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Important

You must remember that changing settings in the Registry may prevent Windows from starting, so please take care when making changes.

Always Backup first.

 

Making files documents accessible for Backup

The following instructions are for Windows 98 and Xp users.

This tutorial was written and passed on to me by Ivan Collver

 

To make file backup easy, the first thing you need to do is create a Folder on your HD where you are going to keep the data you want to backup. Then create Sub Folders as set out below.

 

I found that locating all the data files that change in a common directory (My Documents) would accomplish this. I placed each of the system data files under this directory.

 

Below are the most common and others are available.
New Sub-Folders are MSFax and OutlookExpress and should be added before copying the old folders to the common directory.
Then you need only drag and drop the Common file to a CDR or CDRW to have a backup.

 

Folders

Your new folders should look something like this:-

My Documents\OutlookExpress
My Documents\OutlookExpress\Favorites
My Documents\OutlookExpress\Address Book
My Documents\OutlookExpress\Identities
My Documents\My Fax
My Documents\My Fax\MSFax

 

Original File Locations

 

The Windows Address Book is located at:

 

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book
98 = C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

 

The Outlook Express sent and received messages data is located at:

 

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities
98 = C:\Windows\Application Data\Identities

 

Favorites is located at:

 

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Favorites
98 = C:\Windows\Favorites

 

My Documents is located at:

 

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\My Documents
98 = C:\My Documents

 

MS Fax is located at:

 

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax
98 = C:\Windows\MSFax

Copy Process

 

Once you have found the files at the above locations :-
Copy Favorites, Address Book and Identities folders. to:-
C:\My Documents\OutlookExpress
Copy MS Fax to:-
C:\My Documents\My Fax (I used DATA as my common file name).

 

Changing the system default locations

 

You can use TweakUI ** to change the folder locations in the system for Favuorites.
TweakUI is available from Microsoft through Powertoys for Windows XP. It is also available for Windows 98.
In XP Open TweakUI and expanded My Computer, go to Special Folders and clicked the PullDown.
Go to Favorites and select Change Location.
Change the location to C:\My Documents\OutlookExpress\Favorites and click OK.

 

In Windows 98 TweakUI is Accessed through the Control Panel, use the General tab and change the locations in the Special Folders. Be sure that you have copied the old folder information in the new location first.

 

Change the Identities in Outlook Express; Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder and change the path that precedes {Identities} with C:\My Documents\OutlookExpress.
This will change the Registry entry but no Registry hacking is necessary.

 

Change the Registry entry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wab\Wab File Name by changing the Data to
C:\My Documents\OutlookExpress\Address Book\{Username}.wab in XP.
Copy the original data entry to a NotePad text file so you can go back if there is a problem.
(You can do a search of the registry for WAB to locate the Address file.) In Windows 98, I found the address book in:-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wab\Wab4\WAB file Name.

You should always find the default setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft Directory of the registry so you can step forward to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER to start the search no matter what Windows OS you are using.

 

I changed the name of the old files by adding a .xxx to the name, rebooted and tested the My Folders, Address Book, Favorites MS Fax and Outlook Express Mail data to see if they all worked. I would suggest, if you are not sure of yourself, that the changes be made one at a time and tested so you can easily find any problems, if they arise. Troubleshooting will be much easier. I deleted these files with the .xxx suffix when I had tested all the changes. You can move them to a C:\Delete_Later folder for safety and keep a record of where you find the original file and the modifications you made if they are different from those listed above.

 

I have all of my Word, Spreadsheet and database files default-located in the C:\My Documents directory as sub categories. I.E. Word, Excel, Spreads, Database, Access. Ect. These settings are found in the various programs usually in a Options or User settings menu item. As an example, I put my MS Word files in C:\My Documents\Word. If you use Quicken or MS Money, after copying the files to the common directory, you need only open the program and use the File and Open the new location to change the location of where to find the file. This process will also tell you where your present file is located. Explore the file relocation options in TweakUI for other files to be relocated to fit your needs.

 

All you need to do now each time you want to backup your data, is, to drag and drop the My Documents folder to a CDR or CDRW.

 

Users of Earthlink, Juno and NetZero have their E-mail, Favorites and Addresses in other locations. This may be applicable to AOL also so this is not a complete list of locations.

 

Backing up your files to a Thumb Drive

  • Set the Thumb Drive to a fixed drive number like T:\ or X:\ by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Manage.
  • Select Disk Management, right click on the thumb drive and select change drive letter and paths.
  • Select change and select the new drive letter.
  • This way it will always be at that location after a Power Up Start or Re-boot.
  • Set the default save location to that thumb drive.

Quicken and Word being two of my most important files, are always saved on the thumb drive.

In the evening, I will backup the Thumb drive onto the Computer Hard drive. I know that seems backward but 3 computers of Clients have failed during the day and they were able to get up and running by installing the programs on another computer and placing the Thumb Drive in the USB of the new computer.

One client has his complete Patient database on a thumb drive and as a backup, places a copy on a second Thumb Drive. He also removes the thumb drive from the Office computer when he goes home at night and there is no patient information saved on the hard drives at the office.

 

One thing to also consider is that the thumb drive is much faster and never goes to sleep.