1. Using CD-R and CD-RW media to backup SIGNZ data. Step One … a bit of preparation

2. The first step is to check that your CD drive is capable of writing and that is has been enabled. This is a once-only step but is documented here to be safe. To start, double-click My Computer from the desktop. If My Computer is not shown on your desktop then select it from the Start menu.

3. Once My Computer opens find your CD drive and Right-Click and select Properties …

4. Your screen should look something like this … If the Recording tab is not visible then you have a problem … Windows XP does not recognise your drive as being capable or writing data!!

5. Enable CD recording if it is not already enabled. Click OK … Step One complete… You should not need to do this again.

6. Using CD-R and CD-RW media to backup SIGNZ data. Step Two … copying our SIGNZ data files. To make life easier please make sure you have no CDs in your drive!

7. If you are backing up a SIGNZ database on this machine then we need to stop the SQL Server so click Start then Run and type: Net stop mssqlserver Then click OK (or press Enter). A screen will flash up then go away….

8. Go to My Computer and double-click drive C: A message may appear saying that these files are hidden. If so, click Show the Contents of this Folder and a list similar to that shown will appear. We want to backup the SIGNZ and MSSQL7 folders …and, yes, you may also want to backup your “document” folders from My Computer.

9. Find the SIGNZ folder, Right-click it then select Send To then CD Drive (D:) Wait while it copies then repeat with the MSSQL7 folder.

10. A pop-up ‘balloon’ will appear to tell you that you have files waiting to be written to disk. To write the files to disk you can either: -Click the drive icon while it is still visible -If it has disappeared you can go to My Computer and open your CD drive (D:). Either way the result is the same … the ‘contents’ of your CD will appear.

11. What you should see is something similar to that shown below. On the right are the files and folders to be saved on CD. To begin click Write these files to CD.

12. Next …

13. Insert your CD media at this point … and it should carry on automatically. CD-R media is cheaper but can only be used a limited number of times. Each part of the disk can only be written to once. CD-R is good for ‘archival’ backups that you will never re-use. CD-RW media is a bit more expensive and a bit slower but can be re-used over and over. CD-RW is better for day-to- day backups.

14. Once your media is installed it should automatically start writing to the disk. When complete it will eject the CD …

15. The data is now on disk. Click Finish to end the backup process. The checkbox in the middle of the screen allows you to make multiple copies. We want to remove the temporary files, so leave this option off.

16. The final step is to start our SQL Server again so click Start then Run and type: Net start mssqlserver Then click OK (or press Enter). A screen will flash up then go away…. That’s it. BACKUP COMPLETE … !