Instructions on how to use the Automatic Backup procedures: You access the program through 'GO.BAT', not PROSPECT.EXE. This 'GO.BAT' file will perform the backup automatically outside of the program once you indicate your preference for a backup upon exiting the program. Adopt a strategy for your backup disks. A simple two-disk, rotating procedure will save you grief later if you experience a hard drive crash. Format two disks and label them 'Backup 1' and 'Backup 2'. Place a write- protect tab on 'Backup 2' and put that disk into your software vault. Use the other disk, 'Backup 1', for your routine automatic backups. Place the current backup disk into drive A. When you exit the program, it will ask you if you want to back it up. At this point, enter a '1' without an 'Enter' to show acceptance. The next screen will then display 'A:'. Press the 'Enter' key to accept that value. At this point, the program will drop you into your subdirectory, and the 'GO.BAT' file will perform the backup. Let's say that you backup the data on January 15. the backup procedure will create this file: 0115ACS.ARC The '01' stands for the month, while '15' shows the day. In this way, the backup files will not overwrite each other on the backup disk. When full, the backup procedure will tell you that 'for some reason, the program cannot copy over the file to the disk.' At this point, place a write- protect tab onto backup #1, format a second disk, label it 'Prospect Backup #2', use it until full, then swap the write-protect tab with Backup #1, reformat #1, and use it from scratch. By doing this, you will always be alternating back and forth between the two backup disks as each becomes full. Backup your data frequently, every two or three hours of new data entry. You do not have to check the backup disk to see if it is becoming full. Once full, the backup procedure will show a message on the screen that 'for some reason the procedure cannot copy the file over to the disk.' When you see that message, then you know the disk is full. You could make a mental note that the backup disk WITHOUT a write-protect tab is the 'Production Backup Disk'. As it becomes full, place a write- protect tab on that disk and put it into the software vault. Take the disk that had the write-protect tab and remove it. Then reformat that disk and begin using it as the 'Production Backup Disk'. You need not keep any elaborate lists of what data is on which disk. As long as you see a disk WITH a write protect-tab, you will know that this one belongs in the software vault. The disk WITHOUT the write-protect tab is the 'Production Backup Disk'. The data, by the way, is squeezed together on each date on which you make a backup. If, for example, you backed up data on September 15, 1986, then you would observe this file on your backup disk: 0915ACS.ARC. The '09' reflects the month of the backup, while the '15' shows you the date. 'ACS' is my company name, while 'ARC' shows that this is an Archive file. The program does not perform an incremental backup. Every 'ARC' file is a self-contained image of ALL the progam's data on that date. Why are multiple backups necessary? Experience has shown that when a hard drive goes down, its' controller is often bad PRIOR to the last backup. If this happens, the most recent backup may be corrupted and you would then be forced to use the backup prior to that one. Retrieving your data later: All of your data files will be saved into one archive file and date 'stamped' to help you later in determining which of the archives has the most recent data. Let's say, for example, that the data for today was stored in this file: A:1109ACS.ARC The first two letters stand for the month, while the last two identify the date during the month on which this backup was made. Let's say that you see '0804ACS.ARC' on your data disk. This means month '8', day '4', or August 4. If you saw '1123ACS.ARC', this file was created on month '11', day '23', or December 23rd. The purpose for this numbering scheme is so that you can have multiple back up files on one disk, space permitting, and yet tell at a glance which is the most recent one. Later on, if you need to restore archived data, enter a command in the form: ARCE A:1109ACS.ARC /R Use the ARCE command on the archive file with the most current date. After finishing this, make sure that delete all files ending in 'NTX' and 'MEM' before you execute 'GO'. The 'NTX' files are indexes and the 'MEM' file will force reinstallation of the program.