Data Backup
NOTE:
Please be aware – If your pc has crashed, or if for some reason your pc is not allowing you into the program and you are now wanting to perform an emergency backup of your data then you may need to see the information on this page that talks about manual backups.
.
.
Backup and Restore Using the EasyAs Software
This web page describes how to use EasyAs to backup your Accounting Data, if you are looking for information on how to implement a strategy of regular backups please see our our information page regarding regular data backups and data management
Perform Data Backups can be one of the most important, if not THE Most important thing you do.
Data Backups should be done Daily or Weekly depending on your needs.. Naturally this depends on how you use the software, if you enter information every day into the program then a daily backup might be what is needed, if you only use the program to enter bulk information once a week or once a month then a weekly or monthly backup might do. In the end its your choice; however your data is only as good as its oldest backup. Because if your backup is 6 months old and your pc crashes then you have lost the last 6 months of information.
Basic Principles are the same no matter what you are applying them to, and backing up your Accounting Data is NO different.
Having a backup of your data is no good if the backup is out of date or corrupted. This is one of the most fundamental mistakes many businesses make.
We have personally seen many businesses make the mistake of backing up at irregular intervals, or maintaining only one backup.
.
You must ask yourself this question:
If I was to have a pc crash today, will I be in trouble?
If you answer YES, then your priority before you do anything else today should be to Backup your information. Not just the accounting data, but any other file you have in relation to your business which could cause you problems with your business if you lost them.
We have found that many people are scared about this topic. Either they feel that they are tempting fate by putting attention to it, or they just have no idea how to go about it, so they do nothing.
Watch the video below to find out how to backup your data files, how it uses a special system to ensure you can backup every day with one click and instantly have managed backup sets. You can keep 3 months, 6 months or 12 months worth of daily backups the choice is yours.
.
Backing Up and Restoring your Data Files
Please be aware that the first half of the video covers how to Backup and the Second half covers how to Restore after a crash
.
When I try to open the backup files I do not see any of my Data
From time to time we receive emails from clients telling us that they have followed all the steps to backing up but when they try to open up the backup files they don’t see any data, in most cases all they see is a blank screen.
Please be aware that this is normal, as there is no way of looking at the data in the backup files, the only way that the data can be viewed is by the EasyAs Program itself.
An important point to note: The files that you backup are the files that contain all your accounting information, the information stored in those files is stored in a series of tables. If you were to accidentally make a change to the information in any of the key locations in any of the tables this could potentially render all your accounting information useless. This is why under normal conditions the only way to be able to view the information in the backup files is by using the EasyAs Accounting Software.
The most important point to remember is to backup. If you follow the steps to backing up and you have backed up your files then you should be fine..
It is important to backup regularly and to keep staggered copies of your data to protect yourself against data corruption.. I personally keep up to 3 months of data backups, backing up once a week, so in total I have 12 different sets of backups (call me paranoid but its what I do): Good Backup Practices
.
How do I personally backup my own pc:
My Main Pc has 2 separate hard drives. Consisting of a Drive C and a Drive D
All of my documents get saved to the “My Documents” Folder, except the easyas data and a couple of other programs I use..
I now run a program on the main office computer that backups all documents from CDrive to DDrive every 6 hours. This way if my CDrive suddenly craps itself I have a total backup that is only 6 hours old that is on another hard drive that is physically separate from my CDrive
Naturally the only issue I have to ensure that I perform manual backups of my accounting data and any other programs that don’t save files to the “My Documents” Folder.. But this is easy as I have a regimental schedule that gets done each morning before anything else, I simple spend 10 minutes and perform all backups, the EasyAs Backups takes about 1 minute each morning.
I do this so that I know that when my pc performs its 6 hours backup it will also include these newly backed up data files.. The software I use is mentioned on this page
But I don’t stop there… Because I have seen too many people (myself included) lose too much information I now have an external hard drive that I connect to my pc once a week. I then backup all my data to the external hard drive.
I do this second backup to my external hard drive just incase for some unforeseen reason everything goes totally to crap.
But I don’t stop there, I now also backup to an online service.. At EasyAs we decided to do this after we experienced a major crash in December of 2011 where we lost two backups in one day..
We now have 3 separate redundancies as we cannot count that a fire will not destroy this place, its pointless having all my backups in this one office when its very easy for someone to come along and put a match to the place and burn it down.
Of course you may not need to go to the extremes that I go to secure my data. However you should have at least one other backup on another drive. The cost of drives these days are so cheap that you should not even hesitate.
This simply involves placing of another hard drive into your pc.. You still use your CDrive as you always have, but if you use software to backup your “My Documents” Folder it will take care of daily backups to the other drive. In the end the other drive only becomes useful if you have a major crash. Of course its your choice, but I don’t want you to become of one of those individuals whom email us looking for help because they have lost everything. However if you have found your way here because you are one of these individuals then your data might still be saveable; see the page that discusses how to perform a manual backup.
You must also remember that it is worth while to maintain varies backups of your EasyAs Date Files. What I am talking about here is that you need to maintain more then one copy in case of a data corruption. This most common cause of a data corruption is due to a power outage whilst your pc is on or connected to the power switch. You PC does not need to be one to experience problems after a power spike from lightening. This is explained in more detail on the data management page, however the new program has taken care of all the hard work for you.