Backing Up Your Data

What does backing up your data mean?

Backing up your data simply means taking a copy of your data and putting it in a safe place.

As is usual with software applications, Shire products have no built-in backup facility. This leaves you in control of how and when to back up.

Why should you back up your data?

Your data is the most valuable part of your system. It may represent an enormous amount of time, money and work - if it is lost as a result of a major problem on your PC or network, it could be difficult or impossible to replace.

In the event of a major problem, a good backup will enable you to quickly re-establish your system to the point when you last backed up your data.

When should you back up your data?

How frequently you decide to back up your data will depend on:

• The cost of the re-inputting the lost data from the point of your last backup - the longer the period since your backup, the more data you will need to replace.
• The cost of the disruption to your work while the system is being rebuilt.
• How often the data in your system is changed - obviously it is unnecessary to take daily backups if your data is only changed once a week.

A typical backup strategy would be:

• Back up at the end of every working day or shift.
• Back up in a weekly cycle.
• Accumulate the daily backups through the week, labelled "Monday", "Tuesday", etc, overwriting the backup for the same day of the previous week.
• For extra security, maintain an additional cycle of four weekly backups - e.g. Friday1, Friday2, Friday3 and Friday4.
• To safeguard the backups, store at least the weekly backups off-site. If your data is on a network server, your network administrator will almost certainly take regular backups, but you should check that your data is included.

Special Backups

In addition to your regular backups, you should take a special backup copy of your data:

• Whenever you are about to update to a new version of the software.
• Whenever you are about to carry out an irreversible process in the system, such as advancing the PM plans.
  A quick (but not very secure) backup can be simply achieved by copying all your data files into a spare sub-folder on the local drive.

Which files need to be backed up?

The files that you need to back up are different for each Shire product.
In general, you need to back up the files that hold your data, but not the program files that do not change and can always be reinstalled. You do not need to back up the database index files as the system will recreate these from the databases.

With Shire DOS products, the program files are typically held in the same directory as the data files. With Shire Windows products, the data files are held in a separate directory from the program files.
Always check that you are backing up the files from the correct directory.

Frontline, Safety 1st + and PATS + for Windows (version 2)

The simplest course is to back up everything in your data folder (called v2Data).

You should back up the following files:

• All files of type DBF (*.DBF)
• All files of type FMT (*.FMT)
• All files of type FPT (*.FPT)
• FLMASTER.MDB

You do not need to back up the following files:

• Files of type CDX (*.CDX) – these are the database index files
• FLDEMO.MDB – this contains demonstration data
• Files in the DEMODATA sub-directory – these contain demonstration data

Frontline, Safety 1st + and PATS + for Windows (version 1)

The simplest course is to back up everything in your data folder.

You should back up the following files:

• All files of type DB (*.DB)
• All files of type DBF (*.DBF)
• All files of type FMT (*.FMT)
• All files of type FPT (*.FPT)
• All files of type MB (*.MB)
• All files of type PX (*.PX)
• All files of type XG0 (*.XG0)
• All files of type XG1 (*.XG1)
• All files of type YG0 (*.YG0)
• All files of type YG1 (*.YG1)
• SHIRE.GDB

You do not need to back up the following files:

• Files of type CDX (*.CDX) - these are the database index files.

Frontline, Safety 1st, Safety 1st +, PATS, PATS+ and EISYS for DOS

The simplest course for DOS products is to back up all files in the relevant folder. This one folder contains all the files used by the application. You should back up the following files:

• All files of type DBF (*.DBF)
• All files of type EUX (*.EUX) - may not be present
• All files of type FLM (*.FLM) - may not be present
• All files of type FLS (*.FLS) - may not be present
• All files of type FLP (*.FLP) - may not be present
• All files of type FLF (*.FLF) - may not be present

You do not need to back up the following files

• Files of type NTX (*.NTX) - these are the database index files
• Files of type EXE (*.EXE) - these are program files
• Files of type OVL (*.OVL) - these are program files

How can you back up your data?

You will need to decide on the appropriate medium to hold your backup files and the software to use to perform the backup.

Backup Media

The factors to take into account when choosing the best medium are capacity, data transfer speed, initial cost of the drive and on-going cost for the disks/tapes. Some alternatives are:

• Normal floppy disk - Because of its limited capacity (1.44MB) and susceptibility to damage, this is an increasingly unsatisfactory choice. However, this is still a practical choice for some situations, especially in conjunction with file compression software such as PKZIP or WINZIP
• Removable high capacity disk - There is an extensive choice of available in this area, from the original Iomega Zip drive with a disk capacity of 100MB up to the latest multi-GB products. Prices for the drives and disks vary accordingly. The disks are more robust than normal floppies and offer an appropriate solution for many users
• Writeable CD (CD-R) - This is a suitable solution for permanent storage of large data volumes, since one CD can hold up to 650MB. However, it can be relatively expensive option since a CD can only be used once.
• Re-writeable CD (CD-RW) - CD-RW has the advantages of CD-R with the additional facility of being able to re-use the CDs, so that a week's worth of backups can be progressively written
• Tape - Tape is the usual method to back up network drives. There is a wide choice of products with varying prices. Capacities typically range from 4GB up to 50GB

Backup Software

Backup software is what transfers your data files on to the backup medium. Depending on your choice, the software may allow you to automate your backup into a "standard job" and may compress the data that is backed up, reducing the space required on the backup medium.

Many of the backup media are supplied with appropriate software. Alternatives to these include:

File Copy

The simplest solution is to copy the files from your hard drive to the backup medium. The disadvantages are that the process cannot easily be automated and the data is not compressed.

Microsoft Windows and DOS backup utilities

These utilities are provided with the Microsoft operating systems. Standard backup jobs can be defined and the data is compressed. The main drawback is that different versions have proved to be mutually incompatible. If you upgrade your operating system, you may not be able to restore files backed up before the upgrade. The Windows NT backup facility will only operate to a tape drive.

PKZip and WinZip

These utilities are primarily data compression utilities that compress a number of files into a single .ZIP file. The utilities are widely available as shareware and the zip files produced are readable by different versions.

Back to Top