This will work for all versions of AOL....including 8.0. (I am unsure of 9.0, as I have not tried it yet)

For version 8.0, you must make sure the FAVS are not stored on the AOL servers. You can go here to check/change it: Keyword: Favorite Places Preferences. Put a check in the box and click Save.

I have tried to make this tutorial as simple as possible, but it can be somewhat complicated, anyway.

1. Create a folder on your hard drive and call it "AOL BACKUP"

2. Inside that folder make 2 more folders.....name them "WEEKLY BACKUP" and "DAILY BACKUP"

3. Inside each of those 2 folders create 2 more folders called "ORGANIZE" and "DOWNLOAD"

4. Open Notepad and copy & paste the following (make sure you change the path to reflect the real locations on your hard drive where these folders are really located. Make sure you don't remove any quotes):

@ECHO OFF

copy C:\"PROGRAM FILES\America Online 8.0"\organize\*.* C:\AOL BACKUP\WEEKLY BACKUP\ORGANIZE

copy C:\"PROGRAM FILES\America Online 8.0"\download\*.* C:\AOL BACKUP\WEEKLY BACKUP\DOWNLOAD

EXIT

5. Now save this first file as a .txt file in the AOL BACKUP folder. Name it AOLBACKWEEKLY.txt

6. Right click on it in Explorer and select RENAME. Change the .txt to .bat

(Windows might give you a warning, but rename it any way)

7. Make another file by copying the text below. Change the path like you did with the first file you made:

@ECHO OFF

copy C:\"PROGRAM FILES\America Online 8.0"\organize\*.* C:\AOL BACKUP\DAILY BACKUP\ORGANIZE

copy C:\"PROGRAM FILES\America Online 8.0"\download\*.* C:\AOL BACKUP\DAILY BACKUP\DOWNLOAD

EXIT

8. Save this text file to the AOL BACKUP folder and name it AOLBACKDAILY.txt

9. Right click on it in Explorer and rename it from .txt to .bat just like you did with the last one.

I have had some problems with task scheduler. It seems to hang and not work properly when you have many programs installed. This gets around that.

1. Go to Start\Programs\Accessories\System Tools and click Maintenance Wizard

2. Schedule any 2 unused tasks to run.

Schedule one to run once a week on any day you choose and any time you choose.

Schedule the other for the remaining days of the week to run at the same time of the day as the first one.

Forget about the rest of the tasks...don't schedule them. Click ok, yes, finish, or whatever it takes to finish scheduling them and close the window.

3. Go to the Control Panel and click scheduled tasks. Right click on the first task you scheduled with the Maintenance Wizard (the one that will run once a week) and select PROPERTIES.

4. Click the browse button and go to the file called AOLBACKWEEKLY.bat and select that one.

5. In the text box below, where the description goes, type in the following:

Backs up AOL PFC on a weekly basis

6. Go to the Settings tab and uncheck all the boxes.

7. Check the Schedule tab to make sure all the info is correct.

8. Click Apply & OK

Now it should automatically open a DOS window, at the specified time, and automatically begin copying files to the folders you created for your backups. If you ever need to use these backups, just copy & paste the files from the backup folders to the correct AOL program folder (organize files go in organize folder, downloads go in downloads folder)

The reason you have 2 different backups is because if you accidentally delete a fav or mail from your PFC and don't catch it till the following day after the daily backup runs, you can always try to restore it from the weekly backup. This may cause you to lose any favs and email saved since it last ran. But if is something really important, you might need to use it. I would always try to restore from the daily folder first.

Just remember, any files added to PFC or FAVS after the backup runs will not be included. This will not provide 100% protection from lost files, but it will offer you much more than you had before.