Get in a Good Habit: Back Up Your Data
If you don't back up your entire hard drive, you should at least protect the vital bits. Here's how to get started.
Lincoln Spector
What to Back Up in Windows 98 and Me
Include List:
- C:\My Documents
- C:\Windows\All Users
- C:\Windows\Application Data
- C:\Windows\Desktop
- C:\Windows\Favorites
- C:\Windows\Local Settings
- C:\Windows\Profiles (you only need this if more than one person uses the computer)
- C:\Windows\Sendto
- C:\Windows\Start Menu
And there may be other folders, as well. Not all companies save their data in one of the above folders. Quicken, for instance, saves its data in C:\Program Files\Quicken, where a file backup is likely to miss it. If you want to include other important files, you'll need to figure out where a program saves its data. You may find the data location in the program's Options, Preferences, or Settings dialog box.
Or you can use Windows' Find or Search tool: Open the program, save some data, then close the program. Then, in Windows Explorer, press F3 to bring up the Find or Search tool. Look for all files on your hard drive created in the last day (the exact way to do this varies with different versions of Windows, but it's pretty easy to determine). Sort the results by date; the data you want will be among the newest files. You may have to add another folder or file to your Include List. See "Put Quicken Data Where It Belongs" for a Quicken fix.
Exclude List
- *.bak
- *.tmp
- *.wbk
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