As you are all aware, despite all our best laid plans, computer systems are still occasionally subject to various types of disruptions (power failures, network corruption, human error, etc.) which can corrupt the data stored on our computers. Over the years, a number of our customers have experienced a range of relatively minor data corruptions. Often, there are built in Minotaur utilities that can be used to analyze and correct such corruption. On other occasions, Minotaur staff can be enlisted to manually overcome some types of data corruption.

However, the user should never lose track of the fact that in the event of major data corruption, the only sure way to overcome the problem is to start over again with a set of data that is known to not be corrupt. During implementation of the Minotaur system, we encourage all of our customers to implement an effective backup process.

Without such a backup process, starting over may literally require the user to implement the Minotaur system all over again, losing all of your historical data in the process. With a properly implemented backup process, you will have a non-corrupt data set which may be only a day or two old. While, it will still be necessary to reprocess the transactions since the backup, this is significantly less work than implementing a system from scratch and will preserve your historical data. Unfortunately, since major data corruptions occur very rarely (if ever, for most customers), users are sometimes lackadaisical about ensuring the quality of their backup systems. This can be disastrous in the event that a major data corruption does occur.

Two of the more common issues we encounter when we review our customers’ backup systems are:

We recommend that you assign one individual the task of reviewing the backup reports each morning and taking remedial action as soon as the backup report indicates an un-successful backup.

We recommend that you use approximately 20 to 25 tapes in your backup cycle – approximately one for each business day in a month. Further, we recommend that you remove one successful backup from the cycle each month and store it permanently. (Of course, it is important to replace the removed media with a new one each time). Tactically, it may be useful to remove the tape which corresponds to the day you close your financial books for the month. This way, you can have a series of “month-end” backups always available to refer to.

We have one final word of warning with respect to backups. The backup technology available today is still notoriously flaky. It is not uncommon for us to find that what appeared on the surface to be a perfectly valid backup contains no accessible data. Accordingly, we recommend that you DO NOT simply trust that your backup system is working as advertised by its manufacturer.

We strongly recommend that you test your backups. This means, restore the backup (possibly to your TEST Minotaur directory) and attempt to use the restored system. Attempt to enter some transactions and run and review some reports. Such testing should be done whenever you make changes to your backup