Remember To Back Up Your Files!
 

Just a reminder for everyone out there to back up their Trackmaster downloads from time to time.

I recently had a major problem with my PC and almost lost everything. Luckily the guy who fixed it managed to save my files, plus family photos etc, but I could easily have lost the lot.

An Excellent Reminder for us all! With external hard drives so cheap nowadays, there's no reason not get a 500 Mb or 1 Tb backup for a hundred dollars or so and use the backup software that comes with it, or other backup software like Acronis - and backup everything, everyday (e.g. overnight).

If you're not backing up everything, always - for RDSS, here's what to backup:

1. C:\RDSS2 folder and ALL sub-folders (i.e. particularly the DATA sub-folder). Since you can always reinstall the software, you can backup just the DATA folder (C:\RDSS2\DATA) which includes:

a) all your personal working databases and any example databases (on the DATA sub-folder)

b) downloaded TrackMaster Past Performance ZIP files, in the DATA/PP sub-folder and further sub-folders by year and track

c) Cached files for races you have assembled, in the DATA/CACHE sub-folder and further sub-folders by year and track

d) Result Charts associated with Past Performance lines and with the current race (upcoming this Autumn), in the DATA/RESULTS folder and sub-folders

2. Models (Excel files) stored in the C:\RDSS2\MODELS folder and sub-folders

3. If your working database has been carried forward from the days of RDSS1, unless you have relocated it to the C:\RDSS2\DATA folder, it will still reside on the old C:\RDSS\DATA folder. I strongly recommend you move it to the RDSS2\DATA folder so all database components of RDSS2 will be in the same place. Please see the next post for how to move your old (and perhaps current, shared) RDSS1 database file.

If are still using it and you DON'T relocate your RDSS1 database file, when making a backup of RDSS related data, also include your C:\RDSS\DATA\data.db file.

Ted

How to relocate your RDSS1 Database to the RDSS2 Data Folder
 

(If you never used RDSS1, or have long since moved your old RDSS1 database file to the RDSS2 Data folder, or started fresh with a new RDSS2 database - please just ignore the rest of this post!)

Further to the discussion in Post #1 on keeping backups of RDSS2 data, above -

if the database you are using in RDSS2 is still C:\RDSS\DATA\data.db (i.e. carried forward from RDSS1 days), you should relocate it to the RDSS2\DATA folder. This is just good housekeeping advice and strongly recommended, though not a necessity.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the RDSS2 Database Management Tool on the Desktop. 'Switch' databases to the one named DATA.DB located on the RDSS2\DATA folder. Restart RDSS2. You will notice that database is empty - don't panic!

2. With RDSS1 not running - open your Windows Explorer (file system) then navigate to the C Drive, the RDSS folder, the DATA sub-folder. Identify the file named DATA.DB (or named DATA, of Type = Database). Copy it to the C:\RDSS2\DATA folder, and overwrite that empty DATA.DB database file with the same name.

3. Run RDSS2 and now your working database copied from the RDSS1 DATA folder will show up. If it does - the copy process worked and you can go back and delete that original file in the old C:\RDSS\DATA folder.

Having relocated all your working RDSS databases to the new location C:\RDSS2\DATA - when you backup your RDSS2 data (i.e. backup the C:\RDS2\DATA folder and all sub-folders) - nothing will be missing!

Ted