TechDeal: 1gb POS backup devices $5.95 or $11.50

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Mike Labbe

Mike Labbe

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TechDeal: 1gb POS backup devices $11.50

These are great as part of a solution for daily POS backups. I suggest a rotation of at least 7 of these, one for each day of the week (or 6 if you are closed Sundays) Check with your POS vendor to make sure 1gb is sufficient. (it is perfect for LifeSaver users)
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There are TWO deals today. One has a limit of 2 for the rebate, the other is unlimited:


Kingston 1GB Flash Drive $11.50 Free Shipping no rebate/no limit!
Meritline has the Kingston 1GB Data Traveler USB 2.0 Flash Drive for only $11.50 shipped free. Tax in CA, MA.

Kingston 1GB Data Traveler USB 2.0 Flash Drive [strike]$5.95 Free Shipping, E-X-P-I-R-E-D
Buy.com has the Kingston 1GB Data Traveler USB 2.0 Flash Drive for a low $5.95 after rebate. Free shipping. Tax in CA, MA, MD, TN.
New Google Checkout customers can save another $10, bringing cost to $0.95 each.
$22 rebate Exp 4/21/07 (limit of 2 units per address)

Best regards
Mike
 
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Mike,

Why would you rotate it 7 days a week? just curious. As well what backup software do you use, I currently use Norton Save and Restore but its pricey to buy 3 versions. So just curious as well with what you use, thanks!

Justin Alvarez
 
Good morning Justin

>Why would you rotate it 7 days a week? just curious.

We use these for the automatic daily backup done at closing, by the POS system. Lifesaver backs up all of its databases to this device, so you can restore if there is a problem a day or two in the future.

With some systems, if you only back up to one device, and overwrite it each time, you risk losing everything. (Suppose it was corrupt and you didnt realize it, before erasing your only valid backup...) LifeSaver technically can keep each day of the week on a single device (It names each backup set by the day of the week), but it's a very good habit to swap the devices out anyways.

With a single device, folks tend to get forgetful and leave it plugged in all the time. In my opinion, it's important to remove these from the PC when not in use and to store them off-site. A power surge, lightning strike, disgruntled employee, destructive virus/trojan, or even a burglary would likely wipe your computer - and the contents of the connected backup device too.

In addition to the daily POS backup, we also do a once per week online backup. We transfer the POS folder to the house pc, via the internet.

At the end of every month, we do an additional physical backup of the POS folder, MY DOCUMENTS, and the accounting software - to a CD. That CD goes home, and gets put in a fire-proof safe.

Maybe all this sounds a bit paranoid, but I don't want to be stranded without a POS. Not even for an hour. In the event of a computer failure, we can be back online 100% within 5-10 minutes, using a spare.

>what backup software do you use, I currently use Norton Save and Restore
>but its pricey to buy 3 versions. So just curious as well with what you use, thanks!

We don't really use any backup specific software.

-For the daily data backups, we use LifeSaver. (It has the feature built in)
-For the online folder transfers to the house, we use PcAnywhere from Symantec. This also gives us remote access from the road into the shop any time, to look up prices.
-For the monthly CD, we use Nero. It lets you drag and drop the folders you wish to back up, and it will burn this info to a CD or DVD.

I hope I have answered your questions

Have a great weekend
Mike

PS: Some other folks use a series of external hard drives, tape drives, zip disks, or internet based archival/backup (for money) services - as a secondary backup method. Those are also good alternatives.
 
Mike,

If you keep an eye on Buy.com you will find these same 1GB Kingstons for free with rebate at one time or another! I got mine free with electronic rebates so there was no mailings involved and my checks took a month to arrive but I got them eventually. They were limited to 2 per customer but not to address so you can order 2 as "Mike Labbe", 2 as "Michael Labbe", 2 as "M. Labbe", etc..
 
Thanks Mike!
Cool I didn't know that LifeSaver had that feature, its good to know. We use frameready and it does have a backup feature as well. We have our backups scheduled every 2 hours starting at 10:30am to 6:30pm (Half-hour before we close)

How do you like using Symantec PCanywhere? Is it easy to setup? I have a couple of copies of that lying around. Can you automate it? So that you don't need to physically set up the transfer?

Thanks again for the pointers.

Justin Alvarez
 
I have been using pcAnywhere since the mid 1980s. It's a great tool to access other pc's remotely.

We do it manually. Usually I dial into the shop from home and grab that folder, moving a copy over to my home PC.

Mike
 
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