Data Backup
In the last column of The Digital Dentist, we took a brief
overview of the options available with data redundancy and backup. One of the
most common requests I get from dentists is help them develop a protocol for
backing up their data, so I would like to discuss this in greater detail. There
are a few important concepts that need to be addressed first:
- The
data that resides in your computer systems is crucial to the health of
your practice. You need to consider the consequences of losing all that
information and how easily you could recover from this type of
catastrophe. Not having a backup system in place is like practicing with
out disability or liability insurance: it’s a huge risk.
- The
data protocol must be easy to learn and implement. Since the duties are
typically passed off to a senior staff member, make sure they can follow
the protocol; if it’s too difficult, then it probably won’t get done.
- Backups
should be done at least daily, and often more frequently depending on your
individual practice. You should never be left in a position where you lose
more than one day of entries.
- The
backups should be on a medium that is stable and easy to restore. As I
discussed in the last column, tape would only make sense if you have at
least one workstation, in addition to the server, with a tape drive, since
the tapes would be of no benefit if the server goes down.
Suggested Protocol
Please keep in mind that this is just one example of how a
backup protocol can be established. There are many modifications that can be
done and a lot will depend on the size of the practice and the amount of data.
One of the key concepts is that the practice should be
prepared to lose the server yet still keep running. To do this, you will have
to have one workstation that you designate as the “emergency” server. If your
server crashed, you would want the workstations to tie into this workstation (a
process called “mapping”) and look to this new source for the practice
management software and data. In most cases, the best way to do this is to add
a second hard drive to the workstation that will act as an emergency server.
You will have to make an exact copy of the server drive on here. The reason for
this is that most Windows programs put files in multiple directories when you
install them, so it’s often not enough to just move the management software’s
folder to another computer. There are many programs that can accomplish this,
such as Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.
You’ll also need to backup your data to both this server,
and to a regular backup medium. I highly recommend the newer removable hard
drives as they are cheap, easy to setup, and have virtually unlimited
storage. Backup to the hard drive at the
end of each day. The removable hard drive should be taken off site, or at the
very least, put into a fire-proof safe.
The item that will tie all of this together is the backup
software. I personally recommend one called Karen’s Replicator (http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp),
an excellent free program. This program has two very useful features. First, it
will permit incremental backups, which save time; when you backup the PMS
program folder, many of the files, such as the program files, never change, so
they really only need to be backed up once. The other feature I enjoy is that
you can program the software to not “replicate” file deletions. In other words,
if you accidentally delete a digital image from a patient’s file, the image
won’t be deleted from your backup, so you would easily be able to recover the
file.
By backing up to the workstation a few times/day and to the
removable drive daily, you’ll have your data secure and easy to recover in the
event of a problem.
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