Geoida Help

Backups

The importance of making regular backups of your data files cannot be over-stressed - the cost of losing your valuable data can be measured in terms of lost business, lost time and multiplied costs, not to mention the great personal toll of frustration and distress. Consider the consequences of losing all your data from days, weeks or months of work.

Geoida will automatically create in the current data folder a backup of any job database it opens, which will allow recovery from mistakes made during processing or other errors.

Staged backups are created as follows:

• The first-level backup is called (jobname).gdb.bak1 and may be up to 1 hour older than the current job database file (.gdb)
  
  
• The next (older) backup is called (jobname).gdb.bak2 - this file will be over 24 hours older than the current job database file and is created by renaming the level-1 backup (.bak1) if it is more than 24 hours older than the current job database when the job is opened.

When the level-2 backup (.bak2) is deleted to make way for a newer backup, by default it is sent to the Recycle Bin according to the setting for 'Keep old backups in Recycle Bin' in the Preferences option. This means that all older and deleted backup versions will still be found in the Recycle Bin and may be retrieved from there if necessary until manually deleted by the user. It is recommended that for additional data security, the setting for 'Keep old backups in Recycle Bin' be left as the default setting (i.e., ticked ON). Refer also to Geoida Files.

But is this sufficient? What if you accidentally delete your data files, including backups? What if your hard disk crashes? What if your computer is stolen or there's a fire? The most secure plan is to make backups regularly (daily recommended) onto a remote storage server or onto removable media stored off-site and using a system of rotating duplicates.

Writable CDs are cheap, very reliable and can store huge amounts of easily recovered data; an external hard drive is also a useful backup device. If your computer has a network connection, you may either back-up onto a server or even create your Geoida data files directly on the server where they will be automatically backed up with the regular scheduled company backups. Internet-based backup and storage is an ideal off-site storage option.

Please ensure that you have a reliable backup procedure established and use it regularly, eg daily. The most you ever stand to lose is the amount of work done since the last backup ...