Quick and Easy Data Backups to CD-RW Discs

Lincoln Spector

What's the best way to use a CD-RW drive to create backups?

Charles Green, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

You don't need to make frequent full backups of your entire hard drive to CD-R or CD-RW discs. Waiting to swap discs manually makes creating such backups a long, boring process.

The only files you need to back up are the ones you've created or changed yourself. So concentrate on anything that isn't already on a commercial CD, or available via download from the Internet (and remember to save the registration numbers of any shareware you've registered). If you use Windows 98 or Me, the folders that you need for performing regular backups are probably on the C: drive under the names My Documents, Windows\Application Data, Windows\Desktop, Windows\Favorites, and Windows\Start Menu.

Windows 2000 and XP make things easier by putting all the necessary folders in one location: C:\Documents and Settings. This folder holds everything you need to back up, but Documents and Settings contains one subfolder you definitely shouldn't include in your incremental backup: Temporary Internet Files. To place this folder in a new location, first open Internet Explorer; then select Tools, Internet Options, click the Settings button (located under the General tab), and click the Move Folder button.

You'll also need backup software. Microsoft Backup, which ships with Windows 98 and Me, doesn't officially support CD-RW, but it will work with a program such as Roxio's DirectCD (which probably came with your CD-RW drive). DirectCD allows Windows to write transparently to CDs as if they were large floppies. You have to make sure that the entire contents of the folders listed above will fit onto a single disc. Fortunately, this will not be a problem for most people.

You may have to install Microsoft Backup manually. If you're using Windows 98, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, and click the Windows Setup tab. Scroll down and double-click the System Tools listing. Check the Backup listing, click OK twice, and follow the prompts. If you're using Windows Me, see " More Tools Not in Win Me" in my October 2001 column.

Like Win Me, Windows 2000 comes with a version of Microsoft Backup that doesn't officially support CD-RW. But in this case, the program doesn't unofficially support CD-RW, either.

Plenty of third-party backup programs do work with CD-RW, however. I recently test-ran NewTech Infosystems' Backup Now (see Figure 1), Dantz Development's Retrospect Express Backup, and Iomega's QuikSync. All three back up specific folders to a CD-RW disc, though QuickSync also requires use of DirectCD or a similar program.

All three programs let you perform full backups of every file in the selected folders, plus incremental backups of files that you've changed since the last backup. (The first two also automatically back up files you've created since your last backup.) Do full backups every week or two, and incremental backups every day.

In the past, I've recommended using CD-R discs rather than CD-RW discs to archive important files. But for daily backups, the ability to erase and reuse a CD-RW disc is more important than the added reliability of a CD-R disc.

Undo an Outlook Update

I recently downloaded the Outlook 2000 SR-1 E-mail Security Update, which is designed to thwart e-mail viruses. Now I can't open or save programs sent to me as e-mail attachments. Is there a way around this prohibition?

Jason Waltman, Salt Lake City

Unfortunately, removing the upgrade isn't easy. And if you use Office XP's Outlook 2002, there's no upgrade to remove--the inability to save e-mail attachments is embedded in the program.

The easiest solution is to use Outlook Express to open messages with attachments you want to save (after you scan the attachments for viruses, of course). First, create an Outlook folder for messages with blocked attachments. In Outlook's Inbox, select File, New, Folder (click the chevron if you don't see all available options). Call the folder ToOE.

When you receive a message carrying an.exe attachment you want to run, drag it to the ToOE folder. Then launch Outlook Express (it doesn't need to be set up to access your e-mail account). Select File, Import, Messages to launch the Outlook Express Import wizard. On the first page, select Microsoft Outlook. On the second, click the Selected folders radio button, and then choose ToOE. On the third page, click Finish.

Outlook Express will now have its own ToOE folder containing your message and a fully accessible attachment.

Slim Down Your System Tray

I have approximately 20 programs running in the system tray on the right end of my taskbar. How do I prevent some of them from loading every time Windows starts up?

Mike Hedrick, via the Internet

These days every program seems to put its icon in your system tray. The icons do more than just fill up the taskbar, though. Each icon in the system tray represents a running program that's using RAM and other system resources.

To identify the program associated with an icon, hold the mouse pointer over it until a title pops up. Now ask yourself if you need that program running at all times. If it's something like a firewall or an antivirus program's auto-protect module that does something constructive while it's in the background, the answer is yes. But if it's something like the little AOL icon that merely gives you yet another way to launch the service, you can probably do without it.

Right-click the icon and examine the menu that pops up. There's often an Exit or Close option. When you select this, you may be asked whether you want the program to restart the next time you restart Windows; tell it you don't. (You can turn off AOL's system tray program in this way.) If that doesn't work, examine the pop-up menu for an option named 'Preferences' or 'Options'. Or open the program itself and check its menus for an option that will prevent it from loading on start-up.

If the program doesn't include a simple way to turn itself off, you have to do the job through Windows. In Windows 98, Me, or XP, select Start, Run, type msconfig, press Enter, and click the StartUp tab. Msconfig doesn't come with Windows 95 or 2000, but Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel freeware will do the trick if you use one of those OSs. For more information on de-iconizing the system tray, see Steve Bass's article, " Uninvited Icons Cause More Than Clutter."

Hide Windows Me's Logo

Back in the July 2000 issue, you explained how to hide the start-up splash screen for Windows 98 [" Stop or Change the Splash Screen."] Is there a way to do this in Windows Me?

Brandon Schumann, Pine City, Minnesota

In earlier versions of Windows, you could stop the splash screen with a simple setting on the Boot tab of Microsoft's downloadable freebie Tweak UI. But oddly enough, when you bring up Tweak UI in Windows Me, the Boot tab has disappeared (see Figure 2). Go figure.

So what can you do about it? One solution is to press the Esc key as soon as the logo appears. This simple approach is the best way to suppress the splash screen if you have a one-time reason not to sit and stare at it as your PC boots--say, to speed up the Me start-up process or to verify that the logo is hiding an important message.

If you want to avoid the splash screen every time you boot, you have to do some tinkering. Select Start, Programs, Accessories, MS-DOS Prompt. In the MS-DOS window, type attrib-r-s-h c:\msdos.sys and then press Enter. Type notepad c:\msdos.sys and press Enter again.

In Notepad, put your cursor at the end of the line that reads '[Options]', and press Enter to add a new line. Type logo=0 (that's a zero, not the letter O). Now save the file and close Notepad.

Back in the DOS box, enter attrib +r +s +h c:\msdos.sys. Press Enter and close the DOS window. That should do it.

Send your questions to answer@pcworld.com. Answer Line pays $50 for published items. You'll find a collection of Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector's humorous writing at www.thelinkinspector.com.

Put Quicken Data Where It Belongs

By default, Intuit's Quicken personal-finance software stores your data file (usually qdata.qdf) in its program folder rather than with your other data files in My Documents (or wherever you store these files). The easiest way to fix this is to move the files. With Quicken closed, drag qdata.qdf, qdata.qel, qdata.qsd, and qdata.qph from their current location (probably either C:\quickenw or C:\Program Files\quickenw) to the folder you prefer. Then double-click qdata.qdf to open it in Quicken. Thenceforth, Quicken will look for the file in the new location each time you launch the program.