backing up files
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backing up files Is there any need to back up any files with thumb drive or other form of backup? if i had a computer crash, couldn't i pull up all necessary information thru the bivio, or bank, or online brokerage accounts? i have paper files of each meeting, minutes, reports.......but do i need to be backing anything up? in the old days, 1996 , etc, we did indeed back everything on floppy disks. deannie Hi Deannie, If you'd like to backup your bivio accounting data, you can do it by going to Administration>Tools>Export Club Data. We also back it up almost every day. You'll probably want to keep backups of any information you store in the bivio files area. I'd also suggest you keep a backup or paper copy of the tax returns you send in. While we don't recommend it, I have seen clubs change historical data after they've filed taxes. This would mean if you regenerated the forms from our site in the future, they might not agree with the version you filed. On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Deannie Rule <mcrule@cableone.net> wrote: Is there any need to back up any files with thumb drive or -- Laurie Frederiksen Invest with your friends! www.bivio.com Become our Facebook friend! www.facebook.com/bivio Follow us on twitter! www.twitter.com/bivio Deannie, > Is there any need to back up any files with thumb drive or > other form of backup? if i had a computer crash, couldn't i > pull up all necessary information thru the bivio, or bank, > or online brokerage accounts? If your computer crashes, everything at bivio would still be intact. However, what if someone in the club (perhaps a new treasurer) accidentally deletes or changes transactions in bivio. Keeping your own backups might be the easiest way to restore your bivio records to a known good state. Also, if your bank or brokerage gets acquired by another company, your online statements from the original bank/brokerage will probably vanish (I've experienced this several times). Probably a good idea to keep your own archive (either electronic or paper) of bank/brokerage statements. -Jim Thomas A casual thought from an outside observer.... Is this the ONLY thing you have on your computer? What about personal records? Perhaps correspondence between you and a company or job or friend or relative? In a crash, those would be lost as well. The old saying that comes to mind is: Not so much WILL the computer crash as WHEN. As for using thumb drives, after a while they can be unreliable. If just one spot goes bad, it can cause all the data to be corrupted. The cost for an external hard drive is relatively inexpensive. Perhaps your Club might see it as a 'wise investment' to purchase one or even you on a personal level might feel more comfortable if you had one you back up on a regular basis. Plus, it would certainly relieve one more issue in a sometimes stressful world. Myrelle On 6/8/2011 9:31 AM, Jim Thomas wrote: > Deannie, > >> Is there any need to back up any files with thumb drive or >> other form of backup? if i had a computer crash, couldn't i >> pull up all necessary information thru the bivio, or bank, >> or online brokerage accounts? > > If your computer crashes, everything at bivio would still be intact. > > However, what if someone in the club (perhaps a new treasurer) > accidentally deletes or changes transactions in bivio. Keeping your > own backups might be the easiest way to restore your bivio records to > a known good state. > > Also, if your bank or brokerage gets acquired by another company, your > online statements from the original bank/brokerage will probably > vanish (I've experienced this several times). Probably a good idea to > keep your own archive (either electronic or paper) of bank/brokerage > statements. > > -Jim Thomas > > After 11 years of personal experience with bivio, I have no qualms about their backup system. In fact, in a recent upgrade, they inadvertently removed all the information from one of my sites. They were able to go back in time and retrieve it. They could probably do the same thing if you have a treasurer who mucked up the books - just go back to a time when you know they were correct. Of course, that could be "last month" of you balance your books to the penny every month, like we do.
As for personal information, I found something simple that works for me. Other than actual software programs, I save everything in my Documents Folder (I'm a PC Windows user). I have a couple dozen sub-folders for everything, including one for my back-ups, like Toolkit 6, Quicken, ACT, etc. If it's a document, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, image, digital photo, or whatever, it's got a home in one of those sub-folders.
I bought a couple of inexpensive internal harddrives (cheaper than externals), and a small docking station that can house two drives. I bought the station at Best Buy for $39. The two harddrives show up on my desktop computer as two additional drives. I simple drag and drop my Documents folder onto one of those drives, and walk away. Due to all my pictures, it takes about 20 minutes to save. I switch off drives every other month. It's so easy, a caveman can do it! And it's actually cheaper than a "real" backup system.
I used to use those little external harddrives you can buy for $60-$80, but I had two in a row go bad exactly one year after purchase. My current system hasn't been a problem.
If you have ideas like this, please share them with the rest of us. We can all benefit from learning new ways to slay the same dragons!
Lynn Ostrem
Crow River Investment Club
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