HELP. I've lost my pictures!!!!

[rosyposy]

I was editing my pics in Picasa 3 and decided to delete a folder with 5 pics.in it, to my horror I found all the folders disappeared except one!!! I went to the recycle bin and clicked 'restore to where they were' and they went from there too, but haven't re-appeared in Picasa!!! Luckily I still have them in 'My Pictures' but does anyone know where they might have gone and how I can get them back to Picasa 3 ? Will I have to send them one folder at a time, and how do I do that please. I know some of you will be rolling on the floor laughing (or would you???) but can anyone who isn't ,please help me, in very simple language please!! Rosy.

[rojash]

Picasa doesn't store your pictures, it merely catalogues them - in other words they were never "in" Picasa.

Go into Picasa
Click Tools/Folder Manager
In the bottom right double-click My Pictures
Make sure there is a dot by "Scan always"
Click on the + next to My Pictures in the list on the left
Scroll down until you see the folders that you are missing (they may have a red cross by them)
Click on the folder, then click on Scan always
Repeat fro each of the missing folders
Click OK

[VHG]

Always make sure your digital pictures are backed up to CD or DVD BEFORE you start playing around with them.

That way if you accidently delete them you always have a backup on CD or DVD.

Also, did you realise that every time you "edit" a JPEG file (like with Picasa) and save it again you are changing it and losing the "original" picture forever (this is one of the weaknesses of the JPEG format).

Even a "rotate" of a JPEG file (to view it better) changes it forever.

You should ALWAYS backup your original pictues to CD or DVD BEFORE you start playing around with them. That way you ALWAYS have the originals if anything goes wrong.

[rosyposy]

Oh thank you so much guys, I love,love, love you!!! I have started putting them back as you said Rojash, it will take me a while, but it will teach me a lesson to be more careful next time! Yes VHG I knew someone would tell me that, but you did it in a nice helpful way, so I will remember to do that too, also thank you for the extra helpful info, I didn't know I was changing the original even by rotating it. I knew really, I could depend on AB. Rosy