1. DAT Backup System

!! If you don't back-up then you are risking all your TimeCore data !!

TimeCore Pro stores all your data in a single file (the DAT) in the folder you designate with the Startup Assistant. Like any document, this file is subject to the vagaries of the Windows operating system and hardware on which it resides. For example, the DAT file may be deleted or the hard-drive may fail or a crash could leave the DAT damaged and unreadable.

There is no substitute for a good back-up procedure and we strongly recommend that you try to place your TimeCore folder in a location that is backed-up regularly.

Automatic back-ups
As a safeguard against the very rare (and so far, theoretical) case of a DAT file being damaged through an abnormal shutdown, TimeCore Pro now implements a seven-day rolling set of back-ups. Each time that you close the TimeCore application it will make a back-up of the current DAT file to a folder named after the current day of the week. Thus, there will eventually be seven folders ("Monday", "Tuesday", ..., "Sunday") each containing a single TCPRO.DAT file. Please note, that the back-up will only occur if TimeCore is manually closed - no back-up will take place if TimeCore is shutdown because the current Microsoft Windows operating environment session is ending or the Windows Task Manager is closing the application.

Back-up Location
All TimeCore back-up DATs are stored in the 'DAT.BAK' folder. By default, this is located in the main DAT folder (as shown in the status bar in the main TimeCore window). However, it is now possible to specify an alternate location via the General Settings page and we strongly urge you to do so based on the following recommendations.

~ Create your back-up folder on a separate physical drive. Preferably on another computer in a different building. The only proviso being that if you do place your back-up folder on, say, a network drive it may affect the speed at which TimeCore shutdowns if you have a really slow network connection.

~ If you don't have access to another drive then try to place your back-up folder on another partition of the same drive.

~ If you only have a single partition then use another folder - any folder - that is outside the path of the main TimeCore DAT folder. This will at least safeguard against the DAT folder being deleted.

~ The motto being..."don't keep all your eggs in one basket!".

A couple of points to note is that because seven copies of the DAT are now made you should ensure there is enough room to store seven times the DAT file size. So a floppy disk is out of the question! Also, should TimeCore be unable to back-up to the specified folder (eg. the network is down) then it will attempt to back-up to the DAT folder instead.

Restoring a back-up
To restore a DAT file that resides in the 'DAT.BAK' folder, ensure TimeCore Pro is not running and then simply copy the back-up to the root DAT folder, overwriting the existing (and presumably damaged) DAT if applicable, and restart TimeCore. Alternatively, from the Startup Assistant you could select an existing DAT back-up as the starting template for a new DAT.