Genealogy Chat

Hi All, I have my tree on FTM, and guess what my computer crashed, and I am having to have windows re installed, and the engineer doesnot know if he can retrieve my tree. I have part of my tree on here, but only about 600 people, but on my FTM tree there are just over a 1000 people, So If he can't retrieve it I will have to start again. So the moral of this story is Back Up Your Tree Sue

Back it up on disk, back it up regularly and keep the backup disk somewhere safe. nell

If you back your tree up wont all the info disappear off the pc and onto the disk? unless i did it wrong i copied a file onto a cd and it disappeared off the pc had to put cd in to see info

Karen It shouldn't do - you're taking a copy, not transferring the data. Mandy :)

And if you aren't organised enough to do that , pay the fiver & use FTM's internet backup thingy. and make a website through them (that's free - not sure if you can retrieve it but at least it still exists!) I'm always worried that if I back up onto disc it won't work when I need it to. AND I'm too lazy to do it every day - at the moment I'm tweaking bits & bobs on my tree that often. Sarah :-) Poor you, I do feel for you!

Hi If your are using FTM you should not loose the info from your computer, as FTM saves it to your hard drive, you are just making a copy of it when you Back it up onto a Disk. Sue

Hi again, From now on I will have a big Label on my screen on a Friday Back up your tree, I woun't be lazy about it again, at least I have all my paper files, but the sad thing is I got a cert today that has got me through a Brick Wall.............. Well We live and learn, like everything else you don't think it will happen to you, will have to wait till Monday to know if he has retrived the file. Sue

Ouch, i know how you feel,although my tree isn`t half the size of yours, my computer crashed too. Luckily i print evey bit of information,the good people on here and myself have found as i get it, but it sure has slowed me down a lot. Sylvia

I'd just like to be able to use FTM. Hubby ordered me a copy, I've waited patiently and at last it arrived today. The darn thing will NOT work !!! I'm getting a message that it's not MSDOS or WINDOWS compatible......I could weep.

oh Susan how disappointing trust a Man to get it wrong which one did he buy??? Put another thread on the message board with the Heading FTM not compatible and you should get some help Val

I couldn't agree with you more. We had a few crashes last year due to a series of faulty hard drives and lost a lot of information such as census images I had downloaded from Ancestry. Luckily this all happened before I had my software, but has made me so aware of the need to backup regulary. I can't bear the thought of losing 100's of hours work. I have heard of companies who can retrieve data on crashed hard drives, they do however charge a lot of money to do this. It may be worthwhile if you have no other option.

Susan. It sounds like you may have a very old version of FTM, what version is it. You can make older programs run on XP by running the compatability wizard, right click on the programs icon, click the compatability tab and alter the settings. Ron www.genealogyprinters*com

I'd suggest you back your tree up on a flashdrive - one of those tiny little gismos that fit into a USB port. So many computers now come without disk drives + you can gets loads more on them than on disks. They're much cheaper now, too. Jacquie

Thanks Ron, unfortunately it won't even load onto the PC. I think the problem may be that he bought it from EBay, supposedly from the UK & brand new. It turned up from Canada, with no box or manual. I'm sure it's a copy. It is supposed to be version 9 and looks as though it's American.

Susan dont put up with it email the seller and say you want to return it and have your money back ,did you pay by paypal or how ?????Also report them to Ebay please , as I sell on there too and we dont need people like that getting away with it and giving a bad name to others

Hi How do you back up your tree from GR? i have exported mine and tried to put it into a PAF (?) and it messes all the info around. I would like to have a copy of everything just incase. Do most people use Family Tree Maker? is that the best/easiest software to use.? thanks in advance Penny