Are Your Files Stored on a USB Flash Drive?

These data storage devices arrived around the turn of the century, and for many genealogists they contain a life time of genealogical and/or family history information and research. If the flash drive were lost, it would be detremental to their hard work. Ancestral Quest will prompt you to backup your data and what you back up to really does matter.

According to Wikipedia, these devices are known as "a USB drive, USB stick, thumb drive, pen drive, jump drive, flash drive or USB memory". They replaced the small floppy disks of that time. They hold so much more data and are convenient to carry, however, if one is not careful, they can be accidently left behind on a library's computer or suddenly stop working.

Over time, these drives have improved in the speed of data transfer, their storage capacity and their life expenctancy, however, like hard drives, don't last forever and most individuals rarely think about needing to replace them until it is too late.

Advice to copy one's files to a main computer is good advice, as having backups both ways is the best way to go, create a folder on your main computer and copy the whole drive or copy it all to a cloud based area. 

Individuals hear of 'cloud based' storage for one's regular desktop and/or lap top computer, but one often forgets to back up any small digial devices at the same time. The end result is that over time these flash drives need to be replaced; like a computer needs to be upgraded. 

Unfortunately, there really are no warning signs they are going to fail which is the best reason to backup the contents on a regular basis. All storage devices come with warranties, however, the warranty is on the device and not the information on the device. Additionally, the life cycle of these devices is affected by the number of times you delete and add new information. When purchasing a flash drive one needs to look how the device is rated for write cycles, its ability to whether the kind of abuse it may take from dropping in water to walking over it all accidently.

TopTenReviews checks all sorts of devices, software, etc. to help educate the everyday individual. They do have a great representation for the best top ten USB flash drives. In reviewing their choices, one can easily see how they are judged and you should be able to view their report and make a wise decision.

Don't delay any longer, if you can't remember when you bought your flash drive and you don't want to lose all your genealogy and family history along with all you have stored on your current flash drive, then purchase a new more rugged flash drive and copy everything to the new device.

Your ancestors will be grateful for your diligence and taking care of all your Ancestral Quest research.

Take advantage of all the new features in Ancestral Quest 15 today!

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!

Comments and questions are always welcome!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)

AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AncQuest

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ancquest

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/inclinesoftware

(c) 1994-2017 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved

 gfindlay@ancquest.com

Where is my Family File?

Your old computer needed replacing, either it was so slow you decided to replace it or it may have started crashing on you, either way it was replaced and now you are trying to set up all your favorite programs on this new computer with a new operating system and are not able to locate anything familiar.

The first thing that is important is to re-install Ancestral Quest which is done from the website here: http://ancquest.com/ver14.htm. Download either AQ14s.exe or AQ14c.exe, then install the program to your new computer. If you need your registration key and are unable to locate it you can email a request for it from support@ancquest.com or call us at 801-280-4434.

Copy your family files onto an external device or a flash drive, remove and plug your device into your new computer. When you open Ancestral Quest it should open to a blank file. 

Depending on the file types you've saved on your device will determine how you open them up to continue your family history work. 

If the file is a .aq or a .paf you go to File and Open 
If the file is a .aqz or a .zip you go to File and Restore
If the file is a .ged you go to File and Import

Once you have gotten to the place where you begin to look for the files, remember they are on an external device which will have a different letter designation, like F, G, I, J, etc. To locate that in the open, restore or import screen, click on the down arrow to show the location of your external device.

In this case the individual would click on the "L" drive and their files would show up in the list to choose from.

Sometimes your files are transferred by a repair company and they have put everything on a CD for you, in that case you would do the same but locate that CD and the drive letter and click it too.

Either way you will be able to locate your family data files to continue your family history research!

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!

Comments and questions are always welcome!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)

AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AncQuest

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ancquest

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/inclinesoftware

(c) 1994-2016 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
 gfindlay@ancquest.com

Pre-Set Backup Location

Planning ahead is always a good thing. If you plan and follow through you can usually prevent most major problems.

Ancestral Quest allows you to designate where your files are stored. While there are default locations, you can choose to accept them or change them.

To change or add locations for all your files including a back-up file, go to "Tools" and then down to "Preferences":

Once there, click on the tab that says "Files and Folders":

At this point you are able to choose the locations for Databases, Import/Export, Backup, Reports and Web Pages. By clicking on the Browse button you can choose your specific location. Once you are done, click "OK" and you are brought back to your main family file data.

Adding the locate for your backup will help you know where they are always located. It is suggested that this be an additional device, either an external drive or a USB drive.

Enjoy the peace of mind knowing where all your files are saved to when working with Ancestral Quest.

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!

Comments and questions are always welcome!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)

AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AncQuest

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ancquest

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/inclinesoftware

(c) 1994-2015 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
 gfindlay@ancquest.com

Backing-Up Family Files

Each day individuals spend a major amount of time working on the Family History and/or Genealogy, some perhaps as often as time will allow. At the end of the day Ancestral Quest is closed down and it is often assumed that all will be there tomorrow or the next time you open that particular program.

Unfortunately it isn't always so. Individuals around the world have turned on their computers only to find that there has been a hard disk failure. This is a scary situation as we rely on computers as a storage place of valuable data including our ancestral families, photos and documents.

To add to this dilema, the multiple digital devices used on a daily basis to store pictures of family and friends at different gatherings, perhaps photos of tombstones from visiting the cemetery and a host of other media is stored on a large variety devices.

Without a schedule or a regular habit, years of research can be gone in moment. 

Currently the back-up process requires an individual to go to "File" and click on "Backup" as follows:

At this point you'll have to decide where to save it to. It is advisable to store backups on an external drive and/or a USB Flash Drive, this way you'll be able to have your data, etc. 

On the top right side, click the down arrow to expand your choices of where to save your backup file. I have an external drive so have chosen this as my backup location. Once you select the location, you click on "Backup" and it is complete. This is the message you will receive:

This completes your backup of your family file data. If you have multiple family files, it is suggested you do this to each of them. It is recommended to do a backup each time you finish using the program. If you do a backup once a week and have to resort to going back to that particular date, then all you have done since then would be lost if you had problem with your computer.

This simple backup can save your years of research!

Remember Ancestral Quest is fully FamilySearch Certified!

Comments and questions are always welcome!

Happy Ancestraling...Claire ;)

AQ Cues & Clues Blog:http://ancquest.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AncQuest

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ancquest

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/inclinesoftware

(c) 1994-2015 Incline Software, All Rights Reserved
 gfindlay@ancquest.com