| THE TOOLS PAGE |
On this page you will find some useful tools that allow you to create and restore backups of the cached content from Internet Explorer as well as a tool to completely wipe the cache - including the index.dat file. Finally there is a simple tool for creating a listing of the cache contents to a text file.
BACKING UP THE CACHE
When you create a backup of the cache, you have some control over what content you wish to actually put in the archive. You can choose to include normal web content (this includes any offline content) and/or cookies. You can also choose to limit the backup to only a certain domain name or filetype using the name filter. If you wish to include everything, leave the name filter blank and checkmark both content type checkboxes.
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Note: You can use a wildcard '*' character in the name filter, however the same rules apply here as they do for the name filter in the cache manager settings name filter - you can only put one * in the name, though it may appear anywhere in the name. |
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If you use a name filter for normal web content and try to save cookies in the same backup, it is unlikely many cookies will be saved. This is because the names of cookies have a very different format than the names of URLs. If you need to save URLs of a certain name and cookies of a certain name, create two archives - one with the web content and one with the cookies. They will merge together with no problems when you do a restore. |
When you have instructed CacheSentry Pro which content you wish to back up, click the "Backup cache to an archive file" button and a file dialog will ask for a name and place to store the backup archive file. The backup created will be one large file with all of the cache content packed together, so it is easy to move from computer to computer if you need to. During the backup process (which may take some time) the progress of the backup will be displayed by the number of entries processed. If the archive is successfully created, a window will open stating as such and tell you exactly how many files in the cache were stored in the archive. (No window will appear if you have enabled kiosk mode; it will instead be logged to the activity window.) If the backup procedure fails, an error message will display.
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Tip: The backup tool performs several checks on the file it is backing up to make sure that it is a valid file in the cache. If it fails one of these checks, it is not backed up. You can use this feature (along with the cache clear feature described later) to fix a corrupted cache. Only the non-corrupted data will be saved so do a backup, clear the cache, reboot, and then do a restore to (hopefully) return the cache to a fully working state. |
Note: The backup tool does not back up stray files.
RESTORING THE CACHE FROM AN ARCHIVE
Once you have created a cache backup, you can restore that backup into the cache at any time. With CacheSentry Pro, you also have some useful options to further control how and what content is placed back into the cache:
Overwrite existing files
When this option is checked, a URL or cookie name of a file stored in the
backup that is exactly the same as a URL or cookie name that is already in the
cache will cause the file in the cache to be replaced with the file in the
backup. Normally, you will want to leave this option unchecked as any matching
content in the cache will probably be more up-to-date than the content in the
archive. However, You may want to check this if you have archived a web site
that has changed and want to view it as it was when you made the archive.
(You'll need to be in offline mode in order to view it, otherwise IE will get
the updated content from the web server.)
Mark restored entries as recently visited
When this option is unchecked, the files restored to the cache are given the
exact last access time they had when they were archived. This is useful if you
are restoring a cache to a completely empty cache since you'll probably want
the last access times of the file to be the same as they were so they get
deleted in the proper order when the cache fills.
However, if you have made a backup of just one web site and are restoring to a
cache that has other content in it, you will probably want to clear this
option. Why? The reason is this: If the content you are restoring is very old
it is likely it will be the first thing deleted by a cache manager! Setting
this option sets the last access time to the current time, so it will be seen
as the newest content in the cache and will not be immediately subject to
deletion when the cache is full.
During the restore process, the number of entries in the archive that have been processed will be displayed. When the restore completes, the number of cache entries that were actually restored (which will vary depending on the setting of the Overwrite option) will be displayed in a window. If the restore failed at some point, an error message will display.
MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS
Delete the entire cache
This feature completely wipes out the existing cache and creates a pristine
empty cache. This includes all of the cache files, the randomly named
subfolders, and the index.dat file. The index.dat file will be back down to its
smallest possible size - 32K bytes. Note that this cleanup will not
take place until you reboot the system or log out and log back in. If you
attempt to browse the web or restore the cache from a backup before logging out
all of that new content will go into your "TEMP" folder and will be lost once
you do reboot or log out. When you click on this tool's button, it will give
you one chance to change your mind in case you clicked on the button by
accident.
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TIP: You can create an optimal cache index.dat file by backing up up the entire cache, deleting it using this delete tool, rebooting, and restoring the cache. This will create the smallest possible index.dat file for the contents in the cache as it currently is at the time of the restore. For further optimization, you can also defragment the volume on which the cache is located by using any disk defragmentation tool. (You may need to be in Windows Safe Mode to defragment the index.dat file, however.) |
Create text file listing of the cache's
contents
Clicking on this tool will open a file dialog asking for a name and place to
save the creating text listing of the entries in the cache. Stray files are not
included in the listing; however cookies are included along with web content.
Each line of text in the listing includes the cache entry's flags, actual size
(with cluster size taken into account), last access time, and URL name.