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The Quickbooks data files are located on a server on the
network so that everyone can access the files at the same time.
Warning:
In order to do a backup make sure that no one else is using the files
at that moment otherwise you could corrupt your data or any data they
entered while you are creating the backup could disappear.
1)
You need to make a “local” copy of the networked Quickbooks data
files, that is you need to copy the data files from “the server” to “your
local computer”
 | Open
“My computer” and locate a “networked drive” called \\mae-admin\qbdata
or “qbdata on mae-admin (Z:)” ….the Z: may be different on your computer this is just an example
|
.
| Double
click on it or right click and select explore and you will see something
similar to this: |
| Open
the “qbooksw” folder and you should see the folders containing the
quicbooks data organized according to fiscal year. |
| Highlight
and select the folders you wish to make a backup copy of, then right click
on the highlighted portion and select “copy” |
| Open
up “My Computer” and double click or right click and select explore on
the “Local Disk (C:)” This
is your harddrive this is where we are going to paste the information
we are copying from the network thus creating the “local copy” |
| Create
a new folder to temporarily store the quick books data in…give it a
descriptive name like “QBBackup07-21-03” |
| Go
ahead and open up that folder. |
| Now
that we are inside the backup folder Right click anywhere in the whitespace
(not on any other icons) and select Paste or go to the menu at the top of
the screen select Edit and then select Paste |
| That’s
it you should now have a “temporary local copy” of the quickbooks data
files on your computer in a folder labeled something similar to
QBBackup07-21-03. |
2)
Now we need to burn the “temporary local copy” from your computer to
a cd-rw.
Note:
The following bulleted details I’m about to describe are written for
use on Windows XP and a CD-RW. However
just reading over steps 2-5 should give you the general idea of what’s going
on such that someone familiar with any other burning software should be able to
burn a cd-r on most windows operating systems.
| Put
a new CD-RW into the cd burner. |
| Copy
the backup folder we created in step 2 from Local Disk (C:) to the cd burner
icon and paste it there. |
| Now
when you double click and open the cd-burner you should see a copy the
backup folder we created in step 2 displayed under the heading of something
like “Files to be burned” |
| Go
up to the menu at the top of the window and select File and then select Burn
CD. |
Warning:
When this is done, if it was successful you should have a backup copy,
however this is for archive purposes only.
While the data is on the cd you will not be able to open these files.
Data on a cd cannot be changed it is called “READ ONLY”.
Unfortunately Quickbooks demands that it be able to alter the files,
which means if you want to test and see if your backup was indeed successful you
will have to do one more step and copy the information from the cd-rom to the
hardrive.
3)
To test that the cd was successful you need to copy the backup folder
from the cd-rom to the Local Disk (C:).
|
Open Local Disk (C:) and once again create a new folder
this time I would suggest a folder named “testBackup” |
|
Explore the contents of the cd-rom we just burned and
locate the recently backed up folder. |
|
Copy and paste this folder from the cd-rom to the
“testBackup” folder on Local Disk (C:). |
|
Any data copied off of a cd-rom drive to the Local Disk
(C:) will retain the “READ ONLY” status it had while on the cd-rom,
unless you tell it otherwise. Open
Local Disk (C:) and right click on our testBackup folder then select
Properties. |
| Now
uncheck the Read-only box at the bottom of the window and press apply.
You will probably be asked if you want to apply the changes to all
subfolders and files go ahead and do that then press ok. |
| Open
up the testBackup folder on Local Disk (C:) and try to open some of the
quickbook data files if they load successfully the backup cd worked. |
4)
Remove the 2 temporary folders from Local Disk (C:) so you don’t
accidentally start logging to those when everyone else is logging to the
quickbook data files on “The Server”
Warning:
DO NOT accidentally delete the quickbooks data files from “The
Server”
| Open
Local Disk (C:) and delete testBackup and QBBackup07-21-03 folders or
whatever the 2 folders you used were. |
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