TS12 Backup folder. It really is a useful thing!

[JCitron]

That backups folder. What's it for, we wonder. Well tonight it proved its self to be a godsend. I truly muffed a route I've been working on and rather than download new DEM data, delete baseboards, and patch, I simply backed up my current work to be safe, deleted the in-progress route, then restored a previous date from the backups folder. I did all of this within Content Manager and the results are perfect. I was able to go back to a point, a few days ago, before everything became a load of garbage, and begin again.

So... For those that are wondering, that backups folder found under your Userdata is a nice thing to have. Guard what's in there along with everything else and keep this in mind should something go awry and the worst thoughts come as you've got to start over. Maybe it won't be that hard after all.

John

 

[NeonTheGriffon]

That backups folder. What's it for, we wonder. Well tonight it proved its self to be a godsend. I truly muffed a route I've been working on and rather than download new DEM data, delete baseboards, and patch, I simply backed up my current work to be safe, deleted the in-progress route, then restored a previous date from the backups folder. I did all of this within Content Manager and the results are perfect. I was able to go back to a point, a few days ago, before everything became a load of garbage, and begin again.

So... For those that are wondering, that backups folder found under your Userdata is a nice thing to have. Guard what's in there along with everything else and keep this in mind should something go awry and the worst thoughts come as you've got to start over. Maybe it won't be that hard after all.

John

As a bonus, image your disk drive to another one every night while you sleep for extra protection...

 

[JCitron]

As a bonus, image your disk drive to another one every night while you sleep for extra protection...

Great idea...

I don't bother to image anything because the only data I have on this particular drive is my Trainz stuff. I do, however, backup of my Trainz data every night to an external drive. This is a 'diff' backup so it only catches the latest downloads and updates rather than a complete backup. I backup to the same folder, however, so I always have a completely current install in the event I have to restore back from scratch which I did once after a system failure. This is also great for copying a backup to my laptop for use while traveling as I have everything up to that point in time prior to my trip.

I use FastCopy for this.

http://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en

John

 

[belgian46]

Hello John,

Backup folder, sometimes useful.

Last week, I decided to place my tram/train route ( start the build in Trs10 ) in TS12.

My route was created using Transdem and I also had a route and route1 layer, some transdem layers and session layer .

Apart from a few asset errors, the import went without any issues.

Last Sunday, I started to continue my route within TS12.

I opened my session, did some changes and frequently saved my changes using save as route and session.
Re-opened my last saved session and continued my work.

After 5 hours of work, I decided to stop and again did a save as route and session.

Then I wanted to check my route and noticed the following.
- Within my session all drivers were gone.
- Checked my 5 hours work - euh what happened here - only a small part of my work was present.

Well perhaps it was saved in my route? Checked it, no, same result as in the session.

Checked the layers within my route and noticed that my route layer was gone but the route1, transdem, session layer were still there.
So I went to the backup folder, and saw several folders in it.

But unfortunately, no backup contained all of my work.
Internally, within TS12, something went wrong, but I don't know the reason of this phenomenon

Best regards

Kurt :wave:

 

[JCitron]

Kurt,

That's sounds like an awful data-write glitch that occurred. Do you have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)? If you had a momentary power surge or dip (brown-out), this could possibly cause something like this. A UPS is truly an under estimated thing to have and are relatively inexpensive devices these days.

Did you check older backups? It may mean you have to redo some things, but at least you've got the majority of your data intact.

John

 

[belgian46]

Kurt,

That's sounds like an awful data-write glitch that occurred. Do you have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)? If you had a momentary power surge or dip (brown-out), this could possibly cause something like this. A UPS is truly an under estimated thing to have and are relatively inexpensive devices these days.

Did you check older backups? It may mean you have to redo some things, but at least you've got the majority of your data intact.

John

Hello John

It must have been a data writing problem, otherwise I have absolutely no explanation for it. If I had had a power-failure during my work, then I would perfectly understand why this phenomenon occured.
I haven't got a UPS and a small ups would be a good investment.

I only checked the backup folders of last Sunday. It would be very scary if I would find my Sundays 5-hour work within a backup folder which was made on Saterday or earlier.

You are also right about one thing, I only lost a part of my Sunday 5 hour changes to my route, the rest of my route seems to be OK.

Best regards

Kurt :wave:

 

[NeonTheGriffon]

Kurt,

That's sounds like an awful data-write glitch that occurred. Do you have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)? If you had a momentary power surge or dip (brown-out), this could possibly cause something like this. A UPS is truly an under estimated thing to have and are relatively inexpensive devices these days.

Did you check older backups? It may mean you have to redo some things, but at least you've got the majority of your data intact.

John

Couldn't agree more. the big 4U UPS supplies are amazing if you have multiple computers. Since I rack mount my builds to conserve space, I'm happy with how long they can run as I safely shut them down proper.

 

[JCitron]

Hello John

It must have been a data writing problem, otherwise I have absolutely no explanation for it. If I had had a power-failure during my work, then I would perfectly understand why this phenomenon occured.
I haven't got a UPS and a small ups would be a good investment.

I only checked the backup folders of last Sunday. It would be very scary if I would find my Sundays 5-hour work within a backup folder which was made on Saterday or earlier.

You are also right about one thing, I only lost a part of my Sunday 5 hour changes to my route, the rest of my route seems to be OK.

Best regards

Kurt :wave:

Hi Kurt,

A glitch doesn't even have to be a complete power outage. All you need is a switch between grids, a lightning strike somewhere, a motor turning on, or someone hitting a power pole. These over and under voltages and wreak havoc with data and devices. The problem is the hardware ends up "hurt" so that there are then latent failures - those that occur long after the incident. You could have taken a hit in the summer months from a thunder storm and not known it only now your computer is more sensitive to fluctuations in power and heat.

At least you didn't lose everything, but in general backups are a great thing.

@Wolf,

Those big APC 4-Us are great but also very heavy! I designed and managed a computer room for over a decade and spec'd out these devices for our equipment. We never, ever, had a problem with them and they performed right up until the company shutdown 5 years ago.

John

 

[JCitron]

Hi Kurt,

A glitch doesn't even have to be a complete power outage. All you need is a switch between grids, a lightning strike somewhere, a motor turning on, or someone hitting a power pole. These over and under voltages cause lots of hidden damage and wreak havoc with data and devices. The problem is the hardware ends up "hurt" so that there are then latent failures - those that occur long after the incident. You could have taken a hit in the summer months from a thunder storm and not known it only now your computer is more sensitive to fluctuations in power and heat.

At least you didn't lose everything, but in general backups are a great thing.

@Wolf,

Those big APC 4-Us are great but also very heavy! I designed and managed a computer room for over a decade and spec'd out these devices for our equipment. We never, ever, had a problem with them and they performed right up until the company shutdown 5 years ago.

John

 

[belgian46]

Hi Kurt,

A glitch doesn't even have to be a complete power outage. All you need is a switch between grids, a lightning strike somewhere, a motor turning on, or someone hitting a power pole. These over and under voltages cause lots of hidden damage and wreak havoc with data and devices. The problem is the hardware ends up "hurt" so that there are then latent failures - those that occur long after the incident. You could have taken a hit in the summer months from a thunder storm and not known it only now your computer is more sensitive to fluctuations in power and heat.

At least you didn't lose everything, but in general backups are a great thing.

@Wolf,

Those big APC 4-Us are great but also very heavy! I designed and managed a computer room for over a decade and spec'd out these devices for our equipment. We never, ever, had a problem with them and they performed right up until the company shutdown 5 years ago.

John

Hello John,

Thank you for the extra information.
Searching the www , I found that APC Ups are already available around 120 euro ( 165 US dollars ).

I do take backups on a regular basis ( several harddisks ), but never had a situation like last Sunday.

Best regards

Kurt :wave: