Non-Sequential Backups

[Jhebbard]

It seems that if two people update a database - eg Membership, the latest "Restore" rules.....

For example if someone adds three new members, say "A," "B," & "C," and then a later "Restore" from another person adds three members, "A," "B," & "D," when the latest restore is added, it wipes out the record for person "C."

Is this correct?

We have started eMailing backup files, saving them to a "removable" drive, and then restoring them to update that particular section in the main database. Information may be added by several workers, who could do their individual backups out of order. Without a "master" backup disk, we are worried that data may be lost.

I understand, please help my misunderstanding....

[NeilZ]

It seems that if two people update a database - eg Membership, the latest "Restore" rules.....

For example if someone adds three new members, say "A," "B," & "C," and then a later "Restore" from another person adds three members, "A," "B," & "D," when the latest restore is added, it wipes out the record for person "C."

Is this correct?

We have started eMailing backup files, saving them to a "removable" drive, and then restoring them to update that particular section in the main database. Information may be added by several workers, who could do their individual backups out of order. Without a "master" backup disk, we are worried that data may be lost.

I understand, please help my misunderstanding....

Any restore will overwrite previous data ... period. There is no way to selectively restore certain data, as each file is intertwined with each other as part of the database functionality.

If you're doing multiple updates on many separate un-networked computers, you're going to run into such synchronization issues. If all the computers are located in the church, I suggest setting up a network that will allow you to share the database from a 'server' with the computers as 'clients'.

If you're doing all this work offsite, then you may have to give users a WINDOW where they will have sole access to the database for update. Thus when person A has the window, they will get a backup of the database to update. Then they will need to take another backup to restore to the main Powerchurch machine. After this, person B will have the window, and the process begins anew.

A way around this is to use a remote access login to the main Powerchurch computer. You wiil need to use a program like GoToMyPC to access the PC+ computer from outside the church, but the updates will be applied directly without having to worry about synchronization issues. Again, you'd have to designate windows of access, but in this case it would be access to the computer.

Hope this helps.