The hard drive crashed on our main computer. I have been backing up to the hard drive and to a thumb drive. This may have been covered before, but what would the benefit of backing up on Amazing Charts vs using Carbonite or another internet service? Thanks.
Sullivan:
1. Always back up your entire server first as David mentions. Not sure you need to do it several times a day (works for him), but at least every night. Get that done. Always. Back up your entire server locally to an external hard drive (not a flash drive). eSATA is the fastest way to go. If you can't set that up, go with USB. DON'T use just one drive and don't overwrite them, i.e. make several backups in each so you have, say, a month's worth of data.
2. You make it sound like you can only do AC backups online. But, first, to deal with that, you can't beat AC backups. They are designed to back up everything you need in the case of a system failure. Always think locally and then online. So, do your AC backup, which will automatically back up to the AC folder, but back it up to an external drive as well. Is AC online backup better than other online backups. In my opinion, yes. Again, you have THE perfect backup. It's small and fast. Carbonite and most online services will NOT backup SQL. The three that I know for sure are MozyPro, iBackup and Intronis. The latter looks very good.
3. With any backup, you need to make sure it can back up databases, specifically SQL Server programs. You need to look for online backup solutions (if you go that route) that can work with Volume Shadow Services or has the ability to use that technology or has other pre-imaging software. The newer Windows OS such as WIN 7 and almost any OS after 2003 from Windows incorporates VSS. This will take a snapshot of your databases, and you then backup the snapshots. There robust 3rd party programs such as Backup Assist which allow you to add on back up programs to back up SQL. It is imperative with any backup solution that you know what OS and hardware it is compatible with and if it can backup SQL.
4. Take home copies of your .enc files nightly on your drive. Take home a copy of your entire server at least weekly.
5. There are three things you want to back up every night as well as your server/main computer. Your billing software, Amazing Charts and your Imported Items. I tend to recommend doing them manually before you go home, others schedule them. I just like to schedule the nightly server or online backups, while doing others manually. Our billing software takes 2 minutes to back up, AC takes 2 minutes, while our Imported Items takes about 20 minutes. I don't necessarily stay around to watch them.
