Testing backups / data integrity

[Bill H.]

I rotate (weekly) two external hard drives to back up my computer daily using Time Machine. In reading a blog post today, I learned that I should be testing my back ups and/or testing the integrity of my Reunion database. Apparently some genealogy database software programs have built in features that will do this. I'm not sure how to do this. This is apparently important so that you aren't just backing up corrupted data without knowing it.

A reader of the blog suggested generating a GEDCOM after each use of the database and that it's important to read the Error Report. Can anyone help with this? Does a Reunion GEDCOM generate an Error Report? What am I looking for? How do you test a backup? I thought I had my bases covered but apparently I don't.

Thanks in advance.

- Bill

[Paul Luning]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

I haven't tried this, but it should work.

These are the instructions from Time Machine: To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.

Restore the Family File under another name. Open the restored file with Reunion. If it works, the data should be OK.

Might be worth making a copy of your Family File before you try this. Just in case...

Has anyone actually done this?

Paul

[Al Poulin]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

Paul

I have not used Time Machine with Reunion, but I have restored files and even my mailboxes from the users > Library level. Paul's instructions work as written.

I'd like to add a couple recommendations. Play with a few test files in different parts of your holdings to familiarize yourself. Depending on the size of backups on hand and the number of months in the Time Machine volume, Time Machine can be slow in being ready to restore a specific file or folder. Before entering Time Machine, I like to navigate to the file or folder, or if the file or folder is now missing, to the location where it had been. Upon entering Time Machine, it will present that location for the action you need. Otherwise Time Machine may be slow in moving from where it opens to where you want to be.

I cannot address the GEDCOM angle.

[Paul Luning]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

Bill,
I have been thinking about this. Trying to prove there is NOT an error is impossible, as is trying to prove any negative. Data corruption has been a computer problem from the days of "do not fold, spindle, or mutilate" the punch cards. Most I/O software has built in error checking, and Internet protocols carry that to an extreme, since they are disassembling and reassembling the files to send them in small pieces, probably by different routes, to their destination.

That said, I can think of a couple ways to save your information so you can recover it in case of a catastrophic loss. If you subscribe to Ancestry, you can upload a ged file and save as a private tree. That runs your data thru another tree program, so errors might be caught there. There are probably other sites where you can do this. Another safeguard is to email yourself a copy of your ged file. I do that with gmail, since they allow large files as attachments.

Some data corruption is just a fact of life with computers. Let the pros get ulcers trying to prevent it. Just have two or three ways to recover the important information.

BTW, Reunion 10 does not generate ged error reports (Thanks, Mark).

Paul

[Bill H.]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

Paul and Al,

Thanks so much for your input on my questions. I guess what I'm finding out is there isn't much a computer novice like myself can do about this except keep performing my backups and hope my Reunion database does not get corrupted. I don't think there is anything else I either can do or am capable of doing. Dick Eastman's blog concerned me when he was talking about people who had been doing backups religiously but when they needed to restore from the backup they discovered they had been backing up a corrupted database for a long time and could not restore. His suggestions were very technical and were over my head.

Thanks again guys!

[Paul Luning]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words.

I would strongly suggest you get a free gmail account - just go to google.com and sign up for gmail. Then export a ged file from Reunion and email it as an attachment to yourself from the gmail account. Then just let the message sit there. Even if you only remember to do that once or twice a year, you have most of your data saved somewhere off site. And it's free.

Enjoy,

Paul

[ttl]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

Let the pros get ulcers trying to prevent it. Just have two or three ways to recover the important information.

I'm with Paul on this.

And remember, the ultimate backup is paper. It's wonderfully convenient and efficient to use a computer, but paper always works. Keep as much in printed reports and charts as you can, because if that's laying around 100 years from now, a descendant can pick them up with no worries about compatibility or obsolescence.

You'll have to pry my MacBook Pro out of my cold dead fingers, but I for sure keep those paper files as another backup mode.

[Nick]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

And remember, the ultimate backup is paper. It's wonderfully convenient and efficient to use a computer, but paper always works. Keep as much in printed reports and charts as you can, because if that's laying around 100 years from now, a descendant can pick them up with no worries about compatibility or obsolescence.

That's all very well Tim, but how many sheets would it take to print out my family file of 20'000+ individuals? It's probably feasible for you, since you're in the business of printouts, but for most of us it's not practical. That said, does your company offer a complete printout of a family file? I'd be interested, since I do agree with you.

[ttl]

Re: Testing backups / data integrity

That's all very well Tim, but how many sheets would it take to print out my family file of 20'000+ individuals? It's probably feasible for you, since you're in the business of printouts, but for most of us it's not practical. That said, does your company offer a complete printout of a family file? I'd be interested, since I do agree with you.

Hi Nick -

The short answer to your question is that being a large format printing service, the orders we do on letter-sized pages are very limited. We don't currently offer the service of a complete database printout, and I'm not aware of any way to do that directly in using Reunion. I would be interested in knowing if others might like to have this kind of product.

That being said, here's a few more thoughts on the subject, especially for the benefit of others who might be lurking.

I would agree that a database of 20K people occupies a regime best suited for a computer, but I wonder if there