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LFN Backup And Restore

Feature:

LFN stands for Long File Name. Since DOS doesn't recognize

long file names and if you loose long file names then your computer

could get in serious trouble that could require you to uninstall

every program that you have and reinstall it. Or could corrupt

the registry with no way to restore.

Unless you know the LFN for every SFN (short file name), which

is impossible to know.

Because:

Let us say that you have two directories named in LFN,

"Program Files" and "Program Storage", the SFN name for both would

be Progra~1, unless they are in the same directory then they

will be called Progra~1 and Progra~2.

Its impossible to guess what the original Long file name is unless

you have a backup that have stored both DOS SFN and Windows LFN

of each file and directory, also knows what the original path. Then it can

be restored from backup to the original path by renaming the SFN to LFN.

You could loose LFN in many ways in Win95/98 or NT, running in Real

DOS mode or you have restored backup from DOS, are common

ways to loose LFN. Or Windows got corrupted and you had to copy

your personal data to another drive from DOS so you can format the

hard drive.

Backup:

Select the drive or directory that you would like to backup and click

the Backup LFN button.

It is very important to read the Restore section below.

Run backups at least two to four times a month, depending

on how often you change the directory structure.

In addition to LFN backup, always backup your Start Menu,

Favorites or Bookmarks and Desktop by copying them to a floppy.

Empty your Temp, History, Temporary Internet Files, cache

and Recycle Ben before making a backup in LFN, it will save

you about 3 to 6 minutes in backup time.

LFN Backup and Restore can backup up to 9000 files and about

6000 folders that has long file names.

If you have about 20,000 files and folders and under normal use,

then you could have about 25 to 30% of it in long file names.

But if you have too many files and folders in LFN then its better

to do partial backups rather than a whole drive backup.

LFN backup limitations could be increased in the future if you send

an Email and say that you do have more than 9000 files and

6000 folders in long file names.

Restore:

When you did the backup, 11 Rich Text files (rtf) were created in the

Backups folder in this program (LFN directory) directory to restore from.

Let us say you backed up the C drive then automatically backups

are named:

C_Drive1.rtf , which is the file names backup holds the first 2000 files.

C_Drive2.rtf , file names backup holds the second 2000 files.

C_Drive3.rtf , file names backup holds the third 2000 files.

C_Drive4.rtf , file names backup holds the fourth 2000 files and over.

C_Drive5.rtf , which is the folder names backup for over 6 directories path.

C_Drive6.rtf , which is the folder names backup for 4 and 5 directories path.

C_Drive7.rtf ,  which is the folder names backup for 3 directories path or less.

C_DriveA.rtf, C_DriveB.rtf, C_DriveC.rtf and C_DriveD.rtf are backups of files

restore from if you didn't loose the directory file names, each also holds 2000 files.

Auto Restore:

Got confused ?, simply select any of the backup names and click Restore LFN,

it will restore automatically, starting from #1 through #7.

You don't need to restore C_DriveA.rtf, C_DriveB.rtf, C_DriveC.rtf, and C_DriveD.rtf

unless you lost the LFN on files only, it is an extra protection, run manually.

(you can loose LFN files only if you restored a directory of files only from DOS).

Notice that the names of the backups are in DOS 8 letter names,

because if you lose LFN then you don't want to loose the backup file

names too.

Example: if you backed up the "Program Files" directory then it will pickup

the first 7 letters and adds a 1 through 7 and A through D to the backup name.

Program1.rtf, Program2.rtf.... so on to Program7.rtf.

ProgramA.rtf, ProgramB.rtf, ProgramC.rtf and ProgramD.rtf

Restart LFN after each backup or restore to free memory, it will run more

efficient.

If you loose LFN then most shortcuts in the Start Menu will become

white in color because the links are lost, so you may need to look for

Lfn.exe where you installed it and run it from there, it will run and

restore OK. (read the Setup section)

Manual Restore:

Manual Restore is not needed but its an extra feature in case things

went out of the ordinary.

Be very careful here, restore #1 then #2 then #3 then #4 then #5

then #6 then #7, if you restore #7 before #6 or #6 before #5 then the

restore will not work any more and restore will not restore LFN for

you any more, unless windows is able to distinguish SFN and the

LFN backup

Select the Manual Restore Check Box then select the file you would

like to restore, again DON'T ever restore #7 before #6 or #6 before #5.

#A, #B, #C and #D are backups of the files only, that if you lost the files

LFN but the directory LFN structure is still in LFN and has not been altered.

SETUP:

Install:

LFN backup and restore needs the VB5run with Richtx32.ocx to be installed

for it to run.

Simply double click the Setup.exe and select to install.

Better to install it in the C directory so its shortcut will be accessible

in the Start Menu if you lost LFN.

Download the VB5run with Richtx32.ocx control from:

http://www.mslm.com/free.htm

Reinstall:

There is an option to Reinstall LFN in the LFN Setup wizard, be sure

to select the same directory as previously installed.

Uninstall:

Simply delete the LFN directory and the shortcut in the Start Menu.

LFN backup and restore:

LFN is still in beta, please come back and download the latest.

For Windows 95/98/NT

Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.

Theodore Fattaleh author, programmer and publisher.

All Program Names are Registered Trademarks of their

Respective Owner.

http://www.mslm.com

same as

http://www.multisyslaunch.com

Email addresses:

twf@flash.net

2000@msn.com

2000ted@compuserve.com

LFN Backup and Restore is free.

Other Freeware and Shareware:

ERS98, Win95/98 Emergency Recovery System ($25)

MinuteMan Data Backup($25)

MiniApps(26 freeware, all in one install)

MyNotes (Freeware)

AttriBat (Freeware)

Right Start Menu (Freeware)

FloatMenu (Freeware)

Alarm (Freeware)

RGB Color Converter (Freeware)

LFN Backup and Restore  (Freeware)