Digital images are no different to printed images when it comes to losing them! If you have a problem with your camera or PC, your precious memories can disappear in an instant.
So what's the best policy? Back them up to a CD or DVD. Or even better two CD's or DVD's!
The good news is, you can do this easily in Windows XP and above, if you have a CD writer in your PC and a blank CDR (write once, Recordable CD) handy. N.B. don't use CD Rewritable (CD-RW) disks as they can be unreliable and not always readable on other people's PC's.
I recommend CD's as they can hold a lot of data (i.e. over 200 8 mega pixel images) and they are cheap and easy to buy.
Writeable DVD's might be a bit overkill, as they can hold 7 times the amount that CD's can. Also, olders PC's do not necessarily have DVD drives.
The simplest way to find out is to get hold of a blank writable (CDR) disk and put it in your CD drive. Try and 'borrow' a disk if you can from a friend who does have a CD writer in their PC and uses it.
If you have a CD Writer in your PC, you will get this message when you load a writeable CDR or DVD - R disk, with 'Open Writable folder using Windows Explorer' (see left).
Click OK to continue
Step 2 - Drag and drop your images
An empty 'writeable' folder will appear.
Open your folder(s) where your images are (quite often they will have been saved in My Documents > My Pictures, by going to the START button and choosing 'My Computer', then navigating to the folder you want.
Now 'Drag and Drop' individual images or even whole folders into the empty writable folder (see left).
TIP: to drag and drop, just left click and 'hold' with the left mouse button over the file or folder you want to copy and then 'drag' the mouse so the pointer moves over the folder you want to copy to.
To write your CD, click on the 'Write these files to CD' link in the CD Writing Tasks section of he CD Drive folder window (arrowed left).
Another window will appear, where you name the CD. Do it. You can put in a meaningful name that identifies when you made the CD or the contents.