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Sunday, January 21, 2001
* Please be assured that I will never sell or share
your email addresses with anyone else! I respect
your privacy.
Happy New Year to you all! I think it is the first time I have actually
typed 2001, I've written it a lot of times, thank goodness for the
sophisticated controls that Microsoft Word gives you, or it might have ended
up 2000. Anyway, it's definitely 2001!
Last month, I spent our time together explaining the importance of Anti-Virus
software, and updating it to protect against viruses and future viruses to
come, and they will come. I also invited you to email me with any
questions you might have on backing up your very important files on your
computer. Well, I didn't get too many inquiries, but I suspect that
there are a few steps to backing up your files, that some of you may still
need to know. So, I'm using our valuable time together to give you the
fundamentals of "Saving those Golden Files" that you have worked so
hard to accumulate. This may be a review for some, and the steps to
"peace of mind" for others. I'm betting any readers from good
ol' California with their rolling blackouts, really could use some helpful
hints on backing up. Imagine the sale on BACK-UP battery surge
protectors they're having out there! Sorry California, hope your get your
electricity woes under control soon. :)
Here is the first step to a successful back up using
a floppy disk:
Step 1. Format the disk! I recommend that whatever media (floppy
disks, zip disks, cd-roms, tapes) you decide to use to record your files, that
you format the disk or tape first. Formatting is meant to check the
integrity of the disk and erase any information on this disk. It's
crucial to a successful back up.
We're only going to cover formatting a floppy disk today, because many of you
will be using floppies to do the job. I would like to add, that when you
buy new floppy disks that say "preformatted", please, please, please
remember that you still need to manually format!
Formatting procedure:
a) Put the floppy disk in the A: drive.
b) Click on "My Computer" on the desktop.
c) Right click on 3 1/2 Floppy A: and then click on "format" in the
menu.
d) This will pop up the "Format box".
e) Under "format type", click in the circle next to
"full".
f) Under "other options", be sure that the dot is by "Display
Summary", and then click "Start".
g) You'll see the blue line progress across the bottom of the box, and when it
is finished formatting the disk, it will pop up a summary of the results,
"format results". You mainly need to be concerned with one
aspect: "bytes in bad sectors". If you see any number other
than 0 in these results, then you need to throw the disk away. This
meansthat the disk contains a defect and will not function properly if you use
it to back up any information, i.e., if you can even back up information with
this disk at all, you will not be able to restore your information from this
disk.
h) After you read this display summary, click close. Leave the disk in
the drive until you close the format box, or you will get a blue screen
wondering where the disk went. You can also repeat
this procedure by just putting in a new disk, and then
click start again.
i) If you have a lot of Documents, or pictures to back up, you may need
several disks preformatted before you start the back up. So just format 7
or 8 disks to be sure you'll have the right
amount ready, and label them that they are formatted with the handy
labels that come with the new disks, and write in
the programs accordingly.
There is no need to try to back up entire programs. You should have the
original disk for each program on your computer to insure
that you can replace the program in the event of hard drive failure, or worse.
Always be prepared for the worst; especially if your business is on your
computer. You need to back up data that is within the programs that
you use. Like with accounting software, the
program will ask you if you would like to back up your information
entries just before you exit. Choose yes! Believe me you will
thank yourself one day.
Procedure to back up your accounting program (Quicken,
Money, QuickBooks, etc):
Step 2: You can also find backup by
clicking on File (top toolbar), click on backup,
and when the backup box pops up, you will need to
choose a destination for those files.
a) Put your "formatted floppy disk" in
the A: drive.
b) In the backup box, find where it says
"Save In", and click in the adjacent white bar, find
and click on 3 1/2 Floppy (A:).
c) In the "file name" bar (located toward
the bottom) give your back up a name that means something to you. Then
click "SAVE". Aren't you already feeling better?!
d) Do this at least once a week and use the same floppy
disk .
e) Repeat the procedure from a through c, but when you
name it, you just need to click on the name in the large white box (your
previous back up name) and that will put it in the file name bar for you.
This prevents double saving.
f) Then click "Save" and you will see a
message that says "you already have this backup file on your disk, would
you like to replace the existing file ?" click yes, and save it. That's
it! You can do it.
I'm going to give you the back up instructions for the
address book in Outlook Express and AOL, and favorites in Internet
Explorer and AOL, and My Documents in a couple weeks. This is
going to be a two-part Rocky Report. I know that
many of you use other email/internet programs, but these
are two I know well. There are similar
backup procedures for other programs, and maybe this information will be
related to or, at least alert you to find out how to back up your
programs.
There's a lot to cover on this subject, and I want to do a
thorough job. I'm needing to put my attention on a personal goal, and
I'm taking my A+ Certification tests this week. I'll be able to
focus on the other backup procedures after that, and I'll get that information
to you. Until then, wish me luck! I
appreciate every one of you. I am really enjoying this challenge, and I
hope that you won't fault me too much for my tardiness
from time to time, my business sometimes keeps me from fulfilling my 15th day commitment. I
am dedicated to helping you all achieve a higher intelligence with
your computers. So, I'll talk with you again
in a couple weeks, and now, I've got to go back up
my QuickBooks program! :)
Hope these have been helpful hints for all of you.
Remember that I will have all these monthly issues of my
newsletter available at my websites, along with other information:
And
Thanks for reading!
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Merry
Christmas, Everybody!