Quicker way to backup?

[tobytoby]

Hello,

I'm on a not too brilliant pc and working with a large database so it's taking more than two and a half hours to make a snapshot. That's fine, I can just run it at the end of the day, but a couple of times now I've had an error when copying and pasting a bunch of items near the end of the day, and bam 1 days work is gone.

I know that this sounds really hackish and I'm expecting everyone to say "no way!" but I thought I'd just check: Could I simply copy and paste the actinic database file (where ever it is) and store that in a folder as a quick way to backup the database?

Any related info is very welcome.

Cheers,
Toby

[Mike Hughes]

1. Yes.

2. For a more complete backup see http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=44508

Mike

[pinbrook]

And of course have a tool such as dropbox,carbonite etc to take backup copies online so you have a copy in the event of hard disk failure

or copy across your network if you arent on a solo pc

[tobytoby]

Ok that's great, thanks a lot.

So to clarify: I can just copy and paste the ActinicCatalog.mbd from the site root directory to a backup folder on my desktop and if anything goes wrong (eg a product gets lost during a drag and drop) I can just close Actinic, paste the backup ActinicCatalog.mbd from my desktop back into the site root and when I reopen Actinic everything will be hunky dory and any lost products will be back again.

Is that correct?

Also, has anyone else actually done this ever/as part of their normal workflow?

Thanks again.

ps. I'll still be running proper snapshots at the end of every day for a super safe and more complete backup.

[chris ashdown]

The MDB will hold the database records but not images (just where they should be) etc so you will still need to either do a snapshot once a day or a backup of the sites folder and if needed between snapshots just replace the images in their right position

Jan Mole-end has a automatic free site backup programe where you can tell it how often you want the MDB saved

[jont]

Also, has anyone else actually done this ever/as part of their normal workflow?

I do it on a regular basis especially when in design mode as very quick to kill a site and far far longer to get back to where you were. Regular copying of the .MDB file can save a lot of heartache.

As Chris points out this should be in addition to the regular ACD snapshot and viewed as a quick way to sorting a crash.

[Donna Kempster]

http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/ME_EasyBackup.html

This is info on mole-end's free download. We have this running every hour and works really well.

[tobytoby]

Awesome thanks a lot everyone, that's really good advice. I can crack on with it now : )