> I'm going to be moving TB to a different computer in the next few
> days, & would like simple, step-by-step instructions on what to do
> please :-)
I do that from time to time - I think my system is particularly big
despite being private mailsystem: In total my system has close to
300 mailfolders containing approx 300 000 messages. My main system
is of course at home and this is where I do all the maintenace.
I have a mirror backup at my working place - and from time to time
I update the rule settings etc. on the mirrored system. This is how
I do it:
In TB I Backup "Account Properties"; "Address books"; and "Global
options". I do NOT use The Bat to backup "Folders with messages"
nor "Attachments" (more about that in a moment...).
NOTE: Remember to click "Choose" and check for the addressbooks.
The Bat sometimes leave your Personal Address book unchecked (!)
thus backup will happen for your address book!
Next I select the folder where the backup file is to be stored,
and I give it a decent name - like TB20020809-1803.tbk (backup
of "The Bat"; year "2002"; month "08" (August); date "09" (9th);
backup started 1803 (18:03)).
Next I check for the accounts I want to back up - in my case I
always do a total backup, so I check them all.
I give the backup file a password - this is adviceable since
your backup file will containg account properties you would like
to keep for yourself - my password are always made up of a nice
combination of alphanumeric "chArAct3rs".
When all that is done I execute the backup - the process won't
take many seconds since we at this time isn't including messages.
At this stage we have now done a "full" account(s) backup.
I made a point that I do not use The Bat to backup my messages.
This is partly because TB dosn't really compress well (...or? ;)
and WinZIP will do it faster and better in my opinion. Before I
zip the _entire_ TB-folder I'll make sure my TB backup is there
too (TB20020809-1803.tbk to be found in C:\Programfiles\The Bat!\).
I use the same procedure for password and naming the zipped file;
ie. "chArAct3rs" and "TB20020809-1806.zip"...and then I'll go for
a coffee-break :)
Later I burn this entire big zipped file to a CD (NOTE: Remember
to test your Zip-file before ack'ing!). After burning to CD, I
test to see if all the packed files are well without errors
(WinZIP and WinRAR can do this easily).
Now that I have the CD finished, I can restore (update) my mail
system at work very easily. Since I already have The Bat installed
at both places (equal versions!), all I have to do is to do a safe
backup of my Sent Mail on the workingplace installation, and then
I just extract all files from the CD into The Bat's folder - any
old files are overwritten - but who cares! ;) Next I restore from
my backed up TB20020809-1803.tbk - and eureka - system is up!
NOTE: There are a few things you must make sure in order to be able
to do it this easily.
1) The Bat must be installed using an equal path on both systems;
C:\Programfiles\The Bat!\
This is important so that you can be _sure_ that your mail-
rules will operate correctly and find folders where they were
at the other machine. Any difference here may or may not cause
your mailrules to stop working correctly - it really depends on
how you have configured your systems. For example, mail rules
that Moves messages automatically at receiption, may suddenly
stop doing that because it looks for C:\Programfiles\The Bat!\
at home, but C:\Programfiles\The Bat\ at work... :/
2) Make sure the same The Bat version is installed on both systems.
Apparently, this is important when overwriting files - including
programfiles! :)
3) Sometimes (and in my case) SMTP and POP3 properties may differ
on the two machines. Those you may need to give a little tweak
in order to work. But there is a workaround here to: Use XRay
to set up correct properties for both machines, and set the
properties in The Bat (both systems) to 127.0.0.1. Regardless
of which system (backup/restore) your TB will just point to that
locally installed XRay - and XRay will route correctly anyway.
4) ...is there more..? ...if there is I will let you know when I
remember it... ;)
Hope this method works for you.
/ St
________________________________________________________
Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information:
http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
