Zip Backup will make a backup of your critical system files with the minimum of effort. System.dat and user.dat are the two files that make up the Windows registry. It's a very good idea to keep a regular copy of these files and to have an Zip Backup recovery disk. Should your registry become corrupted and you are unable to boot to Windows the recovery disk will replace the damaged files with your backup. It's important to back these files up on a regular basis, particularly after installing / uninstalling software or making changes to your setup in any way. The system files backup can be included in your automatic backup using the Task Scheduler, by ticking the "Auto Sysfiles" in the options menu.
To backup your system files, just click the " Backup System Files " button. The system files will all be backed up into the sysfiles directory, in the same location as your regular backups. You don't need to tick any of the check boxes, all of the listed files will be included in the backup.
To restore your system files from Windows, tick the check boxes for the files you want to restore and click the " Restore System Files " button. The selected files will be restored from the sysfiles directory.
Click the " Make Recovery Disk " button and follow the instructions on the following screens. The system files are not stored on this disk, they would in fact need several disks. They are stored in the sysfiles directory at the same location as your regular backups. The recovery disk contains a simple program to copy these files back to their original locations. To use the disk insert it into your floppy drive and restart your computer. The process is automatic and you will be prompted to remove the disk and reboot when it's complete.
Due to a combination of security issues and NT's more complex recovery tools this feature is not available. NT4 users can of course include any system files they wish to keep a copy of in a group on the backup tab.