Wasn't sure where to post it and I will move it over to another forum gladly. I finally did buy my CD-R and have backed up a lot, but am wondering just how others are doing it. Since I no longer have all my downloads still 'intact' but now moved to all their respective homes in their folders (i.e., geometry, libraries, textures), how would I back them up (how are YOU backing them up)? I put my geometry folder on CD, but am wondering if this is the way to go about it. For instance, I just dled Debra's giraffe--now I do have that file, both zipped and unzipped. I remember someone saying that zipped files didn't work really well on CD's. So--I put the zipped file on my Zipdisk. --also the unzipped S (I'm 'cautious'). Now--can I put all my folders on CD-R (non rewritable) --like geometries, etc.--and then if you need them--then what--would you copy them to the folders (in case of a crash--or, like what I'm going to do--reformat and reinstall) or what? As to characters, props, textures, etc.--do you put them on nonrewritables and pull them up and install them as needed or what (well, textures I can just load them). I'm sort of unclear of how you would use your CD's. Poser has to have them in the geometry and libraries to use them--so???? Thanks. Diane B

Diane, I have been backing up my Poser downloaded stuff to CD's for a couple of months and agree that it does get a little confusing. What I have done is made 3 seperate CD's, 1 for the libraries and such 1 for the textures due to the fact that textures seem to be plentiful and can be of good size, and one for the items that I make, It may not be the best way but thats what I do, and the CD that I store all the library stuff on is set up much like the one in poser so i know where to find for example Femaleclothing ect..and I store them now as zip files because that way I KNOW who made them and dont have to search for the creators readme. I must admit tho I wasted a few CD's getting to this proccess, but you will find the system that works best for you :O) Good Luck Sprout

Okay, that's sort of what I did --I assume these are non rewritables. Now--if I have to reinstall them after I reformat, then just 'copy' them to new folders? Is it that simple?? (that's the only way I can see). Now, since I, too, have gazillions of textures, I can easily access them from the CD rather than even copying them over to the HD after I reformat, but Poser just won't 'do it' if you don't have everything in the right folders (geometries, libraries). I usually load my textures anyhow rather than have Poser do it automatically (unless there is only one texture for that item). Speaking of 'zip' files--have you tried opening them? Someone on this very forum said they had problems with zipped files from CD's, but I don't remember who that was--this was when I was asking for advice in what to buy. And----thanks for YOUR help. Diane

I have no problems opening zips from my CDs. -JH.

Picnic, I created folders for everything and put the zipped files in them accordingly. ie.. One Zygote folder anything I buy or download from them in this one. Props,Characters,Animals etc. Inside those folders are more folders ie.. Characters-male,female. Props-weapons,bulidings,morphs etc. The name of the cd is the date I made it. This way whenever i download more I save it all til I have about 650 mb woth of stuff and burn a new one. I have about 4 cds worth but everythings relatively easy to find. And zipped files work just fine on CDs

Thanks. I wish I had kept all my zipped files sigh. Oh, well, from now on,-- and I do still have some that I've never unzipped but dled as I found them 'just in case'. I think I did put all the Zygote animals on a Zip disk when I got them during the sale, so I can stick them on a CD--which I trust more than my Zip disks. It just makes more sense to back everything up in their own neat folders rather than trying to do it from all the library folders, geometries, etc. Still, I'll have to start from where I am. Diane

I have bits and pieces scattered over about 50 zip disks ... No system at all ...

Never have had a problem opening the zip files from the CD's. The way I store the libraries on the CD is I just named the folders the same and I just drop the zip files in those folders accordingly so if i want a cetian out fit I know where to find it (clarifying so you dont think that I was accessing through poser because I,m sure it wont work) Sprout :O)

Actually. I unzip everything then save it to CD. Because CD's are really cheap now. And I don't wan't the hassle of unzipping things later when I want to install the files. I give everything it's own folder. a)geometry b)library c)texture All have there own folder so I can Just copy and paste them straight from the CD to the HD. I find it very fast and since the folders are all labled. I know exactly what's in them before I open them. This takes up more room using folders for everything. But it's very organized. And like I said. I can get a pack of CD's for six bucks. So it's worth it to me because it's fast and convienient. ScottA P.S.- I always save extra stuff like .phi,txt, files in the figures geometries folder. That's a habit of mine. Others may wish to put the stuff in another folder. Just be consistent and you should be good to go.

And Diane, if you've got the time, it's a good idea to include a small thumbnail of the item because trust me after some time you won't remember what's what. Did you notice Steve did that on his Poserworld CD? It's really helpful.

I have a cdprep folder for storing files I am planning to burn to CDR. My CD burner is on a network computer I don't use much so I don't always have access to it to write using the "like a floppy" mode. So I save up files till I have a full CDR's worth of files which is usually once a month or more at the rate I render and download. (I have a cable modem, it has made me a downloadaholic) I keep subfolders for misc graphics (anything I create or download in tif, psp, psd, jpg, or gif sorted into more folders) poser stuff (downloads and my pz3 files), bryce stuff (downloads and br4 files), 3d models (sorted into subfolders by type), and so on. When I download a zip file of poser stuff, I right click and because Winzip is installed, I have the option to extract to a folder by the same name as the zip file so I do so. I save the thumbnail image of the object when I download it and drop it in the newly created folder too. Then I move that folder to the "cdprepposer stuff" folder after I copy the contents to the correct folders in my Poser4 folder (the program itself) on another drive. Stuff I buy goes to the root of the CDR or to a folder labeled Zygote if I buy several items during the period of time between CDR burns. I have many CDRs with a "poser stuff" folder on them. Each burned CDR is treated to a simple DOS directory listing command after all the files have been burned and binary compared for assurance the files are intact and accurately copied before I delete them from the hard drive. The command I use is dir e: /s/a/ogn/l >> c:cds020.txt and I get a nice listing of what is on the CD that way, stored in a text file. You can search inside all the text files in the CDS folder with Windows built in find function for the file you want. I label my CDRs by number, I use names on the CDRWs. ack, it's said my message was too long... continued...

...continued I also have a CDRW that I use to store stuff I am still working on graphic wise that I don't want to lose early versions of in case I mess up and another CDRW just for my web site backup, another for all my WEB and other app saves like bookmarks/favorite urls, old mail, ftp ini files, excel and word documents etc. My Poser folder is 3.02GB in size, no way to back that sucker up to a CDR so I am going to have to dig out all my CDRs and copy the files back if something goes bonkers one day. A p.i.t.a. but unless I find a cheap huge backup media that runs on USB, it'll be all I can do. I have plenty of zipped files on my CDRs and CDRWs, whole program folders, even the entire Windows folder on one CDR in case I lose a DLL some day. I've not had a problem reading or retrieving files from the zip files.

What I do is unzip everything and copy it and the zips to cd. Make a few web pages with thumbnails in them and link them to zips the files needed. This gives me all the files and a browser too. Then if can download whatever I want to my HDD, or if I already know where it is just grab the folder. One word of warning though, zips don't always work well, sometimes they get corrupted. The best way to check is to copy it all to a re-writable disc first then copy that. that way you can edit the disc before you burn it.