Genealogy Chat

See below Rita

Recycle Bin/BAK files I was going to empty my Recycle Bin which I must confess hasn’t been done since I don’t know when I realised that all the files to be deleted seemed to be designated a “BAK File”. I have no idea what this means. The files were mostly word documents as I recall. I restored one file to see what it contained just to reassure myself that everything was OK but subsequently couldn’t find it in My Documents; unless of course I inadvertently did delete it. I tried another test restore but with the same results. Short of my trying to restore absolutely everything to make sure I really want to delete things, which would take forever I should think, I am a bit uncertain as to how to proceed. Any advice/comments will be gratefully received. I will be away from the PC for approximately 3 hours so I will get back to you then. Regards Rita

.bak files are back-up files. Some people set up word processors to create a backup file each time they open a file. Another source is email programmes which create .bak files when they do a compress routine. You can safely delete them. To open you have to restore (if you can) and rename with something like go1.doc and try that. best of luck!

Hi Clive - Thanks for your response. t is much appreciated. Warm regards Rita

Many thanks - I have same thing...Liz

Keeping for later ...thank you. Marion

I have had a pm asking for more detail so here it is! Back up files There are quite a few programmes which will automatically create .bak files but some create backup files with a different extension (the 3 letters after the full stop). For example with Word where you have used Tools, Options, Save and then ticked create a backup each time file is opened the file extension is .wbk If you do a Search for files *.bak you will see long lists of them probably. Generally do not touch these as they are more the computer technicians than Joe Public. You will only need to restore a .bak file when something has gone wrong. In email programmes I always say yes to Compress files? And this always produces a long list of .bak files in the recycle bin. Empty the recycle bin after each compression! Changing file names Method 1 - Use my computer or windows explorer to find the file concerned. Click once on it so it is highlighted, pause, click a second time and just the letters are highlighted, pause, click again and you can change the letters. In most cases if you change the extension (last three letters) you will be given a warning. Can be useful to email some files and get past the firewalls. I change to something like .geek and tell the recipient to change back to .mdb for example. Beats the firewalls every time! Method 2 – This only works to change the file name and not the extension. Open the file and do a Save As routine. Restoring files Files can normally be restored from the recycle bin without problems. Just occasionally with .bak files there may be a problem but they are probably not worth restoring. Some picture processing programmes will send a copy of a photo to the recycle bin and if you restire that it will overwrite you updated version. Many programmes allow for a Tools, Options page which then allows for things like automatically creating copies of files. I wish some of my customers would use the facility more often! There is no way I can restore a deleted file and with databases fixing corrupt ones can be difficult too.