Kellie and Bruce, The purpose of the incremental backup option is to spare you from saving everything again, even though you did not make any modifications to most of your files. Note that this utility has been around even before v4.02; in fact, I remember that I started using it since v3.03. It is discussed in Chapter 14. In the v5.0 manual, it's in section 14.3.3, but you can just use the index of the User's Guide, press I to go to the list of topics starting with I, and look for "Incremental Backup", where you press ENTER to go directly to the right section. I personally do daily backups and use the Incremental Backup option. For Kellie and others interested in backing up their files (but especially for those who have not developed the habit of making backups, because they seriously should consider it), this is what I suggest.
1) Do a simple RESET. Note that the purpose of this reset before the backup process is to avoid the error messages, "Cannot access file when it is being used by another process" or "Cannot create a file when that file already exists" which you get sometimes when the BN tries to copy the database files. In other words, a reset is optional but recommended. 2) When the BN returns you to the Main Menu, press U to enter the Utilities Menu. 3) Press B for the Backup option. 4) Press B again to do a complete backup first. 5) When asked which drive to backup, accept the one offered by default: the Flash Disk. Caution: NEVER EVER attempt to backup your Keysoft Systems Disk. This is NOT NECESSARY because a) you are not supposed to save anything important in that drive, considering that you will lose them upon a certain type of reset; b) only system files should reside in that drive which you do not lose because most of them are burnt into ROM while others can be reinstalled; and, c) A backup of the Keysoft Systems Disk makes a copy of the entire Flash Disk as a subdirectory with layers and layers of sub-folders which, when restored to the BN, will cause a replication problem that will eat up the space in the Flash Disk and would be a pain to delete, especially if you cannot or do not use Active Sync. 6) When Asked which folder to back up, you are offered to do it for ALL folders; just hit ENTER to accept this. Note that if in other instances, you just wish to backup a specific folder, then press the SpaceBar instead to navigate to the folder you wish to be backed up, before hitting ENTER. 7) You will be asked for the destination drive. It is always ideal to make backups to a compact flash card or microdrive. Yes, you can use the zip drive on 3.5-inch floppies or the 120 zip disks, but note that the SuperDisk drive used with the BN has a misnomer for a name - it's far from being SUPER, and I can't even make myself call it "good enough". Select the drive when you're certain that it has enough space to accommodate copies of the contents of the Flash Disk. 8) When asked for the backup folder, you are offered one by default with the name being the current date when you're making the backup. You can accept this by pressing ENTER, or you can type a different one, say, "My Recent Backup". 9) After tapping the ENTER key to accept or create a new backup folder, the BN will start the backup process and you will hear progress beeps to indicate that it's busy. Do not do anything to interrupt this. 10) Depending on the number of files you have stored in the Flash Disk, the length of time during which the backups are made will vary. Just be patient. When the BN is through, it will tell you how many files were copied and will return you to the Utilities Menu. You can exit to the Main Menu and go about your normal use of the BN. The next time you wish to make backups, e.g., the following day, here's what you should do: 1) Do a simple RESET. 2) When you're back in the Main Menu, press U for the Utilities Menu. 3) Press B for the Backup option, then I for Incremental Backup. 4) Select the Flash Disk as the drive and ALL folders as the ones you wish to backup. 5) Select the same drive, and note, also the same folder where you did the previous backup following the steps above. By default, the BN will offer that day's date as the name of the backup folder. Instead of ENTER, hit SPACE to go through the folders in your backup drive and press ENTER on the previous backup folder, say "My Recent Backup". 6) The BN will start the incremental backup process. Basically, this looks for the files on the Flash Disk whose last modification date is different from the date of the backup files. Hence, only the ones you have opened and edited since the date of the backup folder you are saving to again will be copied. This includes the databases if you have used Keylist, Keymail and Keyweb. Since cookies, browser history and temporary internet files are saved to the Keysoft Systems Disk, these will not be copied. 7) Before overwriting an old backup file with the new one, you will be prompted to confirm. Press Y to replace it or N to skip it. If you want to replace all old backups with the new ones without being prompted, type A. The BN will beep while in progress. HTH, Roselle >----- QUOTED MESSAGE ----- >Sent by: "Bruce Alexander" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Kelly: >Upon thinking further about backups, it is just as easy to do a full backup, >as not. This way you can access any changes made. Another words, you would >have a complete backup of last weeks work, as well as one for this week. If >you had deleted anything between, using incremental, it would probably be >gone. This would not be the case with full backups. If you have the space, >do a complete backup, then you can delete them when the backup folder gets >large enough. BN will default to the today's date for the backup name. I >don't use incremental backups, as this is the way I understand them to work, >I may be wrong. >Bruce
