Back Ups!

All backup routines must balance expense and effort against risk. That said, here are a few rules of thumb that should guide you in developing a backup strategy:

1) Develop a written backup plan that tells you:

  • What's being backed up? - (In Donation Tracker you need to backup the "Data" folder; location varies depending on your network configuration, i.e. Local or Network Drive.)
  • Where it's being backed up to? - (CD/RW, Zip Drive , Tape Drive, ETC .)
  • How often backups are occurring? - (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly)
  • Who's in charge of performing backups? - (Assign someone this responsibility, and familiarize yourself with the process.)
  • Who's in charge of monitoring whether backups are being performed successfully? - (Assigning this task is a very important aspect!)

2) You should back up your other documents (e.g. "My Documents" folders) and email files at least once a week , and/or some once per day. The frequency at which you backup your files will depend how much data you`re willing to lose. In a perfect world, we would like to see a normal backup daily. However, for some, this is not feasible, in which case, we would like for you to set up a backup plan with your IT personnel. For those that do not have a set backup plan, but have a good idea of which files need to be backed up, you can back up those files daily, weekly, or even monthly. Even if you have a daily backup plan, but just completed a few hours of data entry, it's never a bad idea to back those files up at that time.

3) You should store a copy of your backups off-site to insure against a site-specific disaster such as a fire, break-in, or flood. Ideally, you should store your backups in a Safety Deposit Box, SAN (Storage Area Network), or a Fire Proof safe. Generally, we recommend rotating a set of backups off-site once per week.

4) It is not usually necessary to back up the complete contents of each hard drive -- in the case of a restore, some files will require it to be reinstalled for the operating system and software to function properly. This is normally the files that need to be shared if you are sharing the program on a network. These do not need to be backed up. The only exception is if your organization has a dedicated file server. It's a good practice to do a full backup of your server so that you have a way to restore your server's configuration, users, computers and files. The best practice in a Domain environment is to have all data put on the server, then back up the server at regular intervals.

5) Test your backups BEFORE you need them. You need confidence in your backups. Make sure your backup software has full read-back verification. Try restoring a few files.

Backing up your data regularly is vital insurance against a "data catastrophe." Unfortunately, this is a lesson that most people learn only from bitter experience. Developing a solid backup plan requires some investment of time and money, but the cost is far less than the often-impossible task of recreating data for which no backup exists!

 
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"How Do I..."

Locate Donation Tracker on my machine?

1. Click on Start, Then go to Programs or All Programs, locate Donation Tracker on your menu.

2. Go to Donation Tracker DB Maintenance. Click on Check Registry (Program). Towards the bottom of the list you will see "ServerRoot = "

3. There will be a path such as follows: ServerRoot=C:\Program Files\DT2K.

This is the path to your Donation Tracker files!