Backup

[Revised Feb 06]

Backups should be done daily, but not more often. Pharmacy data is valuable, expensive to re-create, and at risk if good backup procedures are not followed. Enforcement of good regular backup procedures is the responsibility of the pharmacy management.

Tools, such as repair database are provided but a corrupted database is not always repairable. In those cases a reliable backup is the only thing standing between the user and lost data. In event that a restore from backup is needed, 'RxOne' provides Roll forward recovery to recover work done since the backup was made.

Normal daily backup

1. From the RxOne Start Menu go to Tools, Backup.

2. Insert the appropriate backup disk.

3. If not already selected, select the drive to backup to.

Normally this will be D: or E: or to a CD or flash drive. Do NOT backup onto C:, as that is the hard drive and already contains the working copy, and backing up again onto the same medium does not achieve much. If changing the drive letter, watch to see if the device concerned has its light flash when the backup is being made, to confirm that it really is going onto the correct disk. This is particularly important when changing back to a CD drive.

4. Backup Database each day.

It is only necessary to choose the 'Backup programs and database' option once a month after the programs have been upgraded. This keeps the latest program versions for quick restore in event of serious disk problems.

Weekly/Monthly Off-site backup

At least once a month, and preferably weekly, take the most recent backup home for safety, to reduce fire/theft risk to bearable levels of data loss.

It's a good idea to have two sets of disks to use for the 'monthly backup' one for 'even' months and one for 'odd'. Keep them at home so if you have a fire or other disaster at the shop at least records are okay. A Full Monthly backup should be done on the last day of the month, or at least before the update is run. (Ensure the appropriate option is checked).

Full backup to send to support service

Just send the latest normal daily backup. The disk will be returned.

If running both PoS and Dispensary

Backing up the master automatically backs up both PoS and Dispensary data. If a sale is made on a PoS Slave while the Master is backing up, the Slave will go into stand-alone mode, do the sale normally, and automatically catch up when the Master is free.

Organisation of backup sets

Do not economise on backup media. Data is worth much more than the hardware and software combined, if the time to recreate it is taken into account. So, have eight backup disks, one for each work day and two 'end of month' disks to alternate as off-site backups. Seven-day pharmacies should have nine disks.

Backup drive

A CD or flash drive are recommended. These have proved quick and generally reliable.

- Streaming tape drives are not recommended as they are not under direct control of the pharmacy software so operator actions cannot be guided and verified.

Using Flash drives for backup

The safest option is 1 drive per day of trading + an additional drive for monthly back ups, 2 for monthly is better still, alternating these every second month.

Another option, say the shop trades 6 days per week, have 4 flash drives, 3 for daily backups so one does Monday and Thursday, one for Tuesday and Friday, and the third for Wednesday and Saturday. The final flash drive should be dedicated for a monthly backup.

REMEMBER backups are important, and crucial when you need them. No one has lost sleep in regret for doing too many backups.

Notes

Backups automatically overwrite existing backups, but not other data since the user may be using the same backup disk for other programs. A separate topic describes cleaning off a disk.