Lifeguard 3.0 - User Guide and FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions - Lifeguard

1. How can I back up my Netscape e-mail?
   You can back up your Netscape e-mail by creating a new item for it in Lifeguard. To create a Netscape e-mail backup item, click the "Add New Item" button at the bottom-left of the Lifeguard window (the plus button). In the window that appears, make sure "Files and folders" is selected. In the "Item name," type "Netscape e-mail."
   
   When you click "OK," you'll see a new window appear in which you can select which folders to back up. Click the "Selected folders" radio button. Now you'll need to select the folder in which your Netscape e-mail is stored.
   
   Netscape saves your e-mail (and account settings) in one of two locations, depending on which version of Netscape you're using. If you have an old version, your data is probably stored in,
   
   C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users
   
   If you have a newer version, it can be stored in either
   
   C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Profiles or C:\Documents and Settings\[Your user name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles
   
   Once you find where your Netscape (or "Mozilla") data is stored, check the box next to its folder and click the "OK" button. Now you can back up your Netscape e-mail using the new item you have created.
   
   
2. Why doesn't Outlook appear under address books?
   In an effort to prevent viruses from gaining access to your address book, and through the normal evolution of its products, Microsoft is changing the way Outlook interacts with external programs. Lifeguard uses the latest techniques for accessing Outlook's information (including its address book) to ensure that Lifeguard will be compatible with future versions of Outlook as well as the current version (Outlook 2002, or Outlook XP).
   
   Unfortunately, earlier versions of Outlook (Outlook 98 and 2000) do not support direct address book access. Lifeguard cannot access your address book without generating access warnings in Outlook, and so it therefore does not offer Outlook address book backup as an option.
   
   
3. Why does the backup size change as it goes on?
   Lifeguard uses an estimate when it tries to calculate the size of your Outlook e-mails. It's very difficult to exactly estimate the size of your Outlook e-mails for various technical reasons, and it takes much too long to enumerate all your e-mails and actually measure their size. For this reason, it's not uncommon that your backup size will change if you're backing up e-mails from Outlook.
   
   
4. Why does Outlook and/or Eudora open during a backup?
   Lifeguard needs to communicate directly with Outlook (and/or Eudora) to get access to your e-mails and your address book. For this reason, Outlook or Eudora must be open and ready when Lifeguard backs up your e-mails or address book contacts.
   
   Lifeguard makes an effort to keep your e-mail program's opening as unobtrusive as possible. If you see your e-mail program start during a backup, please do not close it. Lifeguard is using it actively. You can close your e-mail program after the backup is complete.
   
   
5. Why is there no "only back up changed files" button, even when I backed up my collection before?
   Lifeguard saves a lot of information that helps it discover which files have changed since your last backup. If this information is missing, Lifeguard cannot safely ignore any files, and thus does not allow you to select "only back up changed files."
   
   This will happen if you lose your Lifeguard settings (if your computer crashes, or if you move Lifeguard onto a new computer). If this happens, you can safely do a full backup (overwriting your old backup). This will have the additional benefit of orienting Lifeguard to the new locations of your files.
   
   Of course, if your computer crashes or if you move to a new computer and you want to recover your old data using Lifeguard, you must first do a restore before overwriting your old data.
   
   
6. Why doesn't Lifeguard show a conflict even when a file is already there?
   If you're trying to restore a file and it's already on your computer, Lifeguard may just overwrite it automatically (rather than saving it under a separate name and then displaying it in the Conflict Editor).
   
   Lifeguard checks the date of the existing file and the date of the backed up file during a restore. If the one on your computer is older than the backup, Lifeguard will overwrite it automatically.
   
   
7. Why are e-mails restored to my desktop?
   For (presumably) security reasons, many e-mail programs do not allow outside programs to create e-mails inside their folders. For Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Lifeguard restores your e-mails to a folder on your desktop. This allows you to drag-and-drop them directly into your favorite e-mail program, keeping whatever other e-mails you have there already.
   
   Qualcomm's Eudora product does allow outside programs to create e-mails inside it. Lifeguard restores your backed up e-mails to a special folder it creates inside Eudora. This ensures that Lifeguard does not overwrite any of your existing Eudora e-mails.
   
   
8. Why does Lifeguard get stuck counting my (music or pictures or others)?
   Lifeguard may appear to be stuck counting the size of an item in the main list if that item does not have many files associated with it, and those files are spread over many folders. For example, if you have 1 MB of music files in a small folder somewhere in your My Documents folder, and you set up the Music item in Lifeguard to back up all music in your My Documents folder, Lifeguard will need to search all the folders in your My Documents folder before it will find your music files and add their sizes to the list. While it's searching, the size number will stay at 0 (until it finds the music files).
   
   It is fine to have Lifeguard search your whole My Documents folder, for example, for your music or any other types of files. If you would like to speed up the size calculation, however, you can point Lifeguard directly to where your music files are stored. That way, Lifeguard can count them directly without having to search for them first. You can do this for other files types as well.