LiveWire Back-Up & Restore Procedures Backing up your LiveWire data files should be considered a regular maintenance task. People often ask, "How often should I back up?" The frequency you back up is something you have to determine based on the value you place on your data and your time. If you never back up your data, the risk is that you may lose all of your transactions, portfolios, alarm settings, and historical data, and have to start from scratch. We usually recommend that you back up frequently enough that you can easily, within an hour or two, enter the transactions and portfolio additions you have made since your last backup. For most people that will mean backing up weekly or monthly. The process of backing up your LiveWire files is simplified considerably if you have a Zip disk on your computer. Since Zip disks hold 100MB - 250MB, you probably will be able to back up your entire LiveWire directory on two or three Zip disks. If you currently do not own a Zip disk, or similar other removable large capacity removable hard disk, we encourage you to make the small investment. It will make your back-up procedure simple, and may save you the misery of rebuilding your system if you have a fatal disk failure (yes, they DO happen!). Backing Up To Zip Disks Simply copy the entire LW directory onto a Zip disk. If it will not fit, copy your History directory onto a separate Zip disk. Backing Up To Diskettes If you do not have a Zip or other large capacity removable hard disk, you can download the LiveWire Utilities and use included utilities to both back-up and restore all of the LiveWire files (click here to download the LiveWire Utilities for Windows - 1.6MB). After you download and install the LiveWire Utilities, you will find two batch files located in your LW directory, called Lwbak.bat and Lwrestor.bat. The Lwbak.bat file can be run by simply typing it in as a command from the DOS prompt. Lwbak.bat will compress all of your files and copy the compressed files to diskettes, formatting diskettes as needed, and spanning multiple diskettes. But be warned, it may require quite a few diskettes! The restore program, Lwrestor.bat, uncompresses the backed up files at the same time it moves them back into your LW directory. This command is executed from a DOS command from within the LW directory. Moving Only Data Files To Another Computer Since the LiveWire Internet uses the same file structures as other versions of LiveWire, users of previous versions of LiveWire can move their portfolios, transactions, and alarms and use them with the LiveWire Internet software. Although the Lwbak.bat and Lwrestor.bat programs mentioned above will work, since these batch files also copy the historical data files, which can be rather large, we have developed batch files that only backup and restore the data files. These files are called LwdataBU.bat and LwdataRS.bat, and can be downloaded by clicking on the file names. To simplify your life, be sure to save these files directly into your LW directory! To reduce the number of diskettes required, these batch files utilize PKZIP to compress and PKUNZIP to uncompress your files. PKZIP and PKUNZIP are included with the LiveWire Utilities, so if you haven't already downloaded the LiveWire Utilities, you need to do so now (click here to download the LiveWire Utilities for Windows - 1.6MB). Before you will be able to use the LwdataRS.bat file to copy the data files to your destination computer, you must first copy PKUNZIP and the LwdataRS.bat file to your destination computer by following these steps: 1. Go to DOS. 2. Insert a blank, formatted disk in drive A. 3. Type: COPY C:\LW\PKUNZIP.EXE A:*.* 4. Type: COPY C:\LW\LWDATARS.BAT A:*.* 5. Remove the diskette from the source computer and put it in drive A of your destination computer. 6. Type: COPY A:PKUNZIP.EXE C:\LW\*.* 7. Type: COPY A:LWDATARS.BAT C:\LW\*.* 8. PKUNZIP.EXE and LwdataRS.bat should now be successfully installed in the LW directory of your destination computer. To use LwdataBU.bat to back-up data to diskettes, follow these steps: 1. Go to DOS on the source computer. 2. Type CD \LW to change to the LW directory. 3. Type LwdataBU.bat to execute the batch file. 4. Insert blank formatted or unformatted diskettes in Drive A as requested. Be sure to carefully number the diskettes!! To use LwdataRS.bat to restore or move your data files to a new computer, follow these steps: 1. Go to DOS on the destination computer. 2. Type CD \LW to change to the LW directory. 3. Type LwdataRS.bat to execute the batch file, and follow the instructions. 4. Insert the backed-up diskettes as per screen instructions, beginning with the last diskette. If you have any difficulty with the backup and restore procedures, call CableSoft Technical Support at 805-646-0094, 9:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. PST.         Copyright © 1995-2000 CableSoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved. LiveWire, LiveWire Professional, LiveWire Trader, LiveWire Advisor, LiveWire Personal Investor and CableSoft are trademarks of CableSoft Inc. http://www.livewire-cablesoft.com/support/backup.html   Website by BeachWorks