Where to put the My Pictures folder?

Here I go again with an elemental question. Hope this is the correct forum for it. I want to back up the My Documents folder onto a CD. The folder is 2.73 GBs large. But the My Pictures folder accounts for 2.37 of those. So I thought I would put the My Pictures folder somewhere else so that the My Documents folder would fit onto a CD. It is very convenience right now to get to the My Pictures folder because there is a button that takes me to it on my keyboard. Where should I put the My Pictures folder, and will moving it affect the keyboard button shortcut? Thanks.

 

If my pictures is already in a seperate folder within my documents (which is what i can guess), the 'browse' facility in your burning program will allow you to single it out for backup purposes!
You can then create a shortcut on your desktop if it is ease of access you desire.
However a CD only holds 700mb or so of data, still not enough to hold my pictures on a single disk.
A DVD will hold 4.7gigs or so, enough for all your docs.
Is this an option for you? with consideration to correct drives etc!

Regards..

 

Well, I see that I did not make myself clear (no surprise). I will back up the My Pictures folder onto a DVD; I know how. What I want then is to remove the My Pictures folder from My Documents and place it elsewhere in my computer. Then the My Documents folder can be backed up onto a CD because it will be only about 333 MBs. I just don't know where in my computer I should place the My Pictures folder.

 

The answer is apparently "wherever you want". See:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_shell_folders.htm

TweakUI for Windows XP might be the best way to go about it.

 

Another option is to leave it where it is, solves the shortcut problem, and just select everything in your My Documents folder EXCEPT the My Pictures folder.
Your backup program should allow you to do this. Bazza

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I'm thinking it wouldn't. In order to create the backup "set", you'd have to be "in" the My Documents folder, select everything and then de-select the My Pictures folder. But what happens if you add a new file or folder to My Documents? Presumably, you would want to back them up next time, too, but the backup prog won't know about them b/c they weren't specified in the original backup set.

 

Why not just make a new folder on your desktop called "My Pictures November 2006" or something similar. Then open the regular My Pictures folder click Edit->Select All then with everything highlighted move them to the new folder. Should only take a couple of minutes to move the files. Then go ahead back up the smaller My Documents. Then either move the whole November folder to the regular My Pictures folder or Select everthing in the November folder and move the files back to their original location in My Pictures.

 

I'm glad there are several ideas out there for addressing my situation. Shows why a non-geek such as I couldn't figure it out on his own. I'm wondering, why I couldn't just leave the My Pictures folder on the Desktop as its permanent location. Would the shortcut on my keyboard then point there?

 

According to my XP bible book,

 

Hi,

Sorry I didn't realize you could move My Pictures, I thought it was a system file. Ignore my suggestion above.


Your keyboard shortcut has My Documents as part of its path usually C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\My Documents\My Pictures so if you move it to the desktop C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\Desktop\My Pictures it won't be found.

You would have to edit the path for that button in your keyboard software. I know on Logitech keyboards only certain buttons are programmable. You could look at the software to see if that button is changeable.

 

You folks sure are trying to help me out. I'm afraid I may have misled you in saying I want to back up the My Documents folder. When I "back up" something, I just burn it onto a CD using XP or some other burner program. I don't use a back up program; in fact, I don't even know what one looks like.

 

just open my documents, select my pictures folder, in the left window pane select move folder, move it to desktop, copy my docs folder then move my pics folder back after if you like. To move the folder back to my docs, open my documents and simply drag my pictures from desktop to my docs folder

 

I think the point is he wants a solution that lets him easily back up his entire My Docs folder, and he doesn't want it to be at the expense of losing the functionality of the Windows' built-in organizational mechanism of My Pics. My post above illustrated that WinXP will keep track of where you move the special "shell folder" My Pictures, so when you go to save an image file, it will default to placing it in My Pictures wherever it happens to reside.

 

no the point is he wants to back it up without his 3+ gig of pictures. And once you move the folder back to my docs the keyboard shortcut still works. Yes I have tried it

 

Once he clarified that he was simply burning a CD rather than using a backup program, it all became rather moot. There's no need to move anything anywhere (or even anywhere and back, for that matter). In his burner app, all he need do is navigate to within My Docs, Select All, hold down the Ctrl key and de-select the My Pics folder, and burn away.

 

yeah well he could do that to.

 

Thanks to all of you who offered me help. Not being an accomplished computer operator, I took what looked like the easiest route--the one mentioned by TheDoug in his last post--and it worked just fine. I appreciate all your efforts!

 

Sure makes it a hell of a lot easier once we know what is wanted.
As you replied, burning is a hell of a lot easier than backing up stuff. Bazza

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Yeah, bigbazza, you're right. I guess that's the problem in trying to help someone who doesn't know enough to state the situation clearly. I sure appreciate the patience everyone showed.

 

Glad you got it fixed OK.
One word can certainly make a difference, but the solution came to light eventually.
Bazza
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