And you may not want to back up all the files on your computer, which can take a lot of time and require a very large storage device.

I recently bought two of the "new" small flash drives that plug into a USB port on a computer. They may be small, but have very large capacity. 2 GB each in the case of the ones I have.

Using them along with a text file containing DOS based commands that Windows will interpret and execute, you can back up your "critical" files in just a few minutes.

I use them to make two back-ups of my web site pages and photos, and e-book files in just a few minutes.

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Below is text that you can: 1. copy and put into a file, 2. edit it to fit your needs, and 3. save it in a file named: copyoff.bat

Make a new folder (directory) on your C: drive to save the file to. I used C:\bats. Then make a shortcut to it, and just click on the shortcut whenever you want to back up files.

.BAT FILES

.bat files are files which contain DOS based commands that Windows will interpert and execute.

Swipe and copy the text between the lines of dots, and then paste them into a wordpad or other text file editor, and edit it.

c a u t i o n - You are welcome to use this routine, but only if you accept full responsibility for any and all results. If not, please do not use it.

I have successfully used the commands shown, on my E-Machine with Windows Vista, so it should work on PCs.

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cd \ md J:\auploads md J:\cdnew md J:\baseball

pause

cd \ cd \apistol\auploads copy . J:\auploads

cd \ cd cdnew copy . J:\cdnew

cd \ cd baseball copy . J:\baseball

cd \

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cd \ - tells the computer to change directories to the root directory (C:\).

md J:auploads - tells the computer to make a directory name auploads on the J: drive, which should be the default designation for a USB plug in. If this is not the first itme you are backing up files, Windows will note that there already is such a directory, and move on to the next command.

pause - tells the computer to pause what it's doing until you press a key. That will allow you to check what has been done to that point, as detailed by the actions shown on the screen. And it will remind you of what you are having the .bat file do.

cd \ - tells the computer to change directories to the root directory (C:\).

cd \apistol\auploads - tells the computer to change directories to the C:\apistol directory, and then to the auploads directory which is a sub directory of apistol.

copy . J:\auploads - tells the computer to copy all the contents of the auploads directory, including any of its subdirectories, to the J:auploads directory. It will overwrite any files with the same name, and without asking if it should do so.

cd \ - tells the computer to change directories to the root directory (C:\).

cd cdnew - tells the computer to change directories to the C:\cdnew directory.

copy . J:\cdnew - tells the computer to copy all the contents of the C:\cdnew directory, including any of its subdirectories, to the J:\cdnew directory.

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So just determine which directories you want to back up, and the path to them C:\...\..., and the names of the directories you want on the J: drive that they will be backed up to.

Edit and save your file, add a shortcut to it, and you will be good to go.

You can use Windows explorer to verify that the copyoff routine has worked. You can also use it to add different directories or files to the flash drive - up to the size limit of the drive.

To be sure you will be able to back up your files, check to see how much space they take up, and how much space is available on the J: drive. There should be plenty of extra room on the J: drive.

A GENERAL NOTE:

If you go to the "Command Prompt" you can change directories to the Root directory by typing and entering: cd \.

Then type and enter: dir, to display the directory contents.

If you type and enter: J:, you will be taken to the J: drive.

Then to display the contents of J:\, type and enter: dir.

To return to the C: drive, type and enter C:.

If you find that the above needs to be changed, please send me an e-mail: ps (at) pointshooting.com. Thanks.