn up corrupt, I havent had near as much trouble using CDR's though. It does use more cd's but its safer in the long run not to compress...

In my case, since I archive to DVD, the entire Runtime is backed up whenever there is enough data to fill one (my Runtime is only about 2.5GB). The reason that I make a full Runtime backup is that it's much easier than collating a bunch of partial backups - stuff you deleted will reappear, as well as problems you may have fixed (though this should be rare) and you have to rifle through a CD set chronologically to restore correctly. Must agree with onnetz. There have been several times that compressed files on CD-R or DVD-R have been corrupt for me (despite working while on hard drive). Don't know why this happens, but when it does, you are truly screwed. Either way, backing up is a good preventative measure for any unforeseeable disasters - hard drive crash, virus, accidental deletion, etc. Patricia, 27 CDs!! Nearly 18GBs! We need a PA (Posers Anonymous). :) goido, yes. Copy them from CD to the proper Poser folder and everything is restored. No need to do any reinstalls of data. DAZ installers just extract the files within and write them into the proper folders within their own folders, so even they'll be restored after a CD restoration. BYS

Nero 5.5 has a verify option, though it doesn't appear until the burn-in-progress dialogue (it is sticky though, so you need set it only once). I make two backups of my downloads once I have a CD's worth, and check the zips open and the exes run by hand before deleting the HD copy.

A word of advice about using CDRWs. Don't. They are not considered reliable enough to justify their use for anything but the most trivial of backups. CDRs are dirt cheap now; they cost less than cassette tapes (anyone remember those?), so a pack of 50 shouldn't break the bank.

Brands anyone likes? I like the IMATION brand CDR 80min/700MB, I buy the 100 pack, costs about $35.00 when I go buy them.

Several people have recommended Imation, but the only batch I had were horrid - failed at the time or corrupted later. I use Memorex, which others have had problems with.

Kodak gold in the spindle are my favorites, next is Fuji. Is Kodak even still available? I pick the best data cd's cause my data's precious. Never use RW-- the first two I used failed and I never went back. I should do two back ups-- but I back up on firewire and CD. Emily

Thanks for the advise guys!