Backup to flash drive or hard drive

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
Locked
McLaughlinES
New Member
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2014 7:24 pm

Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#1

Post by McLaughlinES »

We have been backing up to the flash drive delivered with the computer last year. Last week the flash drive was removed, cleaned and a new backup folder added to the hard drive. The stake clerk was not aware who may have done this. Is this a new policy?
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

Re: Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#2

Post by aebrown »

McLaughlinES wrote:We have been backing up to the flash drive delivered with the computer last year. Last week the flash drive was removed, cleaned and a new backup folder added to the hard drive. The stake clerk was not aware who may have done this. Is this a new policy?
No, it's not a new policy. Whoever did this clearly had access to your computer, so it should be a fairly small list of people to track down. HB1 13.3.3 still discusses keeping offsite backups, which clearly can't be done on a backup folder on the hard drive.

There have been a few discussions about how critical backup is anymore, since the vast majority of MLS data is now stored on Church servers in a way that is synced when you start with a clean installation (e.g., all financial data is in CUBS, callings information is in CDOL, etc.). But that policy hasn't changed, and in any case, a backup on the same hard drive that contains the data you are backing up is of limited usefulness, particularly against a hard drive crash.
User avatar
Biggles
Senior Member
Posts: 1608
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 5:14 am
Location: Watford, England

Re: Wireless Survey of church building with Netspot

#3

Post by Biggles »

I think the OP implied that they were backing up directly to the memory stick, not necessarily the hard drive. This as mentioned would defeat the purpose of keeping a separate back up, removed from the computer.
Re reading the OP, it would also seem that someone has probably created the backup folder, or created a short cut to that folder, but has also cleared the memory stick which would of course defeat the object of keeping a separate copy!

Ps The subject line for my post keeps coming up with the Wireless Survey heading, which I can't seem to change/remove.
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

Re: Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#4

Post by aebrown »

Biggles wrote:I think the OP implied that they were backing up directly to the memory stick, not necessarily the hard drive.
The OP indeed stated that their previous practice had been to back up directly to the memory stick. But whoever cleared the memory stick and created a backup folder on the hard drive sure seems to have a preference for backups on the hard drive. That's what I was responding to.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34418
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

Re: Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#5

Post by russellhltn »

If the drive was unavailable for any reason, MLS will default to creating a backup folder on the hard drive. "MLS-backup" iirc.

Correction: "c:\data-backup" is what MLS defaults to and creates if needed.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
User avatar
sbradshaw
Community Moderators
Posts: 6245
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:42 pm
Location: Utah
Contact:

Re: Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#6

Post by sbradshaw »

It's possible one of the clerks needed a USB drive to transfer something but the current one was out of space so he temporarily moved the backups off, but forgot to put them back on.

Another possibility is that the USB drive ran out of space, so he cleared it off so more backups can be added on the USB drive.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
drepouille
Senior Member
Posts: 2859
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Location: Plattsmouth, NE

Re: Backup to flash drive or hard drive

#7

Post by drepouille »

Note that if you try to create a backup while the USB flash drive is not connected to the computer, MLS will happily switch to "c:\data-backup" which becomes the new default location for future backups. This drove me crazy for years as the STS. Of the 11 units in my stake, at least half were writing MLS backups to the hard drive because they never stopped to verify that MLS was still pointing to the flash drive.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
Locked

Return to “MLS Support, Help, and Feedback”