Backing Up and Restoring Business Contact Manager Data

As with any data stored on a computer, you should back up your Business Contact Manager data. You can do this by using the following steps:

  1. Select File, Business Database, Backup to display Figure 36.47.

    Figure 36.47. You can specify a password for your backed-up Business Contact Manager data.

    graphics/36fig47.gif

  2. Click the Browse button to choose a location for your backup file.

  3. You can enter a password to protect your Business Contact Manager data.

  4. Click OK to start your backup. BCM will let you know when the backup is complete.

At some point, you might need to restore a previously backed-up database. If your database is corrupted or you get a new computer and need to transfer your database to the new machine, you can perform a database restore.

NOTE

There are several symptoms of database corruption you should look out for. If the history grid in any of your BCM items disappears or fails to display data that you know is there, your database is probably corrupt. If you receive an error every time you open any BCM item and have not customized your BCM forms, your database is likely corrupt. Although database corruption doesn't happen often, it's a real possibility with just about any sort of database. Because of this, I recommend setting a weekly or monthly Outlook task to back up your BCM data. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes and can ensure that you won't lose data should your database corrupt.


When restoring a database, the most important step is to start with a blank database. Do not try to restore a database into a corrupted database; you'll definitely encounter problems. To start with a clean database and restore a backed-up database, use the following steps:

  1. Exit Outlook.

  2. Open Control Panels and double-click the Mail icon.

  3. If you have multiple profiles on this machine, click the Show Profiles button. Otherwise, skip to step 5.

  4. Choose your profile and click Properties.

  5. Click Data Files to display the Outlook Data Files dialog box (see Figure 36.48).

    Figure 36.48. This dialog box shows all the data files associated with your profile.

    graphics/36fig48.gif

  6. Select the entry for Business Contact Manager and click Settings to display the Associate Database Wizard seen in Figure 36.49.

    Figure 36.49. You can use this wizard to create a new database.

    graphics/36fig49.gif

  7. This dialog box lists the current BCM database and enables you to create a new database. To create a new database, click the Create a New Database radio button and click Next.

  8. Enter a name for your new blank BCM database and click Next.

  9. It might take a minute or so for your new database to be created. When the new database has been created, click Finish.

  10. Click Close twice and then click OK to exit the Mail Applet.

  11. Restart Outlook.

  12. Switch to one of your BCM folders to verify that there are no items in the folders.

  13. Select File, Business Database, Restore to display the Database Restore dialog box seen in Figure 36.50.

    Figure 36.50. Use this dialog box to select a database to restore.

    graphics/36fig50.gif

  14. Click Browse to find the BCM-compressed backup file.

  15. If you entered a password for your BCM backup, enter it now. Otherwise, click OK to start the restore process.

  16. When the restore process has finished, restart Outlook.

I hope you'll never need to restore your database. However, if you do, the previous steps should make it relatively simple.

Routine Database Maintenance

All databases need some routine maintenance on occasion. Think of a database as much like a bookcase. When you first put books in the bookcase, you might organize them. You might group them by subject, in order of height, or even in alphabetical order. After you retrieve books from the bookcase, you might not put them back in the right order. You might not even stand them up, but instead shove them in the bookcase in any order. A database can behave in a similar manner. Your database can become fragmented, which can impair performance.

You can use database maintenance to reorganize your database much as you can reorganize a bookcase by rearranging all the books back in order. To run maintenance on your BCM database select File, Business Database, Maintenance. Click Start to begin database maintenance. Depending on the size of your database, maintenance can take several minutes.



Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
ISBN: 0789729563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 426

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