Genealogy Chat

This is a technical question for someone.

I have my family history stored on FTM on my desktop. Not long ago I bought a laptop, and because of convenience, am using my desktop less and less. This afternoon I thought I would try and copy my tree over.

I have installed the FTM software but now how do I get all the information over. I've tried various things, without success. Like e-mailing the file to myself.

Please can someone advise me, idiots guide information….please.

Thanks
Pauline

Did you save as a Gedcom before trying to email yourself?

No....I didn't know what I should do really. How do I do that. Can I save it to a disc and then load it to the laptop

Open your tree

Press FILE, EXPORT FILE, ENTIRE FILE

Give file a name & before pressing save go to the bottom box which should say "Family Tree Maker (*.FTW)
Click the blue arrow next to this box & change to "GEDCOM (*.GED)

Also change the "Save in" box to your disc drive


You should keep a copy of your tree eithe on disc or USB stick as a backup just in case your hard drive ever packs up

Thank you for this information, I think that is clear enough for me to follow and will give it a go. Will post a message here later if I am successful.

I do have a backup copy, on a DVD disc and on an external hard drive. But they have a different file extension name, created when a back up is done. I was trying to use one of these. But it didn’t work.

Will give it a go. Thanks
Pauline

Well, I finally cracked it.

First attempt didn't work, when I tried to copy it to a disc from desktop and load it to laptop. For some reason the laptop could read the files although I knew they were there.

So I e-mailed the GEDCOM file to myself. With a bit of playing about I finally could open it in my FTM programme. Seems to be fine now.

Thank you for your help.
Pauline

Can I give this thread another nudge up the board? I was just trying to save my FTM to a memory stick as a means of backing it up. I have followed all the steps outlined above & it seemed to work, however when I then tried to view the back-up copy (just to make sure, as I am a real computer dunce!), it kept trying to open it in a works format which wasn't working.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can provide.

FTM will not allow you to open a database stored on a memory stick. Copy the file from the stick to you hard disk and it will then open correctly.

It is to do with the fact that when FTM has the file open to work with, it continually updates the data with any additions or changes that you make incrementally, which can't happen with a stick.

If you wish to keep a copy on a stick then then take a new copy after you have closed the file in FTM.

To move to another PC you neither need to export a new file, not take a gedcom. With FTM closed on the old pc , just copy the data file you require (will be called yourfilename.FTW) across to the new pc.

A copy of a backup file (yourfilename.FBK) will work just as well.

Thanks for that, good to know I am not stupid, it just won't work.