In reading through the group, we realize that many of you are still
somewhat confused about whether or not Picasa "stores" photos. So
here's the 411; Picasa doesn't physically store or keep your photos.
It scans and looks for photo files that are already on your computer's
hard drive (i.e. My Pictures, or your desktop or anywhere else you
place photos and tell Picasa to look) and displays them in Picasa. You
can then organize your photos into folders and add, move, edit,
delete, archive, back up and upload your photos to the Internet, etc.
Should I BACKUP my photos?
It's important to note that because Picasa doesn't store your photos
(your hard drive still does), anything you delete in Picasa is also
deleted from your hard drive and vice versa. If you accidentally
delete photo files from anywhere on your hard drive, a "stored" copy
will not be available in Picasa. As with any files on your computer's
hard drive, you'll want to backup your Picasa photo files as well. You
can do so by burning them onto a CD, DVD or backing them up onto
another drive. Instructions for both can be found on our blog:
http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/03/sleep-soundly-back-up-your-p...
But what happens when I SAVE my photos, isn't this the same as backing
them up?
When you save edits (i.e. a photo you've turned into Sepia) we also
save the original photo to a hidden folder and create a new copy of
the image with the edits applied in place of where the original photo
existed on your computer. However, the original and the edited photo
are still associated with one another. Picasa saves your images so you
can always go back to the original photo. However; as described above,
if you delete the "edited" photo file from Picasa, you will also
delete the original and vice versa. For more information on the saving
of original photos, visit http://groups.google.com/group/Picasa/web/original-photo-files.
Photos go into a hidden folder when saved, so the original and the
edited photo don't both show up in Picasa (Picasa doesn't display
images in hidden folders).
For more detailed information on the different "save" options, take a
look here: http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=11021
Cheers,
Sam
|
