Blog

You should regularly back up any active database to guard against data loss and to protect the investment made in your database design. A backup allows you to easily restore an entire database without the hassle of rebuilding everything from scratch. Backups help protect a database from system failures and help protect against mistakes.

As the size of your database grows,  you should consider archiving the older data. Archiving is the process by which you periodically move older records from one database to an archive database. If you want to automate creating backups of database files,  consider using a product that performs automated backups of a file system, such as file server backup software or a USB external backup device. To decide how often to make backups, consider how often your database changes: • If your database is an archive, or if it is used only for reference and rarely changes, you should make a backup every time that your data changes. • If your database is active and your data frequently changes, you should back up your database on a schedule. The more active the database or greater the number of changes, the more often you should schedule the backups. The easiest way to back up an OMNITREND® database is to use the copy and paste function within Windows Explorer. Locate your Access database within Windows Explorer and left-click on the file to highlight it; next right-click on the file and select copy. While in Windows Explorer navigate to the location where you would like to copy the database and right-click on the location and select paste. You have now created a backup of your database. If you are uncertain as to where the database file is located; open OMNITREND and the top bar will inform you of the location and name of your database. It is recommended that the backup database be stored on a different computer than the original. If that computer crashes it will result in the loss of both the original and the backup database. A few suggestions as to where to store a backup database would be a CDROM/DVD, USB stick, network drive, the cloud, or another computer.