Loss of Orders on import of snapshot

[Confused Sally]

I run Buisiness on 2 machines, one is on my till which is linked to epos (machine 1) and that is where we download orders. The second where I update website (machine 2) and then take snapshot and update machine 1 with contents (never orders). Yesterday i did my usual snapshot transfer but all the orders were overwrittten as well as the site contents. Thus losing all outstanding orders. I was not too worried as of course the import creates an overwritten site. I have never imported a zipped overwritten site before, when I tried a practice go on machine 2 it said the process had failed as only design imported!
Any ideas how I sort this out?

[TraceyHand]

yeh...tbh this has happened to me before when we were running one machine for design and one for orders

You don't necessarily NEED to keep machine 2 the same contents as machine one though. We only did this occasionally to update the catalog on Machine 1 so we could process offline orders with products that were online.

Can't help much with the fix because the time it happened to me, the backup zip itself failed or hadn't been created but I can suggest maybe a better method of updating.

Before exporting from machine 2, import the orders from machine 1 onto it.
That way, even if it does overwrite (which it's done to me too AND sometimes the site backup doesn't work/isn't created) your orders are there.

I know it doesn't help for this time but, as a failsafe, this'd be my step-by-step

Snapshot machine 1
Export orders from machine 1 and import into machine 2
Snapshot from machine 2
Import into machine 1. Either overwriting orders or not but at least if it messes up, it should still be in tact.

Just a thought anyway
Hopefully someone who has had to import a zipped backup can help with that bit

[Confused Sally]

Thanks Tracy,
Found your previous posts. Very helpful, do you now use the database saving system recommended?

I have looked in the zipped overwitten site, I need someone to tell me if I just copy that over the current one and all my orders will reappear, or if there is something else I need to do. I cannot see a specific orders database in there.
Why do these things always happen at 5.30 on a Friday when support is shut?

[TraceyHand]

If you unzip it (or you can see by just looking inside it) you'll find 2 folders. One Program files (where Actinic registry details are stored) and one Documents one where the mdb *should be* stored via the same filepath as your current setup.

I would have thought that you should just be able to import the orders from this database.