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Problems with AOL that don't have to be problems. Written by: Dan Daily
Hi Gang! The Last time, we talked about defragging your hard drive and how to do it. This time I'd like to switch over to AOL issues. Anyone who's been on AOL for any period of time knows all about AOL corrupting itself and the agony of data losses. There are ways to avoid all of these losses. . Why AOL Corrupts; Many people experience AOL problems. The worst of these is when one day, you try to start AOL and it won't. Now what? Get out the old CD and start over? I personally don't recommend using a CD. CD's are already outdated by the time you receive them. (more on that later) AOL is a very unique program. It has a write back scheme that writes information back to the hard drive as quickly as possible thereby releasing the ram that was holding the information. A mixed bag: It's write back cache is the reason for the crashes, but it is also the reason for AOL's high speed. It is constantly flushing it's ram. This write back scheme is the main reason AOL has the fastest Internet download times of any other ISP on the Internet. But, as a result of it's constant writing to the drive, it also makes AOL very sensitive to system crashes. (See my paper on "Avoiding System Crashes") If you have a system freeze, and have to shut down the power to reboot, AOL is easily corrupted because you're catching it in the middle of a write back to the drive. If it didn't finish, whatever was there is lost. There are ways to safe guard your favorite places, your address book, your PFC, (personal filing cabinet) and all downloaded data. It's actually quite easy, and if followed religiously, will allow you to sleep much better; even after a crash. . Set Up Your Own Download Directory; The first thing to do is to make a directory for yourself. Mine is called "Danny's Junk" (original, huh)? And it contains almost everything I do, and add to my computer. There is a sub folder for all my programs setup files, and my own download file for AOL. This is the key to keeping data safe from an AOL crash. Never, and I mean NEVER! Use AOL's download folder for your data storage. Make a separate download folder on your drive, and point AOL to use it at it's default. To do this is simple, click on "My AOL" ,,, "preferences" ,,,"Download" ,,, and use the browse button to find your new download folder. Exit out and that's it; that's all there is to it. From now on, AOL will default to your folder instead of it's own. This method keeps all of your download files out of AOL, if AOL ever corrupts, you are safe, you're data isn't touched. EVER! Really, I promise. The second thing to do is to back up your AOL organize folder. Your organize folder contains all your screen names; all the PFC's for those screen names; favorite places; and all your address books. All you have to do to keep a separate backup; is to copy this folder and paste it into a folder of your choice NOT IN THE AOL DIRECTORY. This is the key, keep it out of AOL, just like your Download folder is now gone, so will you keep a separate copy of your organize folder out of AOL. Doing this is also very simple; In Windows, just copy the organize folder from the AOL directory, (Probably C:\America Online) and paste it into your new folder. Do this at least once a week. When you paste the next one and Windows tells you it already exists, just tell it to copy over it. Doing this keeps your backup up to date without the clutter of older folders. You only need one, your newest one. The more often you back this up, the less you will lose in the even of a major AOL crash. . The AOL Setup File; .When you download AOL from keyword "upgrade" your setup file is kept in a folder called "AOL 50" (or something like that depending what version we're talking about) if you have AOL5, and "4095" if you have AOL4. Most people don't know this. If you keep this folder safe, you won't have to download AOL again because of a major crash. If upgrading say from 4 to 5, the AOL5 setup, ("AOL 50") is put into your AOL4 folder. Don't ask me why it does this, it just does. If you un-install AOL4 without removing this folder first, you just lost your AOL5 setup file. So take this folder and copy and paste it into a separate folder NOT IN ANY AOL DIRECTORY! (where have you heard that before?) I have a folder called "AOL setup." In this folder, I have sub folders for AOL3, 4, 5,and 6 setup files. I was a beta tester so I keep the setup folders of these versions on my drive. If you follow this routine you will never scream and swear again about losing your data. Next week, we'll cover how to re install AOL and having your data restored to the new copy. What? A story again? Well, OK, but just this once.
"An exasperated caller to Dell Computer Tech Support couldn't get her new Dell Computer to turn on. After ensuring the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, "I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens." The "foot pedal" turned out to be the computer's mouse." I hope this helps you on your road. Your Road? Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity Danny
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