Making Data Backups

As with any software program, it is important to safeguard your data. You can lose it due to hardware failure, or software problems. There may even be bugs in this software which have not yet been discovered which could damage your data (though I certainly hope not, and make the best possible efforts to avoid that eventuality!). In addition, you might accidentally make some wrong entries or menu choices in the program which you want to undo in a simple manner.

The only sure safeguard against any of these problems is to make regular backups, which should be done using Backup/Restore à Backup Database. Note that if you do regular backups of your hard disk outside of the DONATION program, the database will also be successfully backed up, as long as the Donation program is not running at the time the backup is made, and DONATION's data directory is included in the backup. (However, those backups would be an actual copy of your database file, not the same type of backup as is made with Backup/Restore à Backup Database and restored with Backup/Restore à Restore Database.)

An alternative to using Backup/Restore à Backup Database is to use Backup/Restore à Email Backup to email a compressed and encrypted backup to an email address, which could be your own, or a colleague's.

My general rule about how often to back up is based on how much you would hate re-doing your work. If you put in a set of entries on one day, and you hate the thought of having to re-do them if something goes wrong, make a backup immediately and you are protected. If you make few enough entries that you could bear the thought of re-doing a whole month's work if something went wrong, you can do your backups once a month.

The backup procedure is simple. Select Backup/Restore à Backup Database. A "Save Backup File As" dialog box then appears, where you select the drive and/or directory to save it in. You can use this option to back up to your hard drive, a diskette drive (A:), a writeable CD, a USB memory key, or a directory on a local area network. You can create new subdirectories in this dialog box, by clicking into the box for files, right-clicking your mouse, and selecting New à Folder.

The default backup file name is DONATION4.DB.GBK. You can also change that in the "Save Backup File As" dialog box, as long as it ends in the same ending, ".DB.GBK". If you have used the Database à Switch Database option to use a different database for another organization with a different file extension (e.g. if your database is DONATION4.ABC), then the default backup file name will be DONATION4.ABC.GBK, and if you change that name, you will still have to leave it ending in ".ABC.GBK".

If there is a previous backup in the location you selected, the program will prompt you to confirm that it is OK to replace the old one before making the new backup.

If you select to backup to a 1.44MB diskette in the A: drive, the program will determine whether the backup will fit on that drive and give you an error message if it will not. Backup files are actually smaller than the working database file, because the database file contains some extra blank space for easy expansion, whereas the backup file does not. So this actually means that even though your database file is significantly larger than 1.44MB, the backup may indeed still fit on a diskette. After backing up to a diskette, make sure you put an appropriate label on the diskette, such as "Backup of Donation program data" plus the date.

After you have made the backup, the program will inform you whether it was successful, and if it wasn't, it will display any error messages. (Versions of DONATION prior to version 3.00 required a separate step to validate a backup - this is no longer required.)

Note: The "Save Backup File As" dialog box will always initially display the previous drive and directory from which you did a backup using Backup/Restore à Backup Database. The first time it is used in a new install of DONATION, it will default to the Backup subdirectory of your Data Directory. on your main hard drive. However, although it is not a bad idea to backup to that directory (or any other selected directory) on your hard drive, you really need to also backup elsewhere (e.g. to diskettes, a writeable CD, or a USB memory key) in case your hard drive ever fails. You would be surprised how often I hear from users who are re-installing the program because their hard drive, or their whole computer, died! The program actually warns you about this every time you backup to your C: drive.

Note: Database backups made with versions of DONATION prior to version 3.00 cannot be restored with the standard Backup/Restore à Restore Database menu option to version 3.00 or later, because a different database format was used. To restore them, use Backup/Restore à Restore Old Database.

Opening / Using Backup Files

Backup databases created via Backup/Restore à Backup Database cannot be opened normally, e.g. by double-clicking on them in a My Computer or Windows Explorer window. That will usually just give a weird error message. These backups can only be restored to a DONATION program by using the Backup/Restore à Restore Database menu option. There is no other way to open them or to access the data in them.

Backing Up to Network Paths

If you want to backup to a drive on another computer on your network, you must map a drive letter to that drive on your computer, and backup to that drive letter. You cannot use what are known as UNC paths.

For instance, if you want to backup to the share named CDrive on the computer OtherComputer, you can't specify \\OtherComputer\CDrive\pathname\DONATION4.DB.GBK in the Save Backup File As dialog box. You will get an error message about not being able to save the backup if you try that. Instead, in My Computer use the Tools à Map Network Drive menu option to map \\OtherComputer\CDrive to a drive letter, such as Z:. Then in DONATION, you just backup to Z:\pathname\DONATION4.DB.GBK, and it should work.

Warning about Using Standard File Copies

Although you can also successfully back up and restore your database file (donation4.db) just by using standard file copying methods (e.g. using My Computer, Windows Explorer, or the COPY command in a Command Prompt), or via specialized backup software, do not do this while you are running DONATION! That can lead to your database becoming damaged and unusable.

Backup Reminders

By default, the program reminds you weekly to backup your database, as you are exiting the program. If you wish to be reminded with a different frequency, you can select Backup/Restore à Backup Reminder Frequency. This gives you the option of Never, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. If you don't set it, it defaults to Weekly.

If you have not done a backup within the configured period of time (with either Backup/Restore à Backup Database or the Backup/Restore à Email Backup option), you will be prompted to do a backup when you exit the program.

Backing up for users of the Network Version

For users of the normal single-user version of DONATION, or the Network Server version, backups work exactly as described above. However, for users of the Network Client version (where the database is on another computer running the Network Server version), it is quite different.

When you do a backup from the Network Client version, the backup is not done on your computer. Rather, your computer sends an instruction to the computer running the Firebird Server (which is part of the Network Server version of DONATION), to do the backup. The backup is of a database file on that server computer, and must backup to another file on that server computer.

Because of this, the normal "Save Backup File As" dialog box cannot be used, because that dialog box refers to files on (or visible from) your computer, whereas the backup will be done to a file on the server computer. So instead, a simple window comes up, titled Network Backup, which prompts you to type in the full path and filename, relative to the server computer, to backup to. In addition, unlike for other users, it cannot tell you whether that backup file already exists and prompt you as to whether it's OK to replace that backup file. If the backup file already exists, it just automatically overwrites it.

In general, it is easier to always do your backups for the network version from the computer running the Network Server version of DONATION.

The Backup Reminders apply to all users, including users of the Network Client version of DONATION. However, if you are using the Network version, there is only one database, so really, only one user needs to be regularly backing up the database. So, you may want to change the Backup Reminder Frequency for the other users to Never.

See Also: Restoring Backups