How often you back up really depends on how much data you can afford to lose.  If you can't afford to lose any data then it would be a good idea to backup your data every day.

 

It is recommended that you automatically back up your data to a folder located on a hard drive.  If you have a second hard drive on the server or Host computer that would be a better option than backing up to the same hard drive your PhonePad data is installed on.  If you can backup to the hard drive on another computer that would be even better.

 

Automatically backing up directly to a CD or DVD burner is not a good idea as it will adversely affect performance, unless you do your automatic backups outside of work hours.  You are better off automatically backing up to a folder on the hard drive and then burning a copy of the backups (eg. once per week) to removable media such as a DVD burner or copying it to a USB drive.

 

You may find that automatically backing up to a USB drive is fast enough to be a good option.  High capacity USB drives can hold a lot of backups.

 

 

Working With Existing Backup Systems

 

If you have a backup system that automatically backs your server up each night, then you should get it to backup the backup folder rather than the data folder.  You'll probably find that your backup system won't be able to backup the data folder because of system locks on some of the data files.  This can occur if PhonePad is being used while the backup is being performed, or if users haven't logged out.  The PhonePad Automatic Backup system doesn't have this problem as the backup functionality is built into the internal database engine and can still perform backups with these locks in place.

 

So the ideal solution is to have AutoBackup back up your PhonePad data to another location which can then be picked up by your regular backup system.

 

 

The Problem With Backing Up to the Same Hard Drive

 

Having backup files protects you from data loss due to corrupted data, accidentally deleted data, etc.  You can easily restore data from your backups files should the need arise.

 

But having your backup data located on the same hard drive as your data folder has its problems.  Imagine your data becomes damaged due to a software or hardware fault.  There is a danger that the same thing could happen to all of your backup data if it's on the same hard drive.

 

Storing your backup data on another hard drive on the same server or host computer is a better option, unless of course something happens to the server such as fire or theft.  You could backup to a hard drive on another computer in your office to minimize the risk.  However, the best option is to store your backups on portable media and keep it offsite, or at least in a safe.

 

 

What Level of Backup?

 

The level of protection you decide you use is dependant on cost and amount of risk you're willing to accept.