Using ACDSee to backup your digital kits to CD/DVD using a system

You can keep browse and organize digital kits with ACDSee and you can make backup CDs/DVDs with ACDSee. Unfortunately, ACDSee doesn’t provide a way to keep track of what digital kits you have burned to CD/DVDs. So I am going to provide a method/system to use to keep track of what is burned. As we go along, I am just going to say DVDs since that is what most of us are using but this would work the same for CDs.

First, to learn to burn DVD’s, this is the tutorial for you: Creating Photo CDs/DVDs. During this tutorial, I need to make a comment on one option. If you are creating a backup DVD of digital kits, you do not want to check this option: “Add the created disc to ACDSee as a Photo Disc” What this option will do is add the contents of the DVD into Offline Media and you will get duplicates returned when you search (a file on the hard drive and a file on the DVD.)

So here is the process:

For all your existing digital kits:

1. First, let’s get your Burn Basket open, to do that do View | Burn Basket
2. Start going through your digital kits in a methodical process, top to bottom in the folder pane is the easiest.
3. Select a bunch of digital kits and drag & drop them into the burn basket. As you can see here, I dropped all my recently downloaded digital kits in the burn basket but I added too many so it saying that in the bottom of my burn basket. My estimated size cannot be larger than my media size. (click on any images to see them larger)
4. 
5. I recommend adding digital kits until it just starts turning red, like this:
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7. Then burn the DVD.
8. Now, for whatever digital kits you put into the burn basket, select them up above where the folder thumbnails appear and assign the keyword “BackedUp” to the digital kit folder. The reason why I am using keywords instead of categories, is because I assign a keyword to a folder and a category can only be assigned to images. It’s just a little easier and cleaner.
9. 
10. Repeat the above process and keep burning DVDs for all your digital kits.

For bringing in new digital kits

1. I would recommend as you unzip a new digital kit, you immediately assign it the keyword “NeedToBackup”
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3. Then when you are ready to burn your next DVD, do a Quick Search at the top for “NeedToBackup” and it will return all digital kits that need to be burned.
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5. Drag and Drop them into the burn basket until you have a full DVD.
6. Burn the DVD.
7. Afterward, select all digital kits that you put into the burn basket and change their keyword from “NeedToBackup” to “BackedUp”
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9. Repeat the process the above process if you have more digital kits that fit on DVD.

So there you go, one system of keeping track of what you backed up. This can obviously be customized to meet however you backup. I remember one reader saying they want to make 2 DVDs of everything. She added a third keyword “BackedUpTwice”.

Some tips:

If you add digital kits to your burn basket, the burn basket can be saved from session to session. So some people as they download new digital kits, put them in the burn basket at the same time and when it is full, burn the DVD. The disadvantage of this, is it is hard to go find those digital kits and assign them the keyword “BackedUp” to signal you that they have been backed up.

What happens after you start this system and you encounter a folder that has no keyword on it? It could mean 2 things. You backed it up and forgot to add the keyword “BackedUp” or it hasn’t been backed up and wasn’t even assigned “NeedToBackup.” The safest thing is back it up again. So if you are burning a DVD then, do it then and add the “BackedUp” keyword or just add “NeedToBackup” and at your next backing up session, it will be backed up.

What is working for you?:

I know some of you have come up with your own method. What is working for you to backup your digital kits? Come visit this thread and explain your method: How are you backing up your digital kits & photos?

And here is a little about my process:

I myself don’t burn DVDs of my digital kits and choose to backup to a second EHD. It’s not ideal but I don’t want to burn that many DVDs. Maybe if I would have started when my collection was small. I do make DVDs of my photos but my process there is slighly different. I take the recent photos and put on DVD and keep going back in time until I fill up the DVD. This allows me to backup my photos multiple times. For example. My December 2006 photos are are my January 2007 backup and they are also still fit on my July 2007 but I wouldn’t expect them to fit on my December 2007. I make DVD backups every few months but in addition they are backed up to EHD drive also. If your computers are sitting only on your computer, I recommend making a CD monthly to get them backed up. For more information on backing up in general, visit this page: Wondering how to backup your digital kits, photos and layouts

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