WILCOM ES BACKUP ESSENTIALS

We all know good backup management saves time and money.

Protecting your valuable design data and user settings should a high priority for
any Home embroider, as well as Embroidery Business.

This article will discuss the features available in ES that assist in saving and backing up your designs.

It will also discuss how to backup your templates, motifs, user defined alphabets and machine
settings in machine manager.

Backing up and saving your designs is an important process to consider when creating
embroidery designs. Wilcom ES features built in auto backup and auto save features that you
can use while creating designs. It is important to understand what these features do in order
to utilize them properly

Setting automatic save options and backup options

The Auto Save Design feature allows you to set an interval of time at which the design you
are working on will be automatically saved into the Recover folder as an .EMA file. This does
not replace saving the design periodically, as the auto save feature is there as a design
recovery feature in case you have a software or hardware computer failure. Once you close
the design you are working on, the .EMA file is automatically removed from the Recover
folder.

To set automatic save in ES

1. Select Special ; Options in the ES Menu
2. The Options dialog opens.
3. Select the General tab.
4. Select the Auto Save Design Every checkbox.
5. Enter the auto-save frequency in the Minutes field.
   

In the event of a hardware or software failure ES will then automatically restore the designs that were opened in ES before the failure. This process will occur the very next time ES is opened after the failure. You can then resave the file as any normal design file.

Creating backup copies of saved designs.

The Always Create Backup Copy feature if selected, saves a backup copy of the embroidery
file you are working on every time you click save from the file menu. If you have not saved
the file at least once, there will not be a backup file for you to access later.

Please Note: Using the Always Create Backup Copy feature is for emergency purposes. It is
not a replacement for doing a full system backup or backing up all your designs and storing
them off-site. Wilcom recommends you do a full backup of all your designs and embroidery
related files on a regular basis and store them in a location other than your place of business,
as a precaution.

To create a backup every time you save a design, select the Always
Create Backup Copy checkbox.

(This option is located underneath the Auto Save option)

The design will be saved in the BACKUP folder of your Wilcom ES installation. It will have the
same name as the original file with the extension .BAK.

Please Note: Backup files remain in the BACKUP folder until you delete them. To prevent the
folder from using too much hard disk space, delete unwanted files regularly.

Retrieving backup files that are located in the backup folder.

Created backup files saved to the backup folder will have the file extension .BAK. Windows
and ES however will not recognise this file extension as a valid embroidery file.
To adjust the file extension of the backup file.

1. Click on the windows start button and select run.
2. Type the location of the backup folder, the default path is c:\eswin\backup
3. The backup folder will now appear in a new window.
4. Select the new window and right mouse click the design you wish retrieve and select
   rename.
5. Change the extension from .BAK to the design file extension the original design was.
   

For example if the original design was a Wilcom .EMB file you would need to change the
extension from .BAK to .EMB

NOTE: The file extension must match the original saved file extension or ES will not be able to open the file.

If you are unable to see the file extension .BAK select Tools in the top menu as shown in the
above picture and select folder options. Once in the folder options select the view tab and
uncheck hide extensions for known file types.

After step 5 has been completed the file will now be able to be opened in ES as a normal
design file.

Backing up your templates, motifs, user defined alphabets and machine settings in machine manager.

Backing up Templates

Templates contain pre-set styles, default settings to make digitizing quicker and easier. When
you create a file based on a template, the template’s values are copied to the new design

Backing up your templates is important in case you are required to install the software on
another computer, you have formatted your computer or if you want to share your settings
with other users.

If your templates are backed up then the process of going through ES and re-adjusting your
styles and settings is eliminated.

Template files are stored in the c:\eswin\template folder by default.

1. To access the template folder
2. Click on the windows start button and select run.
3. Type the location of the template folder, the default path is c:\eswin\template
   The template folder will now appear
   
   The template file extension is .EMT. These files can be backed up via CD, DVD, or External Hard disk depending on your preferred storage method.

Backing up motifs and user defined alphabets

These files are stored in the c:\eswin\userletw folder by default.
To access the userletw folder

1. Click on the windows start button and select run.
2. Type the location of the userletw folder, the default path is c:\eswin\userletw
3. The userletw folder will now appear
   
   

The motif and alphabet file extension is .ESA. These files can be backed up via CD, DVD, or
External Hard disk depending on your preferred storage method.

Backing up machine settings in Machine Manager (MMG)

If you have multiple machines in machine manager it is a good idea to backup the file that
stores the settings for each machine. This will save time re-entering the machine settings.

The file that contains the machine settings is stored in the c:\eswin\res\
To access the res folder

1. Click on the windows start button and select run.
2. Type the location of the res folder, the default path is c:\eswin\res
3. The res folder will now appear
   
   

The file that stores the machine settings is called MMG.MMG. This file can be backed up via
CD, DVD, or External Hard disk depending on your preferred storage method.