Call me paranoid...but I've worked with computers, small and large, since before you could buy an Apple][, and the 360 referred to IBM's latest.
I have found over the years that having a bright, sharp dividing line between OS, user programs, and data serves all of them very well. Programs can be reinstalled. Operating Systems can to - at a higher price. And neither need to be backed up in the same way that your user data needs to be. For files in a particular area, like Genealogy, I create a Geneaology directory. Under there, I have an Images directory, an FTW directory, a PAF directory, a Legacy directory, a few family and location specific directories, correspondence, and so on. All the genealogy data goes in here. Now, this is on a Linux system, far more stable than a Windows system, and it has some technologies like RAID that allow it to fix some problems without losing data. But Windows doesn't care - it's just in that mapped drive on that other machine. Of course, having a Genealogy directory, it's easy to make a copy on another system here, as a backup. And I can write it off to a CD or DVD, and have a recent copy of EVERYTHING very handy...and another copy in another location, so if something bad happens to the house or computers....I've still got a copy. (And yes, while I don't have EVERYTHING in yet, I'm scanning documents as fast as I can, just so I'll have SOME sort of backup "Just In Case". You can do the same thing with just Windows computers...take one computer, maybe one that is a little slow for the latest games, or what have you. Put in a new power supply and a BIG hard disk, and a network card, install the OS...and link it with your other systems. It turns out that having a "server" box is very convenient. It can also be used for things like printer sharing. Anyhow, as Cathy's husband says...keep your data out of My Data, your pictures out of My Pictures. It's a bad idea to mix the OS and your data. Stan -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Cathy Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 02:37 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Photo Directories Depending on what goes wrong with your computer, you can lose files wherever they are stored on your hard drive. The only real answer is to backup regularly. My husband fixes computers and is constantly either giving people the bad news or attempting to salvage files off corrupted disks. Cathy At 02:07 PM 17/05/2006, you wrote: >Now for the reason why I suggest not to store anything that is >important under My documents is that the Username/My Documents >folder is a part of the windows OS environment. I recently had a >problem with my Windows OS becoming corrupted and had to reinstall >windows. When you reinstall windows the My Documents folder gets >written over and recreated thus wiping anything you had there. Even >if you tell the install to keep the directory structure. If your >username was password protected you will not be able to access those >files even though they are still there. I was lucky in that most of >my genealogy stuff was in a separate folder outside of the My >Documents folder and was able to access them but had to reinstall >the programs that were needed. I did have some genealogy documents >in My Documents and was never able to access them including stuff in >My pictures and My videos. File manager saw the files but when I >tried to access them I was given an error message of "Access denied" >Russ Strong Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.0/341 - Release Date: 16-May-06 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.0/341 - Release Date: 16-May-06 Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
