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Message # 23144.2.3.1.1

Subject: And I forgot to mention...

Date: Thu 22/06/06 16:12:19 GMT

Name: AnthonyX

Email: anthonyx@jowc.net

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By AnthonyX - anthonyx@jowc.net Thu 22/06/06 15:36:28 GMT

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Rules of thumb: handle with care. Be very careful not to damage the top surface (label side) because the recording layer is very close to that surface; small scratches could easily penetrate to the recording layer. Once that layer is scratched, the data is gone for good. Avoid scratching the bottom (reading or optical side) too, but in general, CD/DVD is surprisingly tolerant of scratches on that surface. If you do scratch the optical side to the point it can't read properly, there's a good chance you can still polish out the scratches and get it to work again. As xbert says, keep CDs/DVDs out of direct sunlight and away from high temperatures. Probably not a bad idea to avoid enviroments where there is a lot of thermal cycling (e.g. in your car) and always keep them in a suitable storage container (jewel case, wallet, binder etc.) which will keep them flat and prevent them from being warped over time.

Perhaps not a bad idea to use sleeves (wallets/binders) instead of jewel cases because repeatedly snapping a disk on and off the jewel case clamp might eventually cause cracks to form at the center hole.

By xbertx1 - bertel@w4ymail.com Thu 22/06/06 14:42:08 GMT

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By AnthonyX - anthonyx@jowc.net Wed 21/06/06 23:18:03 GMT

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Average picture size of 1.6 MB?

80,000/1.6 = about 50,000 pictures.

Saving to CD-ROM depends on how you want to use it, but in general you probably want to use a package like Nero. I think XP ships with some built-in CD burning software so you can just drag and drop, but I would recommend something like Nero as a simple drag-drop makes a lot of assumptions about what you want to do with the disk afterwards.

When you use CD burning software, you generally specify the type of disk: data, music, photo CD, etc. Photo CD is intended for use with a home entertainment device (such as the old Kodak photo CD viewer) and constructs the disk contents appropriately. It's a bit like the photo equivalent of making a music disk you can play on a CD player. If you create a data disk, you just use it like a floppy you can only write once - i.e. it just stores files with no specific structure other than folders as you decide to organize them. Some DVD players (my low-cost Panasonic, for example) can display jpgs burned to CD on a TV, if you follow some simple rules re: naming files and folders (explained in the player's manual).

In general, you burn a complete disk in one go. You can create multi-session disks, but they are more complicated to create and work with afterwards - I've never bothered figuring all that out. CDs are cheap and it's easy enough to organize content to fill up CDs.

Bear in mind that a CD is about 700MB - you can accommodate about 500 pictures of the size you indicated. Your 80GB HD has a capacity equal to about 100 or so CDs. Probably not practical "off-line storage" for very large collections of pictures; DVD may be better. One standard DVD = 4.7GB or 3,000 pics i.e. about 15 or so would be equivalent to the capacity of your HD. One double-layer DVD = approx 8GB or 5,000 pics or 10% of your HD.

Does this help?

By Desert Hawk - Wed 21/06/06 22:37:56 GMT

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How many pictures can I save to my hard drive before it is full?  I have a Compaq Presario SR1500NX with an 80 gigabyte hard drive and 256 megabyte RAM.  I only use this computer for the internet and sometimes the built-in solitaire and pinball games because that is all I know how to do with a computer.  Since December, when I first figured out how to save pictures, I have saved 305 puctures as of right now.  Probably an average file size of 1 2/3 meg per picture, with some only 1/2 meg and a few over 10 megs.  How soon will I run out of storage space?  

Also, how do you save a picture to a CD-ROM?  I  must sound like a complete idiot to actually be asking this, but I know almost nothing about computers.  When i went to school, we were using DOS and 5 1/4 inch floppy discs!  Writable CD-ROM drives hadn;'t been invented yet.  How do you save pictures to CDs and how do you load them back to view them?  I wouldn't know where to begin!