@2{Backing Up Your PC @4}by Ian Urie @5*2 So you bought a new P.C.! Now, how do you keep that state of the art (well, it was last week) machine working? It's probably running Windows, so stability isn't exactly its best point. Windows is an incredible OS, it's the best selling OS and the most incredible thing about it to me is that fact. I can never understand why such an unstable beast is so popular, hasn't anyone seen any other OS? The main thing about Windows is that they have tried so hard to make it easy to work. Put a novice in front of it and give them a few minutes tuition and off they will go and manage quite well in word processing, playing games and various other efforts. @5*2 However, let them install a game or new piece of software or alter any of the settings and the full extent of the Windows nightmare will become apparent. In their efforts to make Windows easy to use, they have had to make some major changes. Some of these changes are easy to understand, some are not. How many people are confident of their ability to go in and edit the registry when things go wrong? How do you get Windows back to a stable condition once you have managed to destabilise it? Windows ME promises to be able to do that, simply make a backup of the original working configs and you can return to it once you've ruined it. Now that's ok if you're using ME, but what about the millions still on 98? Let's look at some of the options .... @5*2 You might have bought your P.C. from one of the big chains. I bought mine from Time and so far, I've managed to keep it running. This can solely be attributed to the fact that Time gives a full set of CD's with the software that came with the machine on them. That and a reload CD. The Reload CD when inserted on bootup restores your P.C. to an "out of the box" status. It does this due to the fact that Time has set up a Norton Ghost partition, which is a mirror of your hard drive. Putting the CD in starts a script which copies and overwrites your hard drive with the original settings and software that it had the first time you booted up. Great! As long as your drive doesn't go tits up. Still, if that happens, I have the CDs to start again with a new hard drive. So thumbs up from me for Time. I'm afraid I don't have any mates that have bought a P.C. from PCWorld, but from what I've heard, they're much the same. The same goes for Tiny, although I don't believe that they provide the CDs but do have a Ghost on the hard drive. Better hope your drive doesn't give out after the warranty! Still, by that time, your software will be out of date anyway, Hehehe! So, let's have a look at some of the things you can do to minimise your data loss when things go wrong, please note I said WHEN! @5*2 As I said before and it's worth repeating, Windows isn't the most stable of beasts! Even a screensaver can ruin your day; in my case, I thought I would have a look at the image magnifier and it took hours of wrestling with the system after that to settle it back down. If you're anything like me, you'll download anything and everything from the Net to try. This is a wonderful experience, but can be fraught with danger. Always have a virus checker running with the latest updates!! There are free virus checkers out on the Net, as well as the major software giants like Norton and McAfee. There's no excuse for catching a virus nowadays, everyone should be aware of the existence of them even if they only read the newspapers. Always keep a backup!!! This is the single most important thing about Windows!!! @5*2 Now there is a utility in Windows called BackUp. This can be found under System Tools which is in the Accessories part of the Start menu. This gives you a simple wizard to enable you to make a backup of your important files. Making a backup of your entire harddrive is possible and you simply have to specify where the resultant file will be stored to start this. Unfortunately it doesn't support multi volume files (at least in my version), so I would have to save the file, then split it into pieces on CD's to complete the job. Another alternative since I have a CD/RW is to use the software that came with the drive. This is Disk Creator 4 suite and using this I can use Take 2. @3 (Now please view PC Back Up Pic No1) @5 As you can see from the grab ..very easy! It even tells you approx. how many disks are required. @3*2 (Now please view PC Back Up Pics No2 and No3)   @5 So, a simple matter of feeding the drive with blank CDs. I'm sure whatever CD burning software that came with your drives will have similar software. So that's you sorted ..You've made a backup of your entire drive. How do you get it back? Well, I cheated and skipped a part. You should have made an emergency boot disk first! It's the first icon next to the Take 2  logo. Hitting it will show you the following. @3 (Now please view PC Back Up Pic No4) @5 If on the off chance you really strike lucky and the computer won't even boot, you can use the floppy to get the Backup disk working and able to restore your drive. I should mention that to make an emergency disk to get your CD recognised (which you need to get Windows re-installed) you can also make one by going to Control Panel add/remove programs and selecting Startup Disk as shown. @3See PC Back Up Pic No5. @5*2   As I said, I tend to try out quite a bit of software from the Internet. If something goes wrong and you can always uninstall it. To get it back, simply re-install from the original. Personally, I use DirectCD (from the Disk Creator suite). This is a utility which allows you to use a Rewritable CD as a large floppy. I've set mine to put everything downloaded from the Net to my Downloads drawer in My Documents. It's a simple case of moving files from this folder weekly to keep all my files in one place. When the Rewritable gets full, simply burn all the files to another CD and start all over again with the Rewritable. Amazing how easy this is, and so worthwhile. If you ever have to reinstall Windows or use the Reload CD, it's a simple matter of re-installing the things you want from the CD. I have downloaded and used the likes of Agent, Opera, QuickTime, Media Player7 (now 7.1) and none of the downloads are particularly small. Saves acres of time!! @5*2 Always remove programs from the control panel. On the Amiga, you can simply delete the program, don't do it that way with the P.C. Go into the Control Panel and use the add/remove programs icon. Always check which details it tells you it couldn't remove and then remove them manually. Save yourself a lot of heartache. Next, keep a backup of your Internet settings. I use Windows 98 , so I'll describe how to do it via that. Every P.C. can use Outlook Express and this is my default mail handler. In Outlook, go to the Tools menu. Now select Accounts from this.   You should see something like this .... @3 (Please now view PC Back Up Pic6)   @5*2 Click on any account (start with your default) and select export! @3 (Time to look at PC Back Up Pic7)   @5 You should now get a dialogue box like this. Select save and that's it for that mail account. Do the same for any other mail accounts you have. You can do the same for all your news accounts as well. So that's the Internet settings saved, is it? Well, that's your mail and new settings saved. Please note that it saves (as most Windows programs do) to My Documents by default. It should also be noted that although it saves your details, it DOESN'T save your passwords!! You should always keep a separate note of your passwords, whether you do this by a printout or piece of paper, do it and keep it safe. Now for your address book. Bring up your Address Book from the menu or by selecting it in Outlook by going to the tools menu again .... @3 (Another grab to look at...PC Back Up Pic8)   @5*2 Select the file menu and export .... @3 See PC Back Up Pic9@5 to make sure your on the right track. And then give it a name and save the file. @3 (View PC Back Up Pic10) @5 Ok, what's next. We've saved the mail, news settings and the address book ... Ahhhhh! Of course, we still need to save the Internet settings! Again this is fairly simple. Open the My Computer folder and go into Dial-Up Networking. Copy each connection icon you have to wherever you are going to save your settings. That's it... job accomplished! Now look at the very last screen grab... @3(PC Back Up Pic11)@5 Well, that's enough from me for now, I'm fair wore oot :( Re-installing Windows can wait for another article.