>Aha! Now I understand. Thank you for spelling that out.
>
>Just a couple ?'s for clarity. When you said "At the end of the week back up
>to yet another disk, a weekly backup. Next week repeat with your daily
>disks, and at
>the end of the week, use a new disk for the 2nd weekly backup. Repeat
>for as many weeks as you can afford."... are you suggesting having just
>5 disks for daily disks and reusing them each week, plus having a second
>stack of disks with which I do a "weekly" backup each Friday, for example,
>as many times as we can afford?
Yes, except you need only 4 daily disks, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, then
each Friday use a weekly disk. I also like Walt's suggestion of using
CDs for the weekly backup. Optical media are less volatile than
magnetic (you could stick them to your fridge with a magnet without
damaging them) and cheap. You never overwrite these copies, so you
always have some kind of backup.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Shaw [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:31 PM
>To: TechRocks Support
>Subject: [support] Re: Opening copy of Ebase from Zip disk
>
>
>>You should backup to a zip disk and take the disk off site. Tomorrow
>>backup to a different disk and take it off site. Next day back up to
>>a third disk, etc.
>>
>>Regarding the above, Dave, could you please explain the danger of using
>just
>>one zip disk and re-copying Ebase onto it at the end of each day, taking
>the
>>disk home, bringing back and repeating the process? What's the difference
>>from the above?
>
>There are several key differences. First, if you are using only one
>disk, it means that when you are making a backup, both the current
>version and your backup are in the computer at the same time. The
>system is reading your current version and copying it to your backup
>disk, overwriting the previous backup. If your computer crashes or
>you have a power failure while both copies of a file are open, it's
>possible to leave both copies in what is euphemistically called "an
>undefined state", i.e., toast.
>
>Second, your backup zip disk is on the premises for 8 hrs a day,
>subject to the same hazards as your primary copy, for example, fire,
>water damage, theft, etc.,
>
>Third, you have a backup only one day back. Ebase is a pretty complex
>system, consisting of 29 interrelated files. Unless you exercise all
>the functions every day, it would be possible to damage one of the
>files and not notice it for several days, by which time you have
>overwritten your backup copy with a copy of the damaged file. For
>example, something happens to your payments file on Monday. You do
>address corrections and send email Tuesday and Wednesday, but don't
>post any payments. Thursday you get a handful of checks in the mail
>and attempt to post them but FileMaker says your payments file is
>damaged. Monday night, and again Tuesday and Wednesday, you copied
>the damaged payments file to your zip disk and now you have no
>undamaged copy of the payments file.
>
>Worrying about these hazards might sound paranoid, but paranoia is
>what backups are for. Pretty much every week we see a post on the
>board here about someone who has suffered file damage without
>adequate backup. Additional zip disks are about $15, cheap insurance
>for a function that is probably pretty important to your organization.
>--
>--
>Dave Shaw H4 Consulting
>tel: 206-954-7526 fax: 206-625-1338
>
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--
--
Dave Shaw H4 Consulting
tel: 206-954-7526 fax: 206-625-1338
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