Recommended places to keep your data

Microsoft recommends that you keep your data in the My Documents folder and there is no reason to vary this advice for HAL. A good approach might be to:

• Make a folder within My Documents called Results
• Within the Results folder make sub-folders for each year.
• Make a data file from within HAL for normal club results. Call it ClubResults2010.hrrx, or something similar. This will hold all the results for the year, except those from special events.
• To make sure that you always open the correct file, place a short cut to the results file on your desktop (right-click the file in Windows Explorer and choose the Send to desktop option). To be quite sure that you are always using the same file, open HAL by double-clicking this shortcut, rather than opening it from the Start menu. This ensures that all your results are in the one file.
• If you run special events, such as open meetings or championships, consider making a new file for each of these. Put them in the same year folder as the club results and call them something like MerlinOpen2010.hrrx
• After opening HAL always check that you are in the correct file by looking at its address in the title bar at the top of the HAL window.

In addition you need to archive your data frequently, at least once per week in a club with a busy racing schedule. Use the File / Archive menu item. The best practice is to make at least two copies of your archive file: one in the same folder as the rest of the results and one on a removeable device such as a memory stick. Take the removeable device away to a safe place.