Safeguarding your important files<\/p>\n
Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id<\/p>\n
As the end of 2001 drew closer, I thought I would like to
\nstart 2002 with a lot of fresh things, including a new operating
\nsystem on my home-assembled PC. So I decided to replace the
\nWindows 98 on this Asus-based work computer with Windows XP.<\/p>\n
There were at least three other reasons why I wanted to do
\nthis. First, the system on my work computer had already become
\ntoo overloaded and unwieldy with applications as well as small
\nutility programs that I had been downloading from the Internet.<\/p>\n
The directory structure had become so complicated that it was
\nbeginning to get too difficult to track down the files that I
\nneeded. Reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the
\noperating system and applications would solve a lot of problems.
\nBesides, now that I had returned to PT Microsoft Indonesia the
\nWindows XP test-bed Dell PC that they had loaned to me for a
\ncouple of months, I thought I would need my own XP machine so I
\nwould have the opportunity to get to know the new OS better.<\/p>\n
I took great care in saving all my work that was stored in the
\nMy Documents folder and all its subfolders. I created three
\ncopies of them, which showed how careful I was. I made one backup
\ncopy in a separate partition in the PC's 30 GB hard disk. I
\ncopied them to a dedicated folder on my HP Pavilion, which was
\nalready networked to my work PC. I even burned a CD with the help
\nof the Pavilion to store all the backup files. Certainly it was
\nmore than enough to safeguard the fruit of my whole year's toil.<\/p>\n
Missed the e-mail: Over the year, I had also received
\nthousands of e-mail messages. I kept the important ones. I did
\nnot use OE's Address Book, because many Internet worms use the
\naddresses in it to send out messages without our knowledge. So,
\neach time I needed to send a message out, I would first have to
\nfind the recipient's earlier message in the Inbox or other
\narchive folders, and then hit the Reply button to create my
\noutgoing message. Not surprisingly, the archives were very
\nimportant to me.<\/p>\n
So, using Windows Explorer, I went to the Store Folder of my
\nOutlook Express (OE). I copied all the files in it into these
\ndifferent backup locations. Then, with a Bismillah, I reformatted
\nthe C: partition of the hard drive and installed Windows XP.<\/p>\n
Everything went fine -- that is until I tried to import all my
\ne-mail archives into the new Outlook Express. No file was found
\nin any of the backup locations, I was told. Obviously, I was not
\ncopying the actual e-mail files. It was undoubtedly the biggest
\ndisaster I had in 2001. Ironically, one of my readers once asked
\nme how he should backup his e-mail messages, and I still remember
\nI told him to do exactly what I did. I hope he did not end up
\nlosing all his e-mail archives and curse me for it.<\/p>\n
Honestly speaking, it was quite painful to accept the reality
\nthat I had just lost all my e-mail messages up to December 20,
\n2001, which also included some important projects that I had
\npromised to finish and deliver by the time my clients returned to
\ntheir office in 2002. I had also lost all the data that I had
\naccumulated throughout the years and kept as e-mail messages I
\nsent to myself.<\/p>\n
OE's Help does not go into enough details on how we should go
\nabout backing up our e-mail messages. After some digging, I
\nfinally came across Microsoft's Web site in its Knowledge Base,
\nwhich provides a far better, and interesting, way of doing it.
\nHere is what we should do.<\/p>\n
Store Folder: As I once wrote in this column, OE saves all the
\ne-mail messages in each of the e-mail folders in a separate .dbx
\nfile. These files, along with others with extensions .mbx
\nand .idx, are stored in what is called the \"Store Folder\". To
\nfind this particular folder, the only way is to start OE, click
\non the Tools menu, and then on Options. You will have a dialog
\nbox, and you need to click on the Maintenance tab.<\/p>\n
Click on Store Folder, and you will see the folder name
\ncomplete with its path. Select the entire entry by pressing End
\nonce. Then hold Shift down and press Home. When the entire path
\nis selected, you can copy it by pressing Ctrl-C, or clicking on
\nit with the right mouse button and clicking on Copy from the
\ndrop-down menu.<\/p>\n
Now here is an interesting step that I learned from the Web
\nsite. To start a Windows Explorer and tell it to immediately go
\nto a specific folder, we can use the Run command that you see at
\nthe bottom of Windows' Start menu. Click on Start, then on Run.
\nClick Ctrl-V to paste the copied path (or click inside the
\naddress box with the mouse right button and then click on Paste
\nfrom the menu list). When the path appears in the box, click OK.
\nThis will show all the contents of the Store Folder in Explorer.<\/p>\n
Your task is now to copy all the contents in the folder. Click
\non Edit in Explorer's menu bar, and then click on Select All (or
\nuse the Ctrl-A shortcut). Once all the files in the Store Folder
\nare selected, you can copy them to a backup folder, to a shared
\nfolder (to be copied again later to a connected computer), to a
\nremovable disk drive such as Zip. At worst, you can copy them to
\nmultiple diskettes (Windows will ask you to insert a new diskette
\nonce one is full).<\/p>\n
You will need to backup the addresses and mail accounts as
\nwell. If you use identities, make sure you log in using each of
\nthe identities at a time. Then click on File, Export, and then
\nselect Text Files (Comma Separated Values), and save the file in
\nthe backup location. To backup your e-mail account so that you
\nwill not have to manually enter all the complicated information
\nneeded to access your ISP's mail servers, click on Tools in OE's
\nmenu, and then on Accounts. You will see the Export button on the
\nright. Click on it and follow the straightforward procedure to
\nsave the Internet Account File (IAF) in the backup location.<\/p>\n
Once all the files are safely backed up, you can proceed with
\nthe installation of the new OE. Once it is properly set up, all
\nyou have to do is import the files from the backup folder. Be
\nvery careful, though, because I know exactly how it feels to lose
\nall the important e-mail messages and their attachments.<\/p>\n
By the way, if you want to read Microsoft's tip yourself, just
\ngo to www.microsoft.com, click on Support and then Knowledge
\nBase. Under Search, select Outlook Express, and type in Q270670
\nin the box below it. Then click the Go arrow.<\/p>",
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