Help - transferring photos from laptop to a disc!

[emc]

Hi

I have a Sony Viao laptap (about four years old) and I have some photos on my desktop (they are mhtml files, emailed from a Mac) I want to put them onto a disc so I can take them to be printed out - have tried to put them on a CD and DVD but none seem to give me an option to 'copy' when I insert the discs into my laptop (it asks me if I want to 'burn' CDs and stuff, then nothing happens)

Help - I don't know what to do - is it cos they are mhtml files?? Sorry, am total technophobe so any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[mockney piers]

Are you using an unused writable cd-rom or dvd?

Is your dvd drive a read-write drive?

Burning means the writing files to a disc, so called because the laser burns the pits rather than just reads them. It's usually a one time only process, once it's burnt you can't overwrite files.

It might be easier simply to use a USB pen drive as all photo places accept them too and they'er pretty cheap these days. I got an 8GB one the other day for less than a tenner, and of course you can reuse them a huge number of times.

[StraferJack]

I would echo the USB drive solution - it's just MUCH easier than faffing around with cd/dvds

plus many consoles/TVs etc have a slot for them so you can view stuff on your TV that way

[emc]

Ah, that sounds like a solution - sorry, but where would I buy one - PC World or somewhere?

Thanks

[Loz]

Sainsburys sell 'em.

[tog_in_sox]

The only advantage to using the CD or DVD is that they won't get wiped/corrupted by stray magnetic fields (although these are less likely now that so many people have flatscreens nowadays. That said a dodgy power supply very close by could do it.

As you're dealing with mhtml files I'm presuming that the pictures you're dealing with are most likely JPGs (or similar) rather than CRW/RAW/NEF (much higher quality but larger). Most walk-in photo print labs are likely not geared up with easy-use facilities that recognise mhtml so you may need a skilled technician to manage this for you if they can deal with them at all. Otherwise you will have to extract the photos from the mhtmls as plain old JPGs/PNGs (I'd avoid TIFF and BMP). Don't know what application you have on your Sony that might do this. Presumably you can see the images when reviewing your emails so hopefully you have the option to save the images to your USB stick or PC as a JPG. There may be a menu option enabling you to save all the images (attachments) in an email at once or you may have to do it one by one. How are you viewing your emails?

[mockney piers]

A flash drive isn't magnetic and has no moving parts and only degrades through r/w activity so is pretty safe for long term storage too.

That said I do keep meaning to back up my photos to disc but I never seem to get around to it as it's comparatively a right palaver.

[emc]

Hello again - OK, so went to Sainsbury's and bought a Sandisk 'Cruzer USB 2.0 Flash Drive' - is this the right thing before I open the packaging? thanks v much

[Townleygreen]

Yes that's a flash drive, they are great

[emc]

OK, right at the risk of sounding totally useless (I know, I am) have stuck the stick thing into the side of the laptop and now I presume I use the 'export' button thing that's on my web album to transport the photos from laptop to USB. I've managed this (i think) but how do you tell if I have transferred successfully - i.e. how do I 'see' what's been trasferred onto the USB? Nothing seems to come up on my laptop 'showing' the USB's contents - well, something does come up, options and stuff, but I don't know what they mean. God, am annoying myself here - I don't know why I find things like this so hard! Unfortunately none of my friends seem to be any better than me so can't help....any advice much appreciated, thanks.

[Townleygreen]

Go to "start" choose "my computer" and it will show all your drives, including the USB drive. Click on it and you're in.

You can just drag photos from the folder on your PC onto the USB, no need to use export.

[emc]

That worked! thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!