An associate and TNPC reader Barbara D. asked a very good question the other day, "I've been downloading lots of the free and free-with-rebate software from Beyond.com that I see mentioned in TNPC but what happens when I need to reinstall this software due to a problem, or install it onto a new computer?"
Barbara raises a point that I'd not really considered until a major hard disk crash wiped out my all my downloaded goodies some time back. We tend to get careless with software we snap up off the Net and to a certain extent that may be justified. After all, you can just download it again, right?
Usually, but not always. As I found out with Anonymous Cookie and more recently PFE, even a good freeware product may not be available on the Web forever. And what about the shareware and commercialware products you download and register? These downloads represent software you paid good money for, but it's not up to the developer to provide you with a new copy should you get careless with the one you downloaded. You need to take some precautions of your own.
In our book "The Unofficial Guide to PCs" we have a section on "Storing Downloaded Updates" (page 194) that discusses keeping track of software, patches, and driver updates that you download from the Internet. We discuss setting up a section of folders on your hard disk to categorize and store both applications and updates. Put things in separate folders in their original unzipped or decompressed format for storage and if necessary add a text file of your own to the folder with any notes, registration codes, contact information, tech support numbers, URLs, and the like so everything you may need for a reinstall is all in the same location.
Next, you have to move these folders to a removable medium for backup and long-term storage. Doesn't do much good to have a well-organized hard disk when the hard disk itself dies. Depending on the size of the files you might be okay with a Zip disk or even a floppy but since we've purchased the Acer CD-RW drives (discussed in TNPC #2.20), burning CDs for storage and archives has become the preferred method of choice at TNPC.
Downloaded software rarely comes on a disk or CD these days or you have to pay extra for a "packaged" version. It's up to you to make sure you have an archived copy.
