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TESTING BACKUP PROCEDURES

Most school networks are set up to take backups automatically in the evening. There need be no user intervention and the IT staff are normally aware if there has been a problem during the backups. However, it can happen that the backups seem to have been working normally, but when there is a need to restore, there is a problem. It is vital that you check that you can actually restore your data, if you need to, periodically.

Below are some notes on how you should go about doing this with the Beaver data.

For each of the Beaver modules, there is a ‘super-file’ that contains all of the data for that particular module. For the Fees Ledger and Basic Pupil records, the file is called fefile00. ( no file extension). For the Nominal Ledger it is nlfile00. For the Purchase Ledger it is plfile00. For the Shop, it is stfile00. For the payroll it is pafile00. For the Asset Register it is amfile00. For the Sales Ledger it is slfile00.

These are the essential files you need to back up. In addition, there are user-definable format files, and other items that would normally be held in your data folder. However, the files above are the really crucial ones.

To test your backup procedure, you could do the following:

  1. First check with your backup program that you can restore individual files rather than the contents of an entire folder. If so, proceed as follows:
  2. Use Windows explorer to locate one of the above files in your data folder..
  3. Rename one of the above files ( eg fefile00) to, for example, fefile00.zzz
  4. You should now not be able to use your fees ledger. Check by trying any of the fees ledger programs. You will get many errors on opening the program and will not be able to access any data.
  5. Now, try to restore the fefile00. file to your data folder.
  6. After restoring the file, try the program again. This time you should be able to access the fees data normally. If you can not, you have a problem!
  7. After your test, delete the restored file using Windows Explorer, and rename your fefile00.zzz back to fefile00.
  8. Check that you are still able to access your fees ledger data.

You can repeat the process if you wish for the nominal ledger ( using nlfile00) or any of the other modules you are using.

If your backup system only allows you to restore an entire folder, you could try renaming your data folder to something else. Then try using any of the programs. You should again get errors and not be able to use your data. Then restore the folder and try using the programs again. If this works, you can delete the newly restored folder and rename the original again.