Backing up files

[DougSilver]

I have stubbornly persisted to stick with Sidekick over the years, primarily Version 2 that was flawless and the best (in my opinion) but have recently had to make the switch to SideKick98 to be able to run on my Win 7 64-bit machine. One of the dumbest things I am not encountering is backing up the various files (my concern is limited my Cardfiles). For one thing Sidekick 2 would let me do this even with the cardfile open. SK98 does not allow that so you have to close the program and run just the Backup/Restore module--which leads to the killer problem.

No matter where I try to backup the files (on the hard disk in my computer or to an external hard disk) I get the message: Insufficient disk space to start Backup! Please use another disk"

What the heck is this about?!?!

I know I can manually back up the files outside of using SK98 but this error message seems idiotic.

I will start giving more serious thought to migrating to EssentialPim.

Doug

 

[jimalex]

Hi Doug,
I´d like to try and point you in another direction.

For me, I need to back-up the computer and not just Sidekick. Whilst you found Back-up SKW2 ok, it is a manual discipline. Also, I never rated the Restore which requires you to switch off SKW2 before you restore. So I wouldn´t even look at SK98 Back up and Restore or any other specialized program.

I like back-ups I can use independently. So all my back-ups look exactly like the original and I can restore if I feel like it.
Recently, I set things up for an automatic transfer to Dropbox for back-up which is handy as I have a few laptops and am often in different locations. This is really synchronization rather than back-up but it really works for me.

As you know, James33 contributes a lot to this forum and you can see he favours Second Copy to give a back-up almost as he types. You set it up once and it runs in the background. Restore can be set up for use when it is needed. There´s a lot of choice.

I also use Second Copy (using an SD) but as I want to plug in various external disks for some back-ups I tend to use another ancient manager called Turbo Navigator where I can compare the original folder with the back-up folder and transfer the difference.

You mentioned that your computer is a works computer and I would bet the technical guys have a central back-up at least to guard against a crash. It´s nice to be independent though and for Sidekick by itself I´d suggest a free File Manager like FreeCommander Link which I find very user friendly and doing all that you did with SKW2 and more.

This would align with EssentialPIM which does not have back-up/restore (you can probably fiddle it with Export/Import).

 

[DougSilver]

I agree--I never totally relied on the Backup procedure from SKW2 but it was handy and always worked. I routinely use a program that looks similar to FreeCommander which is called TotalCommander and before that was called WindowsCommander. It has been around forever and is by Ghisler (google it). It is reminiscent of the old Norton Commander that was my favorite program under Dos.

Another good free program for backing up things automatically is Karen's Replicator.

Doug

 

[jimalex]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for Karen´s Replicator. I will definitely give it a try. Looks good.

I tried SK98 as follows:
Click on Back Up and Restore
Choose Backup, Next
Choose Source Files (all in Userdata)
Click on > to put it in Back Up following files
Click File and Exit (SK98 goes)
Click Begin (the destination folder is e in the USB)

It worked perfectly. I tried 3 times.
So at least it can be said it works but sorry I can´t answer your question.

 

[DougSilver]

Jimalex--tried this sequence exactly as well as running the Backup/Restore directly via Packgo.exe without running SK98. Whatever I try I get the "Insufficient Disk Space. . . " dialogue popping up. Maybe it has something to do with Win 7 64-bit but the error is obviously ridiculous.

Doug

 

[jimalex]

Sorry Doug. Must be frustrating.
I had a chat with the tech guy in the local shop and he said the error message has been turning up for years when there is plenty of disk space. It can happen when something else like Windows file indexing is running in the background and blocks your transfer.

One thing I noticed is that this back-up is not the concept of back-up I read about as there is no compression. You can go in to the backed-up files and open them. To me, this is the same function as Save As or Copy. So try Save As?
Anyway, it looks like a transfer problem and not Sidekick.

 

[DougSilver]

The SKW2 backup function I had been using with SKW2 merely took the existing files you chose for backup and copied them into another location--nothing fancy. I suspect the SK98 backup function is similar but I suspect the problem is more to do with Windows 7 64-bit rather than Sidekick.

 

[james33]

Dear DougSilver

Not a good idea to save as because as you then will be opening the backup file, definitely a better idea to use SecondCopy as it will incrementally backup only the files which have changed and will back them up to google drive or dropbox (the local folder) and then that will synch with the online folder) it will also save any number of previous backups in a local or remote folder. Secondcopy I can think of no better or more reliable program for the job.

Regards
Jim

 

[Rich224422]

Hi Doug:

I am among the long-time users of SK 98. I forget which version I orignally started with. James 33 has helped me through so many issues that I conider him the top guru of SK. Any meaures he prescribes are tops. That said I have never liked the backup process with SK having you shut down first. My method, used for a long time, is to periodicaly (and frequently) go to my Sidekick (Starfish) "USERDATA" file and manually back it up. Find the file "USERDATA". (When you close Sidekick, with any new data, it will prompt you to save and will show the location of USERDATA.) Right click on "USERDATA", Select "Copy" and then "Paste" it in another file. I keep my backup copies (actually several of them named with the date) in a separate file in "My Documents." I also have another copy in a flash drive dedicated to that function alone. Works for me!

FYI: I recently switched from WXP Pro to W 7 Pro due to the impending "No Support for WXP from MicroHard." SideKick 98 is no problem in the W7 64 bit machine. I did discover one glitch, not the fault of Sidekick, that I am addressing in a new thread right after I post this. I found that my new entries that I was saving as I closed a Sidekick Session were not being saved. After many retrys (and over a month of data that I thought was being saved...but was not) I found the problem and fixed it. I will try to name the new post something like "Save the Changes" problem and fix.

All the Best

Blaze

 

[DougSilver]

Blaze--I agree with manually backing up the USERDATA folder in its entirety and it is always to a drive other than the main drive (external drive is probably the safest). I have always done this as my first line of defense but sometimes also relied on the backup from within Sidekick. By the way, SKW2 always let me do the backup even when the cardfile was opened but I guess the architecture of SK98 is different in that you have to run the backup with the program closed.

Doug