I have been downloading a particular quilt each month for almost a year. I usually print out a copy but this time, I decided not to. I have too many patterns/projects taking up space.

well, my 8 yr old has been playing a game on my computer. He went to youtube to watch a video to find out how to unlock something in his game and...now my computer is dead--all my patterns/photos gone.........so, do you back everything up? I should have but I'm not sure how to...thoughts??

mine are all hard copied in a binder. takes up almost no space and i know where they all are.
peace :D

So sorry this happened to you. Hopefully you can find someone to restore your info.
I have a friend who used to put all of her downloads on floppy drives but they have gone the way of VHS tapes! LOL
You could put them on thumb drives and keep them in a "safe place". That way you can download and access the files as needed.
Maybe buy a few different ones for different patterns...red for traditional pieced, blue applique, pink paper piecing etc.
You would probably want to at least print out some sort of index for each little drive so that you know what is on it!
Good luck

I have an external hard drive that I copy everything to periodically.

I save a copy of all my patterns to one of the little USB drives. You can get them for under $10.00

I also have an external drive that backs everything up continuously.

I take the patterns and put them on a USB drive that's portable. Sometimes I burn them to CD so I don't lose them

I always print out patterns because I don't know how to save anything on my computer.

I just don't have an 8 year old. Sorry this happened.

If you're talking about the printed out ones, I have 5" binders. One is dedicated to paper pieced patterns, one is for applique, one for traditional piecing, another for general sewing projects

I was saving mine on my computer and it started acting up so I printed all my saved patterns and put them in binders. When I had them all printed out, I deleted them from my computer. Lo and behold, my computer quit acting up!! Now if I find a pattern I want to keep, I just print it out immediately. Good luck on yours.