Application / OS Software
Some applications such as Sage are registered, should you
loose your installation keys or CD's you can get replacements, download software
and so on.
Some you can not, some are tied to the hardware
they were installed on eg MS office and can not be reused on different hardware
following a failure. This sort of Draconian licensing is one of the
reasons products like Open Office have made so much progress into the
"office" market place.
Personal Data
Your
email, your bookmarks in your browser and all such data should be stored in your
user profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME> or C:\Users)
Shared
Data
Programs such as Sage store their data the program
data folder (C:\ProgramData or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\)
Just
to make things really messy and ruin the plan, these folder can also contain a
load of old rubbish, and I mean that quite literally. Temporary files have
no value when they are left behind and they get left behind with gay abandon
(see the guide to PC Performance on cleaning your PC)
Added
to this in server environments, things can be set up differently, we might have
common file shares for departments, the entire enterprise and personal areas
just for our documents, in addition to all the rest.
And to
cap it all off, not all programs play by the rules!
Sage did
not always put it's data in the "officially designated area" it used
to put it in the Program Files directory, this causes problems when installing
old versions on modern operating systems that restrict access according to the
official rules by default.
The bottom line is that you need
to know your applications and you need to know which bit need backing up.
I
DO NOT advocate single system backups, one failure and everything is gone, we
should not put all our eggs in one basket, we need to spread them around.
Sage
Data
Because I know Sage I can give a more detailed run
down on what and how to backup Sage.
You could just do a
Full backup every time and not worry about space or anything else.
However,
Archives only change once a financial year, when new archives are made, reports
and layout do not change that frequently, and data changes everyday.
From
a logistical point of view, being able to restore layouts or reports over an
existing set of data can be very handy.
I suggest that you
can do an annual backup of Archives and skip them the rest of the time.
You
can do periodic backups of reports and layouts on their own
You
do daily backups of data only
Strategy - General Principles
Times change and so do strategies.
If you want us
to help you plan to survive disasters and/or verify your current system, then please let us know, we can do comprehensive
strategies to cover more than just the core Sage data, however they all follow
the three principles above.
1/ Create a sage backup file, don't rely on restoring files
in directories, always check data (even if
it takes a long time it is important, running this on the PC acting as the
server is a lot quicker) IF YOU HAVE ERRORS YOU BACKUP IS NO GOOD - Seek advice
or restore the last backup and re-key the data.
2/ Backup to a "Backups Folder" on the Server,
you have lots of spare space, having archives of what happened in the past and
being able to pick form several backups is essential, although you will have
copies off site, local copies are handy and quicker to access.
3/ Name the file using an iso date format eg
SageBack-yyyy-mm-dd.001 this will list the directory in date order and make it
easy to delete really old data for housekeeping. It also means your latest
file is at the end of the directory listing, which makes it easy to find. (Sage
Version 17 now does this by default also put the company name in it!) (Add a
description if you are doing archive, data only, reports or layouts)
3b/ Navigate to the directory and "See" for
yourself that your
backup is there.
4/ Backup a) have your server backup this directory online backup,
tape or whatever is the general IT backup system - do
not rely on this do not accept your IT supplier/Chief or anyone else's assurance,
YOU are responsible.
5/ Backup b) Have your own copy, you could copy it to a USB drive
or burn a cd, email it off site, ftp it, whatever, the thing is you need to be
able to get this back yourself.
6/ Test your backup, set up a test system, a PC that is
does not get used for Sage is ideal to test the backup, some owner-managers use their home PC's
or laptops for
this. Install a stand alone copy of Sage on this PC, Download the backup from webmail and restore it, check the number of
transactions is correct and run the check data routines.
If you can not confidently restore your data yourself, then
your backup system is not good enough for your needs.
This is not OVERKILL it is a basic sensible strategy that
could save your business from going bust. You have several
layers of backup the weakest link is that you are dependant on one email
supplier, if gmail blew up and lost all mail the same time as your server and
your server backups failed and the online backup failed, you would be in
trouble. Pretty improbable, you could use several different free webmail
suppliers and alternate between them and reduce this risk further.
Most businesses
that suffer severe data loss cease trading most of them within 6 months*. Loosing all your documents is serious but loosing
financial records is much, much worse.
You CAN NOT ever have too many
backups.
*See
what Google has to say about data loss
Strategy Example 1 -
Using accounting shield to
backup
Download and install accounting shield, this will
automatically backup sage for you, the installation is easy and you can see your
company is being backed up.
You need to run check data to ensure there are no errors in
your data.
Verify: Check the email from accounting shield or open the
console to check the backup was error free.
Test: You can do a test restore using the share email link
on a separate system / laptop to verify you know how to restore and to verify
that everything is working.
Strategy Example 2 -
Using Gmail to backup
Check and Backup your sage data, creating a Sage backup
file on your PC.
Attach the Sage Backup file to an email and email it to a gmail account.
Verify: by logging into gmail and checking the inbox.
Test: Log into your email account from a laptop or other
separate system, download the backup and restore to sage to check you know how
to restore and that everything is working.
