Maybe I’m missing the point here. But isn’t viewing thumbnails just an option of the operating system? Like, on a Windows computer, just clicking on the View button within the folder view, and choosing thumbnail. And those thumbnails are simply generated from the actual image files.
As far as I know, Jim, you’re right. The complete image file needs to be saved to the CD, and then when the CD is put back in the computer there’s a program (Windows does it with Explorer(?), Mac has another program – often Quicktime) that generates thumbnails so the contents of the CD can be viewed.
Jim, I was going to ask why one would want to save thumbnails….I, like you, believe the OS generates perfectly serviceable thumbnails. So I’m missing it, too.
I am having great difficulty when trying to save thumbnails to a CD-R. I
am new to digital photography and PSE2 so would appreciate the step by step instructions.
Lori,
I am seeing something different in your question; The problem here May be that you can’t "save" to CD-R, but rather you have software on the computer that will burn a CD. (write the files and create a directory).
For instance HP has "record now" software from which you can choose to make a data disk, then choose the files, and then burn the CD. You probably have some similar software on your computer, provided you have a CD writer.
Pete
Pete,
I have a PC running Windows XP Professional and a Canon S50 camera. I want to save the picures I take on a CD-R as a backup to having them on my C drive. I can’t figure out how to save to a CD-R using PSE2.
Thanks,
Lori
Lori,
1.I conclude that you have CD burning software installed on you computer.
2.Utilizing the software provided along with you camera, or preferably via a card reader, load the picture files from camera in to folder on your hard drive
3.Burn the CD-R, using the "source" file created in step 2. Ken
Lori.. Like Pete was saying… you cannot save from PSE2 (or any other digital image software I am aware of) directly to a CD-R… you need to "Burn" the.. CD…. you will have to obtain one of the many CD Burnnign software… and go from there..
David
….unless you have something like Roxio directCD. It sets up the CD drive like another hard drive to which you can drag and drop files and also save from applications like PSE by choosing the full path to the CD drive when you go ‘Save as’. 😉
Juergen
Juergen…
I have Roxio "Easy CD Creater"…. I didn’t know I could "Drag and Drop"… do I do that from WINDOWS>EXPLORER?? and how do I get "Full Path" on my "SAVE AS"????? you got me courious now.. I have been setting up Burn projects and doing it that way…. Geeeezzz the things ya learn in here…. Thanks…
David
Lori,
I agree with what Juergen said about Roxio directCD.
However, there is another fact that I did not see mentioned in the prior posts:
Since you said you have Windows XP, you have a basic CD burning capability that is adequate function within the operating system itself to burn your photos to a CD-R. You do not absolutely need additional burning software. I have used Windows Explorer and the XP burning support to backup photos to a CD-R.
Now that these posts may have totally confused you, I suggest that you post what burning software you do have (if any) on your machine. Then people’s suggestions can be more specific.
BarbO
David,
DirectCD is one of the applications you have with Easy CD Creator. It lets you format a CD, which you then leave in the drive at all times (or until you want to use the drive for something else). Then you can copy and paste, or drag and drop with Win explorer just like you would to another hard drive or a floppy disk (remember those?). In PSE you select in "Save in:" the CD drive and (possibly) the folder on the CD. If the CD is not full and you need to remove it, you can later put it back in.
Juergen
BarbO,
You are right, I just had been using directCD before I ever got XP and kind of got used to it. 🙂
Juergen
I think it’s important to note that DirectCD utilizes CD-RW disks. And it does treat that disk as just another drive that you can read, write, and delete files from. But the disk has to be formatted, and that takes quite awhile. Little over an hour if I remember correctly. The way I burn my images to a CD is as follows:
Open Easy CD Creator.
In the top box in that program, I locate the files or the folder that I want to back up to CD. I drag the folder or the specific files to the lower window in Easy CD Creator. Click on the Record Now button to create the CD.
I have never used the Windows method for burning a CD. I became so accustomed to using Easy CD Creator that it’s just easier for me to use that program.
Thanks Juergen … I’ll have to try that… I was doing what Jim had just described…. that did would for stoprring CD’s but was having difficulty doing anything after that.. like editing and saving….
David
Jim,
You can use CD-R disks. I always have. You can write to them and you can delete, just not re-write. Once you delete a file, the space is gone. And when the disk is full, you finish it and go on to the next one. 😉
Juergen
Lori,
Well, it looks like we are all on the ‘same page’ as you now Lori. Did the posts confuse you? Or is it not clear what needs to be done.
One thing you might want to do is put a blank CD in your CD Drive (burner). That often opens the burning software automatically. Then you just need to select the files to add.
I don’t use the XP burning software so I can’t give you step by step instructions on that.
Pete
Thanks for all your information. I do have Roxio CD burning software and hopefully I’ll be successful saving my photos to a CD from PSE2.
Lori
Juergen,
That is interesting. I didn’t realize that you can use CD-R disks with DirectCD. I have liked using the CD-RW disks because I can erase files and use the space over again. It makes for a pretty cheap method for transferring files.
Jim
Jim, if you’re transferring files from one computer to another, a flash drive is a quick and relatively economical alternative. I use a 256 MB one all the time to transfer between my laptop and desktop.
Chuck
Chuck,
Yes, I have thought about purchasing one of the flash drives. But when a CD-RW only costs a couple of bucks and will store nearly 700 MB, I’m afraid my budget forces me to think twice about the price difference. However, one thing the flash drive has going for it is that it is a lot faster transferring files.
Jim
I have not had occasion to use a CD-RW disk. Does a brand new one need to be formatted prior to use?
Ken
I have not had occasion to use a CD-RW disk. Does a brand new one need to
be formatted prior to use?
Ken,
Yes a CD-RW does need formatted. (CD-R’s do a process like formatting but do it "on the fly" while writing the CDR).
But most importantly about CD-RW’s; A year or so ago we had long discussions here on CD-RW’s and myself and a few others posted about problems that can occur with RW’s. In my case I went back to several RW’s months after they had been created and could not open most of the files that were on the CD-RW. That cost me weeks of trying to first find a way to open the files, and that failing, weeks more work recreating the images that I thought were successfully saved on the RW.
The advice given to me by tech people at that time was to just not use CD-RW’s, only CD-R’s. One thing they surmised (or maybe they were absolutely sure, I don’t remember which now) was that the RW files, when opened, edited, and re-saved were loosing their link to the directory.
So with the price of CD-R’s it’s just is not worth the risk of loosing any files and I have never used them again. Just burn a new CD and throw the old one away.
And another advantage to this is that All CD’s have since been found to have a shorter life than originally thought. Some of the problems that have arisen are with the foil on the Top of the CD, an area where it was thought to Not be critical. So protect the top and bottom of CD’s and never use a ball pint pen to write on the top, use a felt tip like a "Sharpie".
This is a little more than you asked for but both these topics, RW’s and CD lifespan, can be so critical with lost files maybe this will save someone some grief.
Pete
Pete,
Thanks for all the information.
Ken
Pete,
Thanks for your answer to Ken’s question which, of course, brings up more questions. All my previous desktop PC’s had tape drives for backup so I’m new to the CD-R, RW world.
My backup procedure so far has been to use CD-RW until I have accumulated enough interim new data to efficiently fill a CD-R. I then reformat the CD-RW and start over. I never resave a file to CD-RW. If something has changed the file gets saved again in that day’s directory on the CD-RW. The final CD-R is produced from the current hard drive’s state so only one version exists. Once every couple of months I start over, create all new CD-R’s, and keep them plus the previous version discarding any older than that.
In your opinion is there a danger in this short term CD-RW use with no rewrites? I probably should just use appends to a DirectCD CD-R?
FWIW: Formatting a 700mb 4-12x RW takes about 16 minutes on my 48,24,48 drive and results in 571mb of free space.
Bob
I have been using CD-RW disks now for a couple of years for interim backups and for transferring files from one computer to another. Besides working rather extensively with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, I do a little bit of video editing. Now, I’m not a professional, and I’m not really big into it. In fact, I don’t have a DVD burner yet, so all I’ve produced are VCDs and SVCDs. I like to use the CD-RW disks to create my initial test video disk so that I can test everything to make sure everything works properly. Then, I just use the disk copy utility within Easy CD Creator to burn it onto a regular CD-R after I have verified that everything is OK. So far, I haven’t had any problems in any of my procedures. And the big plus in using the CD-RW is that if my video disk has problems, I can make the corrections and burn another test image on the same disk, overwriting the previous version. So I don’t end up with a lot of "coasters" laying around. I sure hope someone comes up with a good permanent storage method someday that is reliable.
Bob,
Concerning the "editing and re-saving" thing; That is how one HP tech tried to explain away the problem and I have since read of others having problems with re-saving. Another tech said maybe it was the brand of CD-RW’s I was using. But in the end there was no definitive answer to what happened to about 150 image files on 2 CD-RW’s. I could see the files in DOS but no matter what could not open them. Even tried several other computers and operating systems because all the image files had extensive editing and were needed.
Later model CD burners and operating systems (was on Win98 at the time) may have cured future problems. But I will never find out because it was such a great loss to me especially in time that I just don’t/won’t trust them.
The articles written a few months ago about how long CD’s last talked not in the short term but more like years. I believe CD that failed, shown in the picture that accompanied the article, was over ten years old. The deterioration was quite obvious on the "label" side or top side. The message in the article was that CD’s were not lifetime archive medium and will deteriorate. And that the top side of the CD can be damaged just like the bottom side.
I am not be concerned with any CD that was a year or two old. But if I had a family album on a CD I burned in 2000 I would probably be making a new copy today:) !
Pete
Pete,
Now I can see a use for those huge packs of CD-R’s without Cases. Keep enough cases for 3 backups and throw the oldest away each time. As a Director of MIS in a previous life I was considered paranoid about backup. Time to apply the same principles at home particularly when you consider how "reliable" PC’s are. I appreciate the heads up.
Jim,
I’ll continue to use the CD-RWs as you do for experimentation with SVCD slide shows, etc. I have not yet switched from analog tape-to- tape Video Editing but hope to in the near future. I can achieve frame accurate transitions with Pinnacle’s Studio 400 but still end up with Digital 8 tape and it is veery time consuming. Would like to switch to DVD. What editing software do you use?
Bob
Bob,
I’m just using Pinnacle Studio 9. Personally, I like the software and have achieved whatever I have wanted to do. But if you visit the online support group for Studio you’ll see a lot of disgruntled users who are not able to make it run, are having all sorts of problems with it, etc. I haven’t encountered a lot of the problems that are discussed and then to about. I do have a little problem with audio/video sync, but I have a workaround to solve that problem. All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with Studio. In reading some of the comments on their website, I get the impression that some of the users are trying to get Hollywood quality professional results from a $100 piece of software. The stuff I have produced satisfies me, but people aren’t lining up at my door to pay to see my movies. 🙂
Jim
Jim,
Had a 3 hour power failure but we’re up again.
It was the same with Studio 400. If you didn’t do a clean install and if you didn’t stop everything else running (on 98 SE) it could be a problem. You seem to be pretty comfortable in the PC world. I think that most Video apps require a certain amount of savvy to run.
I was planning to go with Studio 9 so I’m glad to hear you are satisfied. I’ve always felt that pretty simple cuts and fades were enough.
Thanks,
Bob
Bob, who was responsible for your power failure? JCP&L? PSE&G?
🙂
Chuck
One thing I’ve heard about CD-RWs is that different burners seem to prefer different brands of discs – after I had trouble with one (reputable) brand of CD-RW the Apple shop suggested I try another, and I didn’t have as many coasters with those. Now I have Panther and I can do session burning on CD-Rs I’ve stopped using thethe CD-RWs. And of course having switched to shooting RAW I find each days shoots take up so much space that I hardly need to do a session burn – I just write to the CD once and it’s full! (I also back up on an external fire wire hard drive)
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:36:07 -0700, wrote:
Bob,
Concerning the "editing and re-saving" thing; That is how one HP tech tried to explain away the problem and I have since read of others having problems with re-saving. Another tech said maybe it was the brand of CD-RW’s I was using. But in the end there was no definitive answer to what happened to about 150 image files on 2 CD-RW’s. I could see the files in DOS but no matter what could not open them. Even tried several other computers and operating systems because all the image files had extensive editing and were needed.
<snip>
Pete
Pete,
As I understand it, one problem of the CD–RW with Direct-CD (at least with my version), is that the modified FAT (file directory) is held in a buffer, and not written to the CD-RW until the disc is ejected. If you shut down your computer or there is a power loss before the disc ejection, then the FAT is not updated and the files that were "drag-and-dropped" are essentially lost. I learned this, the hard way, when I forgot that I had been using the CD-RW earlier, and shut down the computer for the night. If you don’t happen to check the CD-RW right away, you may not associate the loss of data with the computer shut-down.
OldnSenile
Chuck,
This was strictly JCP&L. They couldn’t even blame some poor driver for hitting a pole or weather or high energy use. It was equipment failure pure and simple and knocked out most of the area.
I gave up 3 years ago and installed a generator and the proper switching unit to keep from frying a line-man. It will safely run the PC but I don’t push my luck unless I need weather info. The Cable goes with the power.
Bob
As I understand it, one problem of the CD–RW with Direct-CD (at least with my version), is that the modified FAT (file directory) is held in a buffer, and not written to the CD-RW until the disc is ejected. If you shut down your computer or there is a power loss before the disc ejection, then the FAT is not updated and the files that were "drag-and-dropped" are essentially lost. I learned this, the hard way, when I forgot that I had been using the CD-RW earlier, and shut down the computer for the night. If you don’t happen to check the CD-RW right away, you may not associate the loss of data with the computer shut-down.
OldnSenile,
Good point for anyone using the RW’s.
(That point I believe did come up and was not the case a few years ago with me though).
Bob, don’t forget that JCP&L is/was part of the fine utility company that brought us Three Mile Island in 1979…..
Chuck
Chuck, they don’t do very much maintenance except trimming trees. Fix it only when it breaks. But they do know how to raise rates. They somehow avoided the last big blackout, though.
Bob
