What Is Backing Up?

What is Backing Up, and why is it so Important? Backing up means making a safety copy of a program's information for storage somewhere else. This is done in case something happens to the original information, and is important because if you ever have a problem that keeps you out of the program, Windows will let you restore the good data. Restoring is the process of taking information contained in a backup and putting it back into the computer.

Backing up is your only insurance against losing all the work you have done in your store. Having a backup allows you to restore your program to the way it was at the moment you made that particular backup. Not having a backup is a sure road to ruin.

Few people realize the benefit of making a backup copy until it is too late. If you think backing up is troublesome, you're in the majority. Think of it this way: weigh the amount of time it takes to backup your data, then consider the hundreds of hours it would take to re-enter your valuable data, assuming you could remember it all. Failure to backup your system on a daily basis could cost your store a tremendous amount of time and, yes, money. It could even force you out of business.

Backups are usually done to a USB Thumb Drive or an external hard drive. In addition to these methods, we can take care of this automatically through nightly backups on Liberty Cloud or through an offsite backup through Extended Support. Backing up usually takes only several minutes each day.

To alleviate all worries associated with backing up your data, we recommend that stores sign up for Liberty Cloud or Extended Support. These services allow us to handle backing up your database to our off-site location at night. Please contact customer service at 1-800-785-4800 for more information.

If you choose to create your own backups, your backup routine should use a different drive, disk, or drive location for each day of the week that you are open, plus one additional set to be kept off site in case of fire, flood, or theft. Permanently archiving a backup once a month is also recommended.

WARNING: TRY TO ALTERNATE USB THUMB DRIVES WHEN BACKING UP. WHEN BACKING UP TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, MAKE SURE TO SAVE/ARCHIVE A COPY OF YOUR BACKUP TO ANOTHER LOCATION. THIS WILL ENSURE THAT IF THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE BECOMES FAULTY, YOU CAN STILL RECOVER YOUR DATA.

If using USB thumb drives, label the thumb drives for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. Then on Monday use Monday's thumb drive / media, Tuesday use Tuesday's thumb /media, etc. If you follow this system daily you will greatly reduce the likelihood of losing your valuable information. This will increase your chances of not copying corrupted data over slightly older but good data.

How often you make a backup, rotating through several complete sets, and where you store them all have relevance to how safe you are keeping your precious information. So does your awareness of any unusual circumstance with your computer. The degree of care you take with your backup can protect you against everything from rare events such as theft or fire to more common problems such as data corruption.

When you have finished reading this section, if you still have questions, or don't understand certain aspects of backing up, please read through the rest of this topic.

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What Is Backing Up?

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