GEN:Library Backups

[Mary Anne Brenner <brenner@PTD.NET>]

>Subject: HIT>How often do you back up the library?

Just thought I'd respond to this "HIT". I am currently attempting to restore
my library circulation system. Second attempt this week.  Follett's
technical support has been excellent throughout this trial.

I routinely do backups.  When my system first failed and I did the three
days of diagnostics to bring it back, Follett suggested I use newly
formatted disks during the backup process incorporated with the diagnostics.

A month later when the system totaly failed and backups needed to be sent to
Follett, the most current backups were corrupted.  So if a librarian only
does backups over old disks and rotates the disks whether weekly or daily,
all your backups could be corrupted, perhaps useless.

The newly formatted backups are the ones Follett has restored.   I lost two
weeks of circulation statistics, at this point 2 or 3 records.

I would strongly suggest librarians keep a backup that is a month old, like
an archival disk.

Mary Anne Brenner      Rather light a candle than complain about darkness.
brenner@ptd.net            Chinese Wisdom