Genealogy Chat

Therein lies the problem.

Sonya hasn't managed to save and restore her tree data in any sort of format whether it be as a gedcom or raw FTM format.

Save your tree as a gedcom file, save it to your desktop, send it as an email attachment to yourself, then if the worse happens you can download it direct to your new tree programme. I do it regularly, just in case, then delete the old gedcom from my email account.

When you say it has saved the 'plan' what you are inferring is the actual FTM program. Your tree data is saved in separate files, one per tree. You haven't said which version of FTM you are using, but the data files for FTM 2012 will have the file extension .ftm Earlier versions i.e. FTM 2006 have the extension .ftw Do a search and see if you can locate your file(s)

If you restore from an external drive then I am guessing that you will have to select the data file you want using File, Open, it won't necessarily open automatically after a restore. It is probably there, but you will need to open it from within FTM. You also need to save it back to your hard disk, you cant just plug in an external drive and open it from there.

Backing up your data from within FTM to a stick or other media should not be a problem either. Again you can't open it directly from the stick. You first need to save it back to your hard disc, then select if from within FTM.

Could you please go through the steps you are doing to back it up and I can check if you are doing it correctly?

I hope your data really is being saved. As well as the external hard drive, we also have Norton online storage, but that hadn't backed up the tree either. I'm mystified.

I really don't want to save my FTM tree on Ancestry because I want to keep it completely private. My public tree is on GR.

You can save the tree to Ancestry where it will be stored for a small fee, My FTM when I close it always says its backing up to Ancestry although i havent paid a fee.So is it must be on Ancestry somewhere, You could ring Ancestry and ask them,

Mine wont back up to a memory stick now as i have the clickfree permanently plugged in that does an overall back up. I HOPE its keeping all my FTM Data too.

Hi, thanks for posting.

We have an external hard drive that is supposed to back up everything, and it did - everything except my tree! When the computer crashed with a motherboard problem, we tried to retrieve my tree, but all that was saved was the plan/template ready to start a new tree,

We got the computer repaired and they managed to retrieve the data for us. It's now starting to play up again, and I'm desperate to save my tree onto a disc or memory stick, but it just won't do it. I follow all the instructions for backing up, but when I insert the external media, all I get again is the plan to start a new tree.

Losing my work last time was a nightmare and I don't want to go through that again. I just don't know where to go from here. I've tried saving with media and without media, all with the same result.

Not really sure what you mean. I have backed up my FTM to an external memory stick and it will download again to a new PC once you have installed the basic FTM program.

i have now a click free back up system plugged into my PC that backs up everything so if needs be i can reinstall all files onto a new PC if this one fails . Would need to be XP system though

I've got to go out now, but I'll check for replies later. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

When I try to back up my FTM tree to external media, all it will save is the plan, not the entries. Can anyone give me any advice please?