XP OS and Netscape OT

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that Jim Isbell may have mentioned these words:
>This is off the topic of Classic Computers but in 10 years it will be on 
>topic.  I just want to get some answers NOW so that maybe this computer 
>will be around in 10 years.
>
>I run XP...

My condolences... ;-)

>I would like to make a backup on CD-RW once a month.  In the old days when 
>storage space was precious there were programs that allowed you to backup 
>ONLY the files on the computer that had been updated or added since the 
>last backup.

Most *real* backup programs (read: not M$) will still do that, but they 
usually cost a pretty penny themselves... I don't know if there are any 
winders freeware proggies that can do this that are any good.

>   I would like to do the same but haven't found the method. OR in the 
> alternative, I would like to do a FULL backup to a second HD that WOULD 
> BE BOOTABLE by just swapping the HD when the main drive craters, which 
> seems to be the main failure I have, about once every two years.

Norton Ghost. I make periodic backups of my system like this all the time. 
I ghost my entire drive to a ghost image, and burn it to a bootable DVD. If 
the machine goes TU, I replace the drive, boot from DVD, and restore the 
system to a known-good state. Drive to drive is even easier... (just make 
sure the main drive & backup drive aren't on the same chain, as it'll take 
quite a bit longer.)

There may be other programs that can do this (I think the makers of 
Partition Magic have a program that works similarly) -- I cannot speak for 
those, I've only used Ghost.

>Secondly I would like to know how the save on a floppy or CD all my 
>Netscape email archives and address book  and Web Bookmarks and then how 
>to merge them BACK into a new install of Netscape without erasing what is 
>already there.  The last time my HD cratered I had saved the address book 
>but nothing else but I could never get it back on to the new install.

Why would you need to 'merge' them in? If you're doing a fresh install, set 
up your email and before checking your mail, restore the datafiles 
(bookmarks, etc.) in the directory that Nutscrape makes. You don't *really* 
need Nutscrape's default bookmarks, eh?

If you're using ghost, every email you had before your HD cratered will 
still be there. (Of course, anything you had since your last backup will be 
*poofed*.)

[[ If you ever do need to 'merge' you're email, just concatenate the files 
- Nutscrape uses standard mbox files to store the mail. Bookmarks & address 
book are a different critter. The bookmarks are HTML, so you'd prolly have 
to cut-n-paste between two instances of text editor. I have never used an 
address book, so I can't comment on that. ]]

If it's important, I *never* save it under the desktop or 'default' 
locations on the HD. Since the Win3.1 [1] daze, I've always created a 
separate directory directly off the root dir, called !merch. (The bang 
makes it "float" to the top of any alphabetized directory listing) and put 
subdirs there (dox, spreadsheets, pix, etc...) That way, I have 1 "easy to 
find" directory to back up and I know everything I need to save is there.

How to change the default save directory in whatever programs you use I'll 
leave as an exercise to the reader... ;-)

HTH,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

[1] Why Win3.1? Before that, I never kept anything important on my IBMish 
critter so I never worried about backups - everything was stored on floppy 
on my Tandy CoCo3. So I lost a few game save files. "big whoop." ;-)

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   ---   sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch at 30below.com

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