MOP Backup

If the blizzard updater fails; are you going to be locked out of WoW for a week while you have to re-download the entire client again?

This very nearly happened to me during the start of Cataclysm. My WoW installation became corrupt during the upgrade.

As a solution, I managed to copy the base WoW install from my son's computer, and only had to re-download some of the patch.  It took about 4 days to recover (during glyphmass - and some may know how much I like my glyphs), and once I got into WoW there were already too many things for me to do.

I can help you with Windows XP (yes, an old operating system; but better than Vista that was offered when I last bought PC's).

If you are on Windows XP; copy your c:\program files\World of Warcraft folder.

• Take a copy now. 
• Take another copy everytime you download a big patch
• If you have access to another computer, put your copy on it and run WoW from there.

If you are running another operating system; do your research now not later when things have broken.

As an aside; the patches are huge and consume both quota and network capacity; if you have 2-3 players in the household; you only need to download the patches once and can copy the patches to other computers; it is much faster.

Ideally; you will have:

• a current WoW installation you are using; 
• a current backup on another hard drive
• a slightly older backup (say for the previous patch) not currently connected to your pc.
• have used a backup to restore WoW and continue playing it.