Backup my data files

How do I.... > Backup my data files

It is important that you periodically make a backup of your DayNotez Desktop data files in case of a hard disk failure on your desktop. Actually, this rule applies to any important information you maintain on your computer that would be hard to reproduce if it were ever lost. Natara highly recommends backing up your data with a good quality backup application that will store your information to a removable media (such as CD-R, Zip, or Tape for example).

If you wish to make periodic backups of your DayNotez Desktop data, there are two files of interest to you. For example sake, lets say your HotSync User Name is "J. Doe". DayNotez keeps two files for each device that it synchronizes with. Those files are currently kept in the DayNotez installation directory. By default, the DayNotez installation directory is on your main hard disk partition (usually your C: drive) in the path "C:\Program Files\Natara\DayNotez\". The file are prefixed with your HotSync name, and end in the extensions .DNZ and .MDW. (you will need to have windows configured to show extensions in order to view the full name).

For our example, the two important files that need to be backed up are:

"J. Doe DayNotez.dnz" and "J. Doe DayNotez.mdw".

The .DNZ file is the file that actually contains all of your entries. It will grow as you add more and more data to your DayNotez file. The .MDW file is is the security file used in case you password protect your entries. This file will only change if you modify the password protection status or password, and so changes very little. It is important that you keep both files backed up. Without the .MDW file, you may not be able to access your entries. Since the DayNotez entry file is encrypted regardless of if you password protect your entries or not, the .MDW file is always used to de-crypt it for viewing. Using someone else's .MDW file will not work.

Note: Starting with DayNotez Desktop 1.5, the default location for any newly created user data files is "My Documents"\Natara\DayNotez\. This will allow for better separation of the DayNotez application and the user data (which is easier to make regular backups in most cases). Note that only newly created data files get put in this location. A future release of DayNotez Desktop will allow users to move their data files to locations other than the default installation or "My Documents" folders.

Note (Palm Users): Once any conduit, such as DayNotez Desktop's conduit, is installed, the Palm HotSync Manager stops making backups of any data files associated with the palm application. So, since DayNotez (Desktop) has a conduit, its palm native data file that has all of your entries, named DayNotezDB.PDB, will no longer be backed up. In general, this is not a worry since the conduit is making a copy of all of your entries. But what if you want that extra protection of having the .PDB file backed up? Natara software highly recommends a HotSync Manager backup enhancement program such as Blue Nomad's BackupBuddy ( http://www.bluenomad.com ). With this application installed, a backup of your .PDB files is still made for even applications that have conduits associated with them. Highly recommended!