Restoring from backup

Things that turned out to be easier than expected:

• Restoring my iTunes music library. Turns out that this was just a matter of copying back the “My Documents/My Music/iTunes” directory, which contains the two critical files “iTunes Library.itl” and “iTunes Music Library.xml”. Next step was to edit my iTunes preferences to point to my new music directory (I wouldn’t have had to do this if my drive mappings hadn’t changed). Finally, I re-authorized my PC to allow me to play all the music I’ve bought from the iTunes music store (grr… must re-rip to remove DRM soon). Job done. Plug in iPod, and go.
• Restoring my mail in Thunderbird. Before the crash, I had moved some of my email accounts out of Outlook and into Thunderbird, and I’ve never really worked with the mbox format before. Result: super easy. Copy the old mail file to the new directory, restart Thunderbird, and boom, there it is. No sweats. In fact, I’ve taken the opportunity to move all of my mail to Thunderbird now, and I’m liking it.

I’ve also installed Backup4All, and am using it as a proper daily backup solution. I never liked the Dantz Retrospect software that came with my big external disk, but Backup4All is excellent. Defining backup jobs is easy, and running them is smooth. Definitely a keeper.