Keystone Backup

Keystone provides a means of making daily copies of your data file. Typically these are saved on the same drive that contains your current data. These backups may be valuable if you accidentally delete a contact, an address, or other information and need to recover it from the latest backup. However, this does not protect your data from a hard disk crash.

To configure routine backups, open the Tools tab in the Keystone ribbon and click Options.
The Options screen appears.
On the File Maintenance tab, enter a location for the backup file in the Destination field.
By default, the location of the Backup Files folder will be set to the same folder that your Keystone data file is stored in. To set your backups to save to another location, click the Change Destination button and browse to a folder on that disk - either an external hard drive or removable media such as a Flash drive or writable CD drive. This adds another layer of safety to your backup plan in case something happens to the computer your database is on.
Check the Prompt for Data Backup upon Exiting?box to activate the backup function.
With this box checked, each time you close Keystone on this computer you will be prompted for whether you want to back up your data file at that time.

Clicking Yes at that prompt starts the backup and creates a copy of your data file in the folder you specified on the File Maintenance tab in step 2. The backup file will be named YYYYMMDD Keystone Data.mdb, where YYYYMMDD corresponds to the date at the time the backup is run. Keystone creates a single backup file for each calendar date. If you click Yes to back up your data file more than one time during a single workday, this file will overwrite any earlier backups made on the same day. Backups from previous days are not affected.

Unchecking the Prompt for Data Backup upon Exiting?box will prevent Keystone from asking you to back up your data each time you close Keystone. You may prefer this if your data is backed up via another method.

If you are using Keystone on a network (multiple computers), backup settings must be configured by your Keystone Administrator. Do not change this setting without the Administrator’s approval.

A note to System Administrators - it is recommended that you enable the backup prompt for one computer running Keystone on your network and disable it for all others. This provides a simpler way to recover just the Keystone Data file without having to restore or search through your entire server backup.

We recommend that you do not disable the backup prompt unless you are using another backup method. It is critical that you back up your data in some fashion, using at minimum the basic method offered by Keystone.

The settings on the Options screen apply only to the computer and user for which they are set. If more than one person is using the same computer, then each user can have his or her own options settings. Other users of Keystone on the same or on different computers may select a different destination and independently choose whether to be prompted for a backup.

Deleting Prior Copies of Backups

Keystone will continue to create and save backup files in whatever destination you choose. If you are saving the backups to the same computer on which your Keystone program is installed, you will eventually have many backup copies stored in the Backup folder, which can cause your machine to slow down. Once your affiliate has determined a specific retention policy for backups, you may need to manually delete old copies that are no longer needed.

To manually delete backup files

Go to the file location where the backups are stored.
The default location is: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\MoreThanData\Keystone\Backup Files
Review the dates of the files, and delete those that you no longer wish to keep.
You may also move these files to a CD or other removable media.