Month old restore - Help!

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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ajtarb
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Month old restore - Help!

#1

Post by ajtarb »

I'm the STS and am in the process of installing all new 740 machines. Last week I replaced several unit computers. I first back up all local documents, take a back up of MLS, and also copy the mls-data backup folder all onto a USB drive. After doing this I scrub the old drive. Unfortunately one particular system only backed up half of the MLS file - not sure how this could be done (the file size was only around 519kb, and I received an error message stating that I needed the other half of the backup when I tried to restore the backup onto the new machine)??? Also the mls-data folder only transfered the folder without any contents in it. Not ever having any trouble with any of the other unit upgrades I proceeded to scrub the hard drive without first verifying that the files had actually been copied to the USB drive. My dilema now is that the only other backup of MLS onto a removeable drive was accomplished on 2-14-2010. This was what I used to restore MLS to. Now the ward clerks are missing membership, financial and batch information for approximately one month. How should I proceed from here? Please help!

Thanks,
Aaron
aprayzr
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Ask for a refresh...

#2

Post by aprayzr »

I believe you can just ask for a data refresh from HQ and that should bring it all up to date. Click "File", "Request Unit Refresh Data..." I am not sure how long it takes though - seems like it used to take a few days, but may be faster now.

I have one unit with a new computer that is now missing their old Financial Statements. Not sure where those were being kept... anyone?

Now I know why I wait a couple of weeks before scrubbing the old drives!
jdlessley
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#3

Post by jdlessley »

AJTARB wrote:My dilema now is that the only other backup of MLS onto a removeable drive was accomplished on 2-14-2010. This was what I used to restore MLS to. Now the ward clerks are missing membership, financial and batch information for approximately one month. How should I proceed from here? Please help!
There is a complete backup stored at CHQ once each month. When that backup is made for a specific unit is unknown. Contact clerk support and find out if that backup is newer than the last best one you have. In either case you, or the clerks, will have to enter the missing financial information from the ward records.
aprayzr wrote:I believe you can just ask for a data refresh from HQ and that should bring it all up to date.
Get the last best backup restored before attempting a unit data refresh. The unit data refresh mostly affects membership data (see the Unit data refreshwiki article). Financial data is not included. Even with the unit data refresh there may be some non-standard calling information (changes to non-standard callings since the last best backup) that may have to be recreated. A diligent check of all data after both a backup restore and a unit data refresh is advisable.
aprayzr wrote:I have one unit with a new computer that is now missing their old Financial Statements. Not sure where those were being kept... anyone?
For some time now unit financial statements have been available on MLS. Any missing unit financial statements can be requested from CHQ. Use the MLS messaging system to request the replacement statements. The replacements will be sent through MLS message.

When we are faced with challenges and adversity we should be asking ourselves what we can learn from it. In this case my first thought is to ensure all Church procedures regarding making backups are followed. Keeping regular backups on removable media and stored both in a locked storage on site as well as off site reduces the trauma and added work from computer failure or operator error.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
aprayzr
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#4

Post by aprayzr »

jdlessley wrote: For some time now unit financial statements have been available on MLS. Any missing unit financial statements can be requested from CHQ. Use the MLS messaging system to request the replacement statements. The replacements will be sent through MLS message.
Yes, but my question, when asked correctly Image, is where on the computer are these files stored? Are they part of the mls backup, or are they stored somewhere else? I still have the old computer and can retrieve them, if I know were to go to get them.

As a side note, I have noticed many of our units are not backing up to the flash drive appropriately. They often just back up to the hard drive instead of selecting the flash drive. These units were quite diligent when using floppies, but not so with the flash drives. Is it just too easy? Looks like I need to do some training!
jdlessley
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#5

Post by jdlessley »

aprayzr wrote:Yes, but my question, when asked correctly Image, is where on the computer are these files stored? Are they part of the mls backup, or are they stored somewhere else?
The unit financial statements are part of the MLS database which is encrypted. If they are not showing up when going to Finance > Finance Statements then getting those missing statements from CHQ is your best option.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

aprayzr wrote:Yes, but my question, when asked correctly Image, is where on the computer are these files stored? Are they part of the mls backup, or are they stored somewhere else? I still have the old computer and can retrieve them, if I know were to go to get them.
The Financial Statements are indeed in the MLS database, but they are not included in the backup. So when you move from one computer to another, you should copy the entire Units folder to be safe (as well as the dialer.properties file).

The location where the financial statements are stored is described in this thread (make sure you read the post I linked to as well as the one that follows it).
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
crislapi
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#7

Post by crislapi »

I'd also recommend you check with that ward to see if they have any backups on a removable media drive. I would suspect that they were not using the C:/mlsbackup folder but instead storing the backups somewhere else (flash drive/floppy drive), explaining why the folder was copied but was empty.

You could save yourself a lot of work if this is indeed the case.
russellhltn
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#8

Post by russellhltn »

crislapi wrote:I would suspect that they were not using the C:/mlsbackup folder but instead storing the backups somewhere else (flash drive/floppy drive), explaining why the folder was copied but was empty.
For units set up on Desktop 5.5, I try to have them do their hard drive backup on D:\mlsbackup. That way I can use the Desktop tools to re-image the C drive and the backups are safe. The "My Documents" are also mapped to the D drive.
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ajtarb
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#9

Post by ajtarb »

Thanks for all your input. Unfortunately the only backup that was accomplished on any removeable media was done on the 14th of February. CHQ had a backup from the 28th of February and this is the backup that I ended up using. I feel bad that clerks will now have to go back and re-enter any data from the 28th. A good lesson learned - double check to make sure your backups really went to your usb drive prior to scrubbing the hard drive.

Thanks again,
Aaron
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