What to Back Up.......

Overview

The problem many have with backing up files is knowing where they are. Fortunately, most files are stored in only a handful of places that are usually pretty easy to find. With a few strange exceptions, everyone conforms to this standard. Here is a list of common locations to look for files.

Windows User Profiles

Since Windows 2000, Microsoft began using a standard location to store files on a PC. This folder is called Documents and Settings for Windows 2000 and XP and Users on Windows Vista. These repository folders contain seperate folders for everyone who has an account on the computer. So, if you log into your computer as John Smith, then you will find a folder under either Documents and Settings or Users called John Smith. From here on I'll referr to this repository folder as simply "UserDocs"

Inside these user profile folders are the My Documents folder, as well as the folder for the Desktop, Internet Explorer Favorites, and all of the cached file locations like temporary internet files and temporary setup files. This folder contains almost everything you need to backup from a purely data

• My Documents - This folder is generally the default or standard place to store files in Windows. Almost every program installed in windows will store files that you create here.
  Location: C:\UserDocs\username\My Documents
• Desktop - This folder contains all of the files and shortcut links that you see on your desktop. If you commonly save your documents or email attachments on the desktop then you don't want to forget this folder!
  Location: C:\UserDocs\username\Desktop
• Favorites - Everytime you save a favorite website in Internet Explorer (also known as save to favorites), a link file is stored in this folder.
  Location: C:\UserDocs\username\Favorites
• Outlook Folder - If you are using Microsoft Office Outlook then you have several files to backup. Unfortunatly, Microsoft in it's infinite wisdom decided to spread these documents all over your user profile folder. Some of these files are in special hidden folders as well. Below are several links to help you find and deal with your outlook files:
  • Locations - This links takes you to Microsoft's help document that outlines all of the various folder locations for outlook files.
  • Moving Data Files - This link describes how to move the main data file for outlook to a more reasonable location - Like My Documents
• Outlook Express - Outlook Express provides a method to backup these files manually. Microsoft has a support document which details how to do this.
  
  Location: All of your OE mail folders and messages, local IMAP and Hotmail folders and messages, and all of your subscribed newsgroups and messages are stored in one folder called the store folder. It's default location is
  C:\UserDocs\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\GUID\Microsoft\Outlook Express
  
  where GUID is the Global Unique IDentifier (technical jargon for a unique long number) used to specify an Identity. Depending on your operating system and upgrade history, your store folder might be located elsewhere. To determine the location of your store, click Tools| Options| Maintenance| Store folder.
• Windows AddressBook - To determine the location of your Outlook Express WAB file, open the WAB in OE and click Help | About Address Book.
• Firefox Bookmarks - I love Firefox as a browser! It is more stable and complies with more of the Internet Standards that Internet Explorer but finding where the backup files are is a real pain. Even though they save the files in your profile folder, they chose to use a random name for the folder that contains this information. The following link will open a firefox support page describing how to find your the bookmarks folder.
  http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles