NeuralNetWriter Backup

Backup

Page updated: 12 October 2004

Contents List - Click on one or just scroll down

Backing Up to CD-/CD-RW

Backing Up Partitions

Backing up Incredimail data

CD-RW Capacity

Things to Backup

Various Backup Programs

See also Application Guides under "Steganos Suite 5" for a guide on how to use Steganos for encryption and backup.

Backing Up to CD-/CD-RW

For CD-RW disks, I use InCD.
I format the disk before copying to it. This removes old stuff.

For CD-R disks, I use Ahead's Nero Burning ROM.
Go though the wizard, move the folders to the 'what will be burnt' window, then click on the red disk icon in the toolbar.

Backing up Incredimail data

This was only necessary for the older version of Incredimail.
Now if you move the storage folder to My Documents\Mail\Incredimail it will be
backed up when you backup My Documents.

Copy
C:\Documents & Settings\Fred Bloggs\Local Settings\Application Data\IM
to
D:\Data\Fred\My Documents\Mail\IncredimailBackup
This copies mail folders & styles etc.

Backing Up Partitions

When you do any backups, make a note in your computer log book.
Backup your operating system before installing software.

Your operating system

In RPM copy the Windows XP partition to another partition of the same size
and type, preferably on another disk.
Do this by selecting the Windows XP1 partition, then press 'c', then select the
destination (carefully).

Your Data

In RPM copy the Common Data partition to another partition of the same size
and type, preferably on another disk.
Do this by selecting the Common Data FAT32 LBA partition, then press 'c', then
select the destination (carefully).

Also, backup your data onto CD-RW disk using InCD.

CD-RW Capacity

Using InCD

503MB of used hard disk space occupies 527MB on a 700MB CD-RW disk leaving 36MB free.
514MB of used hard disk space occupies 533MB on a 700MB CD-RW disk, leaving 6.16MB free.

Things to Backup

First you need to copy a few things that don't reside in your My Documents folder.

Copy Desktop Icons:

This will copy all the desktop icons from your desktop into a folder that you can backup onto disk.
This will save a lot of work if you've created icons by hand, as I have.

Go to C:\Documents & Settings\Steve\Desktop
Select all the files with Edit->Select All
Press control-C to put them in the paste buffer
Go to D:\Data\Steve\My Documents\Desktop Backup
Press control-P to paste the icons in.

Media Player

If you have downloaded CD info from the internet:
Goto C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player
Copy CurrentDatabase_xxx.wmdb to My Documents\My Music

Then backup the following:

D:\Data\Steve\My Documents
D:\Downloaded Apps
D:\Download XP updates

Various Backup Programs

System Restore Point

Regularly, and before installing something:
Create an XP restore point with:

Start.Help & Support.Undo changes to your computer with system restore

This (in theory) allows you to revert to the state before the install.
However, it doesn't always cope with worms & viruses.

Backup to CD-RW with InCD – my preferred method

InCD allows the CD-RW disk to be used like a floppy.
It retains filenames and directory structure.
It does not have problems with long names or have a 255 character limit on paths.
Version v4.0.5.6 doesn't cause the blue screen of death !!

Backup to CD-RW with Nero

This is fast but pathnames are limited to 255 characters. This is easily exceeded.

Backup to CD-RW with built in XP Mt Renier

This involves a two stage copy process and so is slow.
A slow version of InCD.