LilaKay

I use an external hard drive to backup my embroidery designs. It wasn't too expensive and worth the peace of mind. I just back up everything once a month

Judi

After I download the embroidery files, I sort them into categories on a thumb drive using 6D program. Such as alphabets, animals, children, snowflakes, or what ever makes sense to you. I only store the format my machine uses. If i ever need a different format 6D can convert them. They are never left on my computer long. Then when I want a certain file, I find it on my thumb drive and copy it to machine thumb drive for use. Every few months I back thumb drive up on an external drive as thumb drives can wear out too. I keep both thumb drives on a neck strap for convenient use. Judi

verna2197

When I purchase designs if there is a cd available I will order that if not then I download and put onto a cd by designer name. Each designer has their own cd. I also back my designs onto an external hard drive. That way I have them several different places. The reason I do this is I did lose all my designs on account of a computer crash, so now I out then in all different places.

rakerlm

Have your designs backed up in several places - flash drives are great but have a higher failure rate so I would back them up to more than one. I have my on an external hard drive, on my computer, and on a 3 TB network hard drive. I am not good about backing up - in all likelihood I would probably loose a few designs but I would not have a devestating loss. I do try to back up to one of those locations once a month. If you do this awhile you will end up with a phenomenal amount of data. The other thing you can do is to subscribe to a data service like Carbonite.

citruscountyquilter

I back up my computer on an external back up. There is always the option of saving things on a cloud storage but if you need the comfort of having a tangible storage I would put it on a thumb drive rather than burning a cd. Many lap tops and tablets don't even have a cd drive anymore but they have multiple USB ports that a thumb drive can be inserted. It is also easy to add additional files to a thumb drive. Back to school sales are a great time to pick up thumb drives.

Shorebird

I completely understand!! I purchased an external hard drive, and I back up all of my designs (store them there)...I will frequently (especially when purchasing a set of designs) pay the additional fee (generally $5 or $6) and have the CD sent in addition to being able to download for immediate use.

If you do not have some alternate storage ( even copying all of your designs on a blank CD) you face the potential of losing your designs if your computer crashes.

I have a desktop and a laptop, and my designs are stored on both of them, as well as on the external hard drive......I have too much invested in those designs to take a chance on losing them.

craftygater

I bought an external hard drive 500 gig for under $100. About once every couple months I back up my laptop to it. That way if anything happens to the laptop I have all the files on the hard drive. I plan on organizing my embroidery files by type and placing on dvd instead of cd (dvd holds more) for use on my laptop that is in my sewing room. It is easier moving a dvd upstairs than it is unplugging and moving the hard drive. Its not that big but the plug is difficult to get to. Any files that I am actually using I put on a memory stick that can go directly into my machine. (Topaz 20)

kwajgirl

I also copy all my embroidery and quilt design files to an external drive. That way I am always protected. My external hard drive holds a 1.5TB so don't think I'll ever fill it!

granny64

Do a back-up on your hard drive and save all of the designs to a cd rom or you could have a cd sent to you, but you'd have to wait for the designs.

Snooze2978

I've had a PC crash and its not pretty when it happens. Some companies claim they can retrieve your files but my designs came back looking like someone made them into a jigsaw puzzle. Useless to me. I now keep all my files on another hard drive and then back them up weekly. Just the other day I got the "black screen of death" and had to take my tower in to have them fix it. I now know what to do when I goof up the next time though. I had to use my laptop but couldn't get to my files as it was on the extra hard drive in the tower so I'm thinking of adding another external hard drive so I can switch it out between PCs.

And yes, external hard drives can crash too so that's the reason for a backup. There are companies out on the web that provide a backup service for a nominal yearly fee. Some folks like them as it alleviates the worry of losing your files. You can also copy them onto CD/DVD but that's time consuming and if you're like me, you'd have to make new copies all the time.