Capturing Video Tutorials

Q: I'm very interested in on-line video tutorials which are available in various formats such as Google Video/Macromedia.  The only problem is that I have to watch each video online at all times.  Is it possible to download and save these videos into files?   That way I could watch them at my leisure and on PCs that do not necessarily have online access.

A: There is nothing in Windows that will allow you to do this but there are many programs that can.  See http://tinyurl.com/yujyd for a selection of programs. Their best rated program is WM Recorder that can record almost any Windows Media Stream but not Real Player streams or content protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). However, there are some free programs that I have not investigated as well as a good deal of useful information. Another program is SDP Multimedia from: http://sdp.ppona.com/

Backing up the same files?

Q: I have arranged things on my computer (XP Professional) so that I have one working folder containing dozens of sub-folders which in turn contain hundreds of files.  Copying (backing up) the whole working folder each day takes a long time; is their any way to tell the computer to  ONLY 
transfer files that have been altered/newly created & newly created folders ...... since the last back up?

A: This depends on the software that you are using but most backup programs should be able to cope. Most will allow both incremental and differential backups. The difference between the two is that incremental backup will only copy new and changed files since the last full backup. This means that the additional backup files will be quite small. A differential backup clears archive bits (marking what has been backup up) only after a full backup. This means that daily backups get gradually larger, but restore is easier. A full restore only requires the last full backup and the last differential and this is what I would recommend.

If you just drag and drop your working folder then there is not way to only pick the changed and new files.

However, if you have a little bit of DOS knowledge then there is a very simple fix. Create a one line BAT file that reads:
Xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\Your name\Working Folder" /d /s /y “X:\Working Folder" where you put in the source and destination folders in quotes and X: is the destination drive. The /d instructs the copying process to copy only new or changed files, the /s instructs to copy sub-folders and /y is to say Yes when asked if you want to update the files. This will copy only new and changes files so if you have 1,000 files and you alter two files and create one then only three files will be copied.