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.BAK files


bobsy852

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Just a quickie,

I seem to have a lot of .bak files being generated (probably from opening and closing files a lot)

Just wondered if i'll ever need them once ive saved my work and whether they're safe to delete or if they're required by AutoCAD next time i use the file?

 

Thanks in advance

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BAK files are generated when you save a drawing. Opening and closing drawings without saving does not create them.

 

Yes, they are safe to delete.

 

No, they are not required by AutoCAD the next time you open a drawing.

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You can delete all of your .bak files.....but if ever your dwg is lost or deleted or corrupted accidentally, you have no way to restore your original drawing. I would keep the .bak file

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As long as you have made a backup of your drawing files it is completely safe to delete the BAK files. I suggest either copying them to a network drive, a DVD or a flash drive. Once you do...clean house.

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In other words.. if you get carried away cleaning them up immediately, you may find yourself trying to recover hours worth of work that only existed in that BAK file..

 

Especially if you do something like make some drawing changes, save it.. close the file, and then say "wow.. those changes were TOTALLY wrong." If you have a Bak file, you have a way of going back to your previous save.

 

Personally, I only delete BAKs when they're like a year or two old, and I don't do it aggressively. Just in case... It HAS saved me a lot of work in the past, but not even 2% of my bak files have ever been needed.

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I clean out my BAK files on a weekly, not daily, basis. It's an old habit. Given the capacity of today's drives I guess doing it once a year might be OK but then your hard drive starts looking like your closet...a mess.

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*.bak files are safe to delete from your HDD.

 

I am dilligent is doing so however, keep the latest just in case.

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It also helps to make periodic backups of your drawing files. Should the situation arise I can go back several years and pull an older version of a drawing off one of the many CDs I've stored away.

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I backup daily, incremental, to a server, desktop, and my ISP has provided free storage (more than I need).

 

Backups are done in the background, 6:00 AM daily.

 

The online storage (again, free) has come to the rescue a number of times. I can pluck a document, drawing, whatever I might need, online, anytime.

 

Check 'n see if your ISP provides some free storage! :wink:

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I clean out my BAK files on a weekly, not daily, basis. It's an old habit. Given the capacity of today's drives I guess doing it once a year might be OK but then your hard drive starts looking like your closet...a mess.

 

 

I have to do this on a near hourly basis. If you have one hard drive that is partitioned or a limited free space on the hard drive for huge drawings, then you need the space instantly, or you get the dreaded MS note

 

"Drawing (or work) cannot be saved due to:

 

1) Insufficient free space on hard drive,

 

2)...

 

I work with drawings at are 400+ M. in size each quite often. And they hog up a lot of space each.

 

 

Wm.

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I have to do this on a near hourly basis.

 

:? I'm curious to know what your system specs are? :unsure:

Have you thought about upgrading? Computer components are very cheap and easy to install. It's not worth the aggravation, working on a system that cannot perform to the level you require.

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Backup to an external HDD is easy. External HDD's are very inexpensive for what they provide.

 

I might suggest you look into an additional HDD or an external HDD to store files you might need someday.

 

Sounds as if you need something more.

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I'm curious to know what your system specs are?

Have you thought about upgrading? Computer components are very cheap and easy to install.

 

I tend to go to the local electronic swap meets more often than really needed. A few vendors have 1-20 G. hard drives at these usually selling between $8 and $20 used. These are a good deal for "at home" users. They are checked for errors, formatted, and main thing partitioned off into what ever the original vendor chose. Usually 750 MB chunks to fill out the drive. That often means the drive is then in c:/ to M:/ partitions. I do not alter anything but simply add on my OS to the C portion. All done in less than 1/2 hour per drive. The vendor will try to seel you on the speed of their access, but it is too fast for me. "How much?"

 

I then got a working HD to place into the closet for storage. Remove the computer case, plug in and go. Got three spares in there now that have not been touched in six months when last tested. When a HD fails, I am only down maybe 1/2 day. When a blower fan goes out, I am down until next swap meet.

 

For me, is cheaper to stay where am at than go to newer OS at home. Do not put in enough hours at work to afford a whole new computer or new HD.

 

 

Wm.

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I'm sorry, did you say 1-20GB hard drives that are partitioned into multiple 750MB sections? Coosbay, it sounds like you're wasting a lot of time and money on used, or should I say ancient, equipment that constantly needs to be replaced when it fails. You could buy a brand new 500GB hard drive for around $60 and be done with it. No more trips to the swap meet to pick up another miniature 20GB drive and no more hassles with insufficient memory.

 

Or you could just buy ReMarks system. I'm sure he will give you a good price.

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Coosbay:

 

Saw this at the Hartford craigslist this morning 9Sunday).

 

http://hartford.craigslist.org/sys/1777247084.html

 

I'll be getting rid of a system soon. If you're interested I could provide some details. PM me.

 

Thanks but no thanks. I got a late model computer sitting here onna floor at home here today which only needs one of the hard drives from the closet. The neighbor took it to a well respected local computer guy and shop, and was told the mainboard and CPU went blewy. It fires off fine on my old (closet) hard drives, but overall it does not need to to be running this instant.

 

We can pick these up at same local swap meets in range of $45 to $145 each w/o hang ons like monitor, keyboard, etc. Cost me more for shipping than to use what I got now. Is real hard to find anything ahving to do with a DX66 or 386 now. The even older 286 and 4086/7 went to rare find a few years ago and are now commanding a price more than they did three years ago.

 

Am not jazzed about doing any upgrades, for right now, it takes me longer to think as to where a new surface contour is to run than to draw it on even an Obsolete Acad system. Acad will do the work in One second but it takes three minutes to think of next place to work/check on the drawing. Need faster thinking now.

 

Wm.

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Yes, I would give you a good price but if you are still working with a 486 computer and pre-2000 AutoCAD software and doing it on the cheap then far be it for me to push you into the early 20th century let alone the 21st. It's OK...I'll find a deserving student at the local elementary or middle school.

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I backup daily, incremental, to a server, desktop, and my ISP has provided free storage (more than I need).

 

Backups are done in the background, 6:00 AM daily.

 

I'm intreigued Tankman as to your automatic backup! Is it possible to backup ONLY these .bak files on a regular basis automatically to a HDD or another computer on the network which doesnt do anything?

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Backing up BAK files is not necessary. All that is necessary is to do a daily or weekly backup of your DWG files depending on your level of apprehension. I find a weekly backup is more than adequate. I just checked my desk. I have CDs of all DWG files dating back 8 years. In that time I've only had to "recover" two "old" drawing files.

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