RESEARCH-HOWTO-L Archives

Archiver > RESEARCH-HOWTO > 1999-11 > 0942436271


From: "H J & J" <>
Subject: RE: Family Tree Update?
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 13:51:11 -0600


Good point!! Also, check with Family Tree Maker before you spend money on
the newest version. You may not be able to upgrade from version 4.0 to
version 7.0 The files are not all compatible.

Jeanne

-----Original Message-----
From: Paula Wiegand [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 12:58 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Family Tree Update?


> I read on a list that someone lost all their files. Has this happened to
> anybody. I am thinking of updating my Family tree Maker program and was
> wondering if it is much better than 4.0. I dont want to lose what I
have.Any
> advice coments? Mark:)

I have lost several whole databases and parts of another, but not,
as yet, by upgrading software.

My largest single loss (15,000 individuals in one file) was because I
had relied upon FTW backup files. I know lots of people love this
program, but please, do not think that your data is safe because
automatic backups are created while you work. I had a set of files
that became corrupted and because FTW overwrites your backups each
time you use a particular file it overwrote my good backups with bad
BEFORE I knew there was a problem. I lost years of work and it was
not recoverable. I no longer use FTW <G>

My latest disaster was around February of this year - I back up
manually now, but my library files were not so current as my main
database. An indexing problem lost me about 1/5 of a large database
and I am still sorting out a mess of rearranged and lost sources!

The moral of this - backup before you upgrade, backup all directories
at the same time, do not rely on FTW backups (afaik the other
programs out there do not backup in the same way as FTW and are
therefore safer), keep more than one backup and cycle them when
overwriting, but mostly, backup your work regularly!

Paula



==== RESEARCH-HOWTO Mailing List ====
Searchable archives for this list are at:
http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.p

This thread: