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How to Back Up Your Family File


 
You should make regular backups of your Family File so that in the case of a computer malfunction or power outage, you still have a copy of all your work.

To make a compressed backup copy of your Family File:

1. Choose Backup Family File... from the File tab on the Ribbon bar.  The Customize Backup dialog appears.

You can backup some or all of the files associated with a family file.  These include files that are used to record what you are doing in Legacy as well as any media files that you have attached to individuals, events, or sources in your family file.
The primary file is your family file.  This is the file with the .fdb extension.  There is one of these for every family file you have created.  Other files that are created when needed are:

Research Guidance result files - These are created when you ask Legacy to show you where to search next for more information.
Relationships - Records the relationship terms for the individuals in your family file.
Clipboard files - These are to-do, event, and source entries that you have copied to their respective clipboards.
Focus Group settings - These are groups that you have created for reports, searches, and exports.

Media files - These are the picture files, sound files, video files, and other documents that you have linked to the people, events, sources, and locations in your family file.

2. Select the Data Files checkbox to include family file related files.  To include pictures, sound files, videos, and other documents that you have linked to individuals, event, and sources within your family file, select the Mulitimedia Files checkbox.  You can choose one or the other or both of these file types.  If you select the Data Files, also select which of the files you would like to include.

The Data-type files are backed up one file and the Media files are backed up on a second separate file.

3. If you selected the Data Files, click the Select Name and Location for Data Backup button and choose where you would like to create the backup file and what you would like to name it.  We recommend that you indicate in the name of the file that it contains the Data from your family file, as opposed to the media.  Including the date of the backup is also helpful.  For example, "Anderson Family Legacy Data, 12 Dec 2009".  

The backup file can be put on your hard drive, or a flash drive (thumb drive) or even a rewritable CD disk.  (If you create a copy on your hard drive, you should copy it to a CD or transfer a copy to a different computer or upload it to an Internet backup service, or in some other way get a copy off of your computer.  Sending a copy to a family member or close friend is also a good way to make sure that you will have access to it if your computer goes down.)
  
4. If you are also backing up your media files (these are only the files that are linked to someone or something in your family file) click on the Select Name and Location for Media Backup button and indicate where you want the backup to be created.  Again, indicate in the file name that this is a backup of your media files.  For example, "Anderson Family Media Files, 12 Dec 2009".

5. To start the backup creation, click the Backup button at the bottom  Legacy collects all the needed files and compresses them into a ZIP file in the location(s) specified.


(See Backing Up a Family File for more information.)
(See Backing Up a Family File and/or Media Files for more information.)

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