Family Historian User Group

I recently switched from RM8 to FH7 (ver 7.0.17.1) and would like to confirm that I'm doing everything necessary to completely backup my two FH Projects.

My procedure is to always do three things before exiting a Project:

1. I click the "Save" button on the main FH menu.

2. I perform a Full Backup (File > Backup/Restore > Full Backup) with the option to generate the backup filename using the current system date.

3. I run the plugin to backup my FH settings (Tools > Plugins > Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings via Windows) , Version 1.1.2. The plugin is set to write the backup files to a dated subfolder.

The backup files are located on a separate internal drive on my PC. That drive is dedicated to backup files. Every week or so, I purge the oldest of the backup files and copy the most recent of the backup files to a USB thumb drive. I also mirror the thumb drive contents to cloud storage.

Here's why I'm asking for confirmation of my backup procedure...

When I first switched to FH7 from RM8, I thought that the FH Backup menu item was the only command that I needed to execute in order to be fully protected from a hardware crash. I got a bit of a fright when I read on this Forum that the FH Backup alone did not allow recovery of my settings and things like custom Source Template designs (I've spent a lot of time creating these.) That's when I installed the Settings Backup plugin. But I still have a lingering concern that I may be overlooking something that's needed for a complete recovery. I want to be confident that I'm fully protected from a system hardware crash or malware infection. Thanks

Where do you store your media files? The full backup only saves them if they are inside the project folder. If they are stored elsewhere and simply linked in FH, they are not backup up, and you will need to save them separately.

It's also worth bearing in mind that if your project folder is part of your Windows Documents folder, and you already have a robust strategy for backing that up, you don't actually need the separate FH backup (which is really just there as a belt and braces option for users who don't backup their Windows data folders regularly). However, you do need to run the settings backup plugin, due to the variety of places that FH scatters your settings data.

Yes, that is a fairly solid backup strategy and I echo Mark's comments.

Strictly speaking, step one is not necessary if Tools > Preferences > File Load/Save has default File Saving Options.
FH will prompt on closure if any changed data needs saving.

There is a window of risk between backup to your internal drive and copying to the thumb drive and cloud storage.
If there was a serious problem that affected the entire PC then your cloud storage backups would be a week or so old.
e.g. PC major damage, fire, flood, theft, etc.
Have you considered saving the backups directly to cloud storage and then copying those to the thumb drive and internal drive?

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

02 Jan 2023 18:36

Where do you store your media files? The full backup only saves them if they are inside the project folder. If they are stored elsewhere and simply linked in FH, they are not backup up, and you will need to save them separately.

Thank you for your comments. I keep the original copies of my media files in a folder hierarchy that's located outside of the FH project folder BUT I do NOT link those files to my FH project. Instead, I add media files using the default FH location which places a copy of them within the FH project folder. So the FH Full Backup does include all my project media files.

tatewise wrote: ↑

02 Jan 2023 18:44

Yes, that is a fairly solid backup strategy and I echo Mark's comments.

Strictly speaking, step one is not necessary if Tools > Preferences > File Load/Save has default File Saving Options.
FH will prompt on closure if any changed data needs saving.

There is a window of risk between backup to your internal drive and copying to the thumb drive and cloud storage.
If there was a serious problem that affected the entire PC then your cloud storage backups would be a week or so old.
e.g. PC major damage, fire, flood, theft, etc.
Have you considered saving the backups directly to cloud storage and then copying those to the thumb drive and internal drive?

Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate your clarification about manual saves not being necessary given that I use the FH default settings for project saves. I'll also adopt your suggestion of doing the cloud save before the thumb drive save.

You could also think about Mark's other suggestion regarding the backup of other PC files.
Any sensitive files that you would not want to lose should be backed up with a similar strong strategy.
That is almost bound to include many files in the My Documents folder and subfolders, which is where FH Projects reside.
So a My Documents backup strategy would include all your Projects without needing to use the FH Backup commands.

The strategy I use with OneDrive cloud storage is to use its Settings > Back up > Manage backup feature to backup the Desktop, Documents & Pictures folders. Then all those files are automatically saved to the cloud as each one is changed.

tatewise wrote: ↑

03 Jan 2023 18:41

The strategy I use with OneDrive cloud storage is to use its Settings > Back up > Manage backup feature to backup the Desktop, Documents & Pictures folders. Then all those files are automatically saved to the cloud as each one is changed.

Thank you, Mike, for your interest and suggestions.

I use Paragon Backup & Recovery 17 CE (https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/) to create disk images of my OS Disk to a backup disk using an external dock. Of course, I also have a boot media thumb drive for recovery. That's also created with Paragon.

For pure data backups, I use Copiaris (https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/). I have 5 HDs with 20 TB total capacity. I keep these backed up to 5 other drives using Copiaris and an external, 4 bay eSATA dock. That’s in addition to the pure data folders on the OS drive.

All that data is too much for my cloud account, so it's only the really important stuff that I backup to the cloud. All the other stuff is backed up against PC crashes. I'm just accepting exposure to potential loss of the less important data if the backup disks get destroyed in a fire or similar disaster. The other exposure that I acknowledge is if malware containing a delayed trigger gets transferred to my OS backup disk image. A recovery from that image would reinfect the system. I can't figure out anyway to avoid that.

Ok, that puts a new perspective on things that you clearly have under control.