Princess wrote:

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I don't use Sage much, I only have one client that uses it.  I have been merrily working for him for the last few months and backing up at the end of the day but today was a little different.  I was entering some batch invoices and suddenly they disappeared along with the lot before that lot so I had to do those again.  I'm not sure if it's related, but when I came to doing my back up it said there were no issues with the data but there was an error creating the back up file and it said the back up was not successful.  I did it again a few times with the same result.

Is this normal?  And does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can try to get it to back up successfully. Thanks

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I didn't notice this post before.

No, that is very definitely not normal.

The most recent version of Sage (v19 I think - without checking) does appear to have an issue that can suddenly cause it to quit without warning. I haven't discerned a pattern to it, other than it sometimes happens when looking at an account activity tab in the sales, purchase and nominal ledgers and Sage themselves couldn't seem to explain it (though it did sound like they were aware of it). When it happens any unsaved data is obviously lost - but the data files are unaffected (as I'd expect, since they are closed and nothing is being written to them).

However, that clearly isn't what happened in your case - what you described, particularly that your previously entered transactions were lost, sounds very worrying indeed.

And the fact that your backup failed is doubly worrying.

I think my first instinct would be that there could be a problem with the computer you're using - a fault with the hard drive sounds most likely, though it's possible other things could cause similar symptoms (eg a PSU issue).

So, as others have said above, start off by making sure you have a backup on another device, such as a USB stick. Then perhaps call in your nearest IT guy to give that computer an MOT test.

Backing up to the same drive that the original data is on isn't a good idea in general (unless that hard drive itself is backed up very regularly to another location) - because if that hard drive goes South, you've lost not only the original data, but the backups as well.

I think you are missing the point - in a potentially very serious way. And possibly ascribing blame (to Sage) where it could be entirely innocent.

If simply changing the folder for the backup worked, that just adds to my concerns that there may be a problem with the hard drive. It rules out the problem being due to the hard drive being full (since that would affect the entire hard drive, not any given folder - so the same problem would still have occurred). If anything, it makes me think there may be a corruption in the drive's map.

And that change doesn't address the other problem - that when Sage quit unexpectedly, you then discovered the previously saved data had disappeared. As I said above, it seems likely to me that it wasn't saved in the first place, though Sage (and therefore you) thought it was. Which again gives me concerns about that hard drive.

That aside, I'm still not entirely clear about what you are doing as regards the backups: I can understand your logic of keeping an easily recoverable backup on the computer to undo any "help" the client has carried out - but you don't clarify if you also take a backup onto another device, such as a USB stick that you take home with you (and if you do, then that's your easily recoverable backup, rather than one on the hard drive of the computer!) Backups that are kept on the same hard drive of the same computer are worse than useless.

As for the client's backups - "I think he backs up the whole PC from time to time" is just not good enough! What you think he may or may not do is irrelevant - and don't even bother getting him to confirm that he does it, because people often start out doing such things with all good intentions, but over time they often get lazy, skipping a backup here, putting one off there, and that becomes more and more frequent, while they continue to believe (and profess) that they are still keeping regular backups: Forget his backups - keep backups yourself of what you do - again, the USB stick is ideal here.

And when that PC goes kaput - which at the moment sounds like a distinct possibility - you will have saved the client's bacon by having his accounts data safe and sound, with no need to pay someone (ie you) to do all the work all over again. And, by doing that, you will have more than proved your worth to the client.

And even if nothing goes wrong, and the backups you're taking on a USB stick aren't necessary, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Inadequate backups are a pet hate and I've lost count of the number of times I could have said to people "I bloody well told you so, you blithering idiot!" - I really can't stress this enough: You absolutely must take a backup that is not kept on that computer!