Family Historian User Group

As a newby to FH as well as any other previous genealogy programme could I ask about backing up and saving?  I see that the programme saves or backs up onto my hard drive, so I can leave that to carry on  whether I understand the process or not.  But I would also like to have a further copy on a CD since my PC technical knowledge is not very extensive in the event of a complete disaster.  Should this copy be saved or backed up?  Do I  need to save/backup once as a zip file and then again as a Gedcom?  Or does the programme cover both automatically?  Thank you.

ID:4529

You can back up or save either as a zip or gedcom. Family Historian will open either. I also back my files quite often on a memory stick just in case!![smile]

The simplest way to backup is to copy the whole of your project directory to your external disk or burn it to CD as you would normally using windows.

As Jane says - with bells on.

The FH backup only backs up your GED file, not any other files that you may have created in, or FH has copied to, your project folder eg. images of census', scanned copies of certificates, documents received from other people, research notes that you have made etc. as sources for your information, all of which are as important to your research as the FH file itself!

It is essential that these are backed up regularly and frequently, even if you are also keeping paper copies of everything (which I don't).

An external hard drive, or similar device, such as the memory stick mentioned, that automatically backs up ALL of your important files is a REALLY good idea. Can save you from a BIG loss.  This is probably easier than burning to a CD and updating.

I have no idea how much research data is on my computer but needless to say, it could not be easily replicated as it is 10 years of work.  I'd have a major breakdown if it got lost.

Good luck!

Many thanks to all.  That is a real help.  Just one final question as I see that I probably did not express one part of my question clearly enough.  Is there a difference in this programme between Saving and Backing Up?

I use the 'backup' within Family Historian as a way of building an 'archive' of earlier versions of my GEDCOM file.

The Save option simply over writes my existing file so my Master copy is Saved and my historical versions are backed up.

My safe versions of my Projects are copied (along with all my other data both related to Family History and all my other interests) to one of 4 external hard drives which are normally kept in a Firesafe in our Garage which is separate to our house and to a Network attached drive which automatically copies all the information from my main system every evening.

Thank you again.  My son was already suggesting that I set up something similar to your system, so it was good to have your description.  And thanks also for the other replies as well.