Thread: Thank-you Backup System!!!!

Apparently sometime Tuesday night-Wednesday morning Microsoft did a major update to Windows. ON Wednesday we opened our office, woke up the computers and start our Inspection software which proceeds to puke, alerting us that the Datebase is not recognized and probably corrupt. My partner/wife announces that something is wrong and seeing that message I encourage her to call the tech hot line and see what they say.

My partner/wife calls tech support and the tech says that if can't start the software the compact/ repair function isn't going to work (so why is it there??) and we should just restore the "backup copy." Great where does the software store a copy of the database file? The tech says "where-ever you put it""??? At this point I get handed the phone. I foolishly believe that software developers have a copy stored someplace to protect us from ourselves, so I too ask where they store it. The tech says nope we don't do that but I am sure you do.... At this point I realize they aren't going to be of any help and sign off. We do have a daily backup that runs every night, so I copy the last backup over to our working directly and my partner/wife starts to breath again.

The moral of the story is that if your not doing automatic backups you are going to learn the hard way that when you least expect it, your most important files are going to crash on you and your going to lose data that you run your business on. Our database has 5 years of client data in it. In our backup strategy we have a daily backup, a monthly backup to a different location, a quarterly backup to a USB drive that lives in a safe location after the backup is completed AND a yearly backup to DVD disks that get stored in a safe deposit box. If things go terribly wrong I know that I am going to be able to get my business back up and running pretty quickly with minimal loss of data.

You can't backup too much!

//Rick

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Mozy!

Rick,
What operating system are you using?
I stopped allowing automatic updates to the system some time ago. I had a similar experience and then went being in control of system changes. And agree with back early, often and multiple locations.

I use Carbonite, but I also have Time Machine on the Mac that backs up to external hard drive.
I really do hate computers.

I was having a problem on Wednesday as well. As I was at the end of completing a report, the automatic Microsoft update kicked in and my report software kept locking up (it never does that). I started sweating as I've already had to replace both my office desktop and my laptop this year and was praying I was not experiencing some type of fatal error.

My wife has Vista and I have XP on my dedicated report laptop. I usually have XP set to manual updates so I can watch what going on but somewhere along the lines it reset to automatic.

Nick - which report software are using?

//Rick

Originally Posted by Rick Bunzel

My wife has Vista and I have XP on my dedicated report laptop. I usually have XP set to manual updates so I can watch what going on but somewhere along the lines it reset to automatic.

Nick - which report software are using?

//Rick

I created my own report and use Omniform 5.0 which is a Nuance product.

Not the same system but many of the programs are based on a Microsoft Access DB file structure.

//Rick

I see I'm not alone!

I was 5 min from finishing a report I had been working on for almost 4 hours. (70 yr old foreclosure)

My document was auto saving every 10 min but after windows update I had to rewrite the entire report. It was completely gone. It was about 10pm when this happened and I almost cried;(

I use the standard Carbonite data backup. I received a sales email that touted an upgrade to make images of my entire system including the OS etc. Is the upgrade worthwhile at approximately $40 a year?

Originally Posted by Rick Bunzel

My wife has Vista and I have XP on my dedicated report laptop. I usually have XP set to manual updates so I can watch what going on but somewhere along the lines it reset to automatic.

Nick - which report software are using?

//Rick

This is something one needs to monitor closely. Microsoft, in its great wisdom often decides we don't know what we are doing and forces an update and resets it to automatic. Nothing like coming in, in the morning to discover your overnight backup or big download was borked by a restart.
Dana

I have heard that auto backups can also backup the viruses so that when you reload you get the viruses back as well.

I use two ext hard drives, one is always in a safe deposit box at the bank and once a month the get switched out. I only back up files - no programs. Also, the externals are only connected to the computer when I back up.

Originally Posted by Eric Barker

I have heard that auto backups can also backup the viruses so that when you reload you get the viruses back as well.

I use two ext hard drives, one is always in a safe deposit box at the bank and once a month the get switched out. I only back up files - no programs. Also, the externals are only connected to the computer when I back up.

Yes, everything is copied. When your security software scans, it should be set to scan the backups as well. Another place where they "hide" is in your restore points. Part of any repair/removal of malware or viri should be deleting your restore points and making a fresh one when the repairs are done. simply done by going to control panel>restore and turning off the "create restore points" feature. this dumps all existing restore points. then turn it back on again and hit create new.