Computer crash all the time. If you plan ahead, you can avoid a catastrophy. Restoring your computer from a well made backup does not have to be complicated and problematic.

1. Connexions module: m13855
1
Restoring from backup
∗
Joseph Grimes
This work is produced by The Connexions Project and licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License
†
Abstract
Computers crash. Software does crazy things. You can survive that, but can you survive the loss of
your data? You can if you plan.
The previous module showed you how to make a backup le. It suggested that you always keep an
electronic copy in a safe place, preferably on another continent.
The acid test? A tsunami hits your eld location and sweeps your house and your laptop out to sea.
Fortunately, you were out of the way at the time. (No kidding; it happened to a friend of mine in preWordcorr days.)
Eventually you get another computer, another house, ... From there, the steps are
1. Download1 and install the Wordcorr program. (If it's a new computer, you'll want to choose the First
Installation option rather than the Upgrade option, since there's nothing in the new computer that
you can upgrade.)
2. Have whoever keeps your backups send you the latest one as an email attachment.
3. Save it to your le system.
4. Start Wordcorr, select the File menu, select Import XML.
5. Select the directory where you saved your backup le, then select the le.
6. Click the Open button.
Your collection is restored to Wordcorr in a few minutes.
I wish keeping backups for the rest of your computer were as straightforward. If you've kept
your incremental backups in the same room as your computer, a Category Five disaster would wipe
them out with it. But they might survive a lesser disaster.
note:
∗ Version
1.1: Sep 10, 2006 12:31 am GMT-5
† http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
1 Installing Wordcorr
http://cnx.org/content/col10339/latest/
http://cnx.org/content/m13855/1.1/