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Lots more answers!

Posted by AndyG on Thu Jun 19, 2003 01:11:51 PM

In reply top One last question.... posted by Tony C on Thu Jun 19, 2003 08:53:42 AM

Use it like you would use a floppy drive Tony.

You DON'T need any special software to do this either just cut and paste to the drive as you would do in explorer. Make directories on the cd too just like any disc drive.

You could also use it as I do for an incremental back-up of a particular directory tree. You set a time for the back-up perhaps every day at 6.30pm for example. Then at this time it will automatically save every new file in your selected directory of the type(s) you specified and also any file which has been modified. Its a great idiot proof way of keeping your files backed up. You build a library of cd's then which you can restore any file from at any point. If you don't happen to have your pc on at that time it will remind you as soon as you do switch it on that one is due. Its very easy to get used to. Doesn't take long either as its only backing-up new/modified files.

Most cd drives come with a a bit of software to perform this task as standard eg HP Simple Trax which I use. If not windows has its own version. They usually have a libray facility so that you can right click on any particular file in explorer and it will tell you how many back-ups of a particular file have been made and which cd they are on (you specify the cd label names your self - set up your own date code system)

If you do set this up, make sure you check that its is working as you expect the first couple of times and practice restoring a few files do 'Different' locations from whence they came so that you gain confidence with it.

You can use this type of system with a CD/DVD/Tape/Zip drive, its all the same.

Some people like to back-up there whole system regularly, great if you have a mass storage device which can handle gig's of data. CD drives are not ideally suited for this purpose. I prefer to back-up data files only eg your image files, as if my system crashes so bad that I need a new hard drive then thats too bad I can live with that. I have all my data files intact. Un-recoverable hard disk crashes are pretty few and far between these days with good drives. (ducks for cover!)

I use my pc for engineering CAD purposes and todate have not lost a single drawing file.

Touch wood of course

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