If your VCS system is managed correctly you don't need to make backups of your local copy of your VCS project because the version control system is your backup. The entire backup strategy is handled by the VCS system, with incremental backups that allow you to return to earlier versions of your topics and projects if necessary. You just need to make sure that your VCS repository is backed up as well, so that you do not lose everything it contains if disaster strikes in the location where the repository is stored.

Turn on the automatic backup function

Despite this, however, it is still a good idea to turn on the automatic backups function in Help+Manual, which you can access in View > Program Options > General. This will create regular compressed backups of your project in your project folder in a single file with the extension .hmxz~~. These backups are not linked to your VCS repository and they can be opened normally in Help+Manual by removing the two tilde characters from the file extension.

If you ever lose your VCS repository this backup file will give you an additional emergency fallback option.

Making manual local backups

You can also make manual local backups of your project with the Save As.. option in the File menu. This will create an unlinked copy of your project that is not connected to the VCS. You can do this for both Subversion and Visual SourceSafe version control system projects. DON'T continue editing on this project when you do this, however! If you do, your edits will no longer be part of the version linked to the VCS repository.

Subversion projects are always editable because you can always work offline with them. However, if disaster strikes and your Visual SourceSafe repository is deleted, corrupted or otherwise becomes permanently unavailable you will not be able to open the local version of your project. If you have also failed to make backups your local copy may be the only copy of the project you have and you will want to recover your project from that.

Recover from your automatic backup file:

If you have activated the automatic backup feature (see above) you can recover the last version saved in the automatic backup file in your project folder, which is called projectname.hmxz~~. To make the file readable just delete the two tilde (~) characters in the extension, then you can open it in Help+Manual. However, depending on the backup interval you have set  this file may not contain the very last changes you made before closing your project the last time.

Unbinding the local copy from the Visual SourceSafe repository:

To make the local copy editable you need to make it writable and manually unbind it from the Visual SourceSafe repository. Please only do this in a genuine disaster situation. You will not be able to re-bind the project to an existing VSS repository version after doing this!!

1.Reset the Read-Only attribute on all the files in your project folder. To do this select the files in Windows Explorer, right-click, select Properties and then deactivate the Read-only check box and apply. Do this for all the files in all the folders in your project folder.

2.Locate and delete or rename all the *.scc files in your project folder and sub-folders. There should be one in every folder inside your project folder.

3.Open the main *.hmxp project file in a text editor and locate the <config-group name="versioncontrolsystem"> block of code and delete it, then save the file. The block should look something like this:

<config-group name="versioncontrolsystem">

<config-value name="provider">Microsoft Visual SourceSafe</config-value>

<config-value name="server">E:\Data\Databases\VSS</config-value>

<config-value name="projectname">&quot;$/ModuleB&quot;, FFAAAAAA</config-value>

<config-value name="localdirectory">E:\Help Projects\DemoHelp\Module B</config-value>

</config-group>

After doing this you will be able to open and edit the project normally.