Introduction
 Safety Net

Safety Net is a small utility for backing up critical files. It has one default setting and three that are options of your choosing.

The preset setting will backup your critical Windows and system files. You need only specify the path to your Windows directory, and the program will automatically copy all "grp", "ini", and "inf" files from both your  Windows and Windows\system directories. At the same time the program will copy your "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" files as well.

Windows Backup Options

Other Backup Options

Menu Items

Visual Overview


Safety Net

Ron Parker

CT Software

759 Galleon Ln.

Elk Grove, Il. 60007


 Windows Options

To explore all of the options available for the default "windows" backup, first click on the Options button. This will bring you to the Options dialog screen.

The most important  section of the Options screen is "File Extensions For Backup". If you type "PIF" in one of the text boxes, Safety Net can then copy your PIF files along with the others. There are five options available.

Another option accessable from here is that by clicking on  the "Make Subdirectories" button, you can put each file type in a separate directory from the other file types. Whether or not this option is checked, Safety Net will look for each default and any user specified file types in both the "Windows" and "Windows\system" directories, and copy them to separate directories. In other words "Windows" and "System" files will be kept separate. If this button is checked, however, there will then be another level of separation. It will create "Windows\ini", "Windows\grp", "System\ini", and so on, on the destination disk.

Clicking on "OK" will then bring you back to the main screen. Here you can uncheck any of the selected options if you do not want to copy that  particular file type.

You can backup to any drive you like. The default is "A", but, if you wish to change that, type in the drive of choice in the box titled "Backup to drive..."

If you select "Backup" from the menu, one of the choices is "Make Subdirectories". This is exactly the same as the "Make Subdirectories" box on the "Options" screen. If one is selected the other is also selected.

The last option available is whether you wish to ZIP the files to your disk. In order for this option to function you must have a copy of PKZIP somewhere in your path.


 Other Options

If you have not gone through the "Windows Options", please do so  before continuing with this section. Once you have backed up your Windows files you should have a pretty good sense of what to do with your other options.

If, for example, you work with a database program, and have several databases that you are constantly adding to or otherwise manipulating, you can set up Safety Net to easily backup those database files to a disk.

From the Options screen, click on the Option2 button, and browse  through your files to find the directory containing the database files in the Options screen. Then, in the "File Extensions For Backup" text boxes, type in the extension(s) you wish to backup (such as MDB, for example). You can copy up to 5 file types for each directory selected. Type a name for the option in "Option Name" such as "Database". Then type a name in the "Destination Directory" You could put "Database" here also, if you wish. Finally, click on "OK".

You can backup to any drive you like. The default is "A", but, if you wish to change that, in the main screen, type in the drive of choice in the box titled "Backup to drive..."

If you have a great number of files to copy, try checking the "Zip Files" option, or don't, as you wish. You must have PKZIP in your path in order for this option to work.  Then click on "Start".


 Visual Overview

Click on any section of the image below for an explanation of it's function. Be certain to click on the "Options" button.


If this box is checked Safety Net will ZIP the selected files to your backup disk. You must have PKZIP somewhere in you path for this option to work.


Click here to exit the program.


Start
Clicking on Start will initiate the backup. You will be prompted to insert a disk into the selected drive, and the selected files will then be copied.


Directory
"Windows" is selected when the program starts. If you wish to backup files from a previously configured option, make that selection here.


Destination Drive
Choose the backup drive here. The default is drive A, but if you wish to change it, backspace the "A" out and type in your selection here.


All valid entries will be selected for backup automatically. By clicking on the various options, you can de-select each individually or as a group here.


 Options Screen

Click on any section of the image below for an explanation of it's function.


Destination Directory
For the Windows option, the destination direcory will be "Windows". For the other user defined options you must type in a name here. That name will be the directory that Safety Net will copy the files to on the selected disk drive, unless the files are to be zipped. In that case the name typed in here will be the name of the ZIP file created.


Click here to leave the Options screen and return to the main program screen.


Browse to find the desired directory for backup here so that the complete path is in the text box at the bottom.


These option buttons correspond to the "Directory" section of the main screen. Whatever name you enter for "Option Name" will appear for both button names.


Enter the particular file extensions for backup here. There are 5 selections available for each option. Whatever you enter here will appear in the  "Selected Files For Backup" section on the main screen.


The name that you enter here will appear as the available directory names for backup on both this and the main screens.


Available only for the "Windows" option, if selected, Safety Net will put each file type selected for backup in separate subdirectories on your disk.


 Menu Items

Backup

Start

Options

Get Size

Subdirectories

Exit


This is analogous to the Options button which will bring you to the Options screen.


Choosing this menu item will get you the size of the proposed backup as you have set it up. This is very useful, as it will allow you to gauge how many disks it will require to copy the files if you do not ZIP them. It can also, obviously, help you to determine if you should zip the files.