There are many different methods of backing up, which include the following:

1. Full Backup: Backs up and marks selected files, whether or not they have changed since the last backup.
2. Copy: Backs up all selected files without marking them as being backed up.
3. Incremental Backup: Backs up and marks selected files only if they have changed since the last time they were backed up
4. Daily Copy: Backs up only those files that have been modified that day, without marking them as being backed up.
5. Differential Backup: Backs up selected files only if they have changed since the last time they were backed up, without marking them as being backed up.  

The Full Backup on a daily basis is the most effective way to back up and ensure the integrity of your Power Broker data.  The Full Backup system would include the 'FULL BRO' folder and all 'SUBFOLDER and FILES' located in this directory.  The size of the Power Broker folder can range from 100 Megs to 5 Gigs or greater depending on the size of your office. 

Exceptions to the fact!

Some brokerages have reported 300 Megs (or greater) worth of data stored in the \Word97\docs folder.  These types of folders can take a long time to backup.  Changes to the Microsoft Word Integration allows the option of changing the path to the location of newly created word documents folder.  This means that instead of saving all of your new documents to one folder, you can direct them to a different docs folder allowing you to exclude the original docs folder from the backup.  Once the second folder is full again a few years down the road, switch to a docs3 folder and so on and so forth.  With this being said, make sure that you keep a hard copy of the original docs folder or any other docs folder that you plan on excluding from your daily backups.  This change can be made in Utilities, Define your Company Information, Software Directories, Word Document Storage.

Please contact our technical support office for further details.

Here's what we use!

We run a backup every night and periodically switch the Micro Solutions 40 GB drive with the second box that we keep offsite in case of fire/flood/locust.  We do the same with the Bytecc on another server that backs up other data.

Micro Solutions 40 GB Model number 155010 Standard - External - USB PC Card  5400 Rpm Data Transfer Rate: 12 Mbps Cost:  $150 - $200

Bytecc External - USB Device Samsung 120 Gig 7200 RPM Cost:  $100 - $200

Smart Drive External - USB Device Smart Drive 60 Gig 7200 RPM Cost:  $100 - $200

Updated : November 2005

Reasons why you should backup

It's tremendously important to backup your \BRO folder on your server to an external hard drive or some other form of backup device.  It's even more important to have someone verify that your data is actually being backed up and that the software that's doing the backup can actually restore files when needed.

Backing up your Power Broker directory can save you months of
re-entering your customers, policies, transactions, and all of your table setup should the worst case scenario happen.

Before you download and apply this upgrade, you need to be 100% sure that your backup is working correctly and that your backup has been recently checked for it's restore capabilities.  If your not exactly sure, you should download and install Winzip and then have the option of Winziping your entire \BRO folder to a zip file that will condense and save a copy of Power Broker before you apply your upgrade.  This will ensure that should something go wrong, you have a clean copy of Power Broker before it was upgraded and/or changed during the upgrade procedure.


An alternative backup method - A must read!

Some brokers say "Yes, we do backups every night so I'm ok!" 

This is usually nine times out of ten a true statement, but for the few that have had to access their backups because of a bad sector on their hard drive, power outages, or locked files from people still in a terminal server connection that damaged a database, or for any other reason, that having a temporary backup BRODAYMONTHYEAR.RAR file is the safety parachute that one hopes that they never need to use but is there in case you need it.

If you are a local tech applying this Power Broker upgrade, please confirm with the customer that it's ok to take the time to do an alternative Winrar backup of the \BRO directory before applying this upgrade.

If you are a customer that does your own upgrades, then search for Winrar in www.google.com or click on the link at the bottom of this page and download and install the most recent version of Winrar and Winrar your entire \BRO directory into a file such as C:\BACKUPBRO\BROMAY142005.RAR as an example.