A major match in 2005 had a near disaster when their main laptop died   The power connector on the computer had become intermittent, and someone had to hold it "just so" so they could get their data copied from the laptop onto a thumb drive.

ForScore now supports data backup in the background while you're entering scores.  You can back up your data to a thumb drive, a zip drive, or a network share.

 

You must

1.  Configure the backup type and location

2. Turn on backup while you're entering match data.

 

1. Configuring the Type and Location.

Background data backup is configured on the Data tab in Program Preferences.  The Data tab will only be visible if you have checked Use advanced menus.

There are two backup options available - ForScore's own backup routines or a batch file you've written.

 

To enable ForScore's routines, click the check box, click Folder, specify how often you want the backups to take place, and specify the folder and drive where ForScore should back up your data.  Note that after browsing to the folder you wish to use, you MUST click Set to save the settings.  Clicking OK will NOT save the location.  In this illustration, L: is a USB thumb drive on my computer.

 

To use your own batch file, click the check box, click Run batch file, specify the time interval, and browse to the batch file you wish to run.  Note that after browsing to the batch file you wish to use, you MUST click Set to save the settings.  Clicking OK will NOT save the location.

 

2.  Turning on backup while you're entering data.

If you've enabled a backup location or a batch file, a new button will appear on the score entry screen.

NOTE: ForScore will remember whether you've turned background backup on or off each time you reopen the score entry screen until you exit the software.  If you want ForScore to start with background backup turned on, modify your shortcut to include the /autoback command-line switch.

 

When you've turned on background data backup, the status will display:

 

ForScore's backup routine:

ForScore's backup routine will create two sub folders within the backup folder you've specified: BackupA and BackupB.

While you are entering data, it will back up your data files at the interval you've specified.  The backups will alternate - one time files get copied to BackupA, the next time to BackupB.

 

Logging

For trouble-shooting or verification purposes, you can have the backup routine write to a log file.

Start ForScore using the /backlog switch.

Activity will be written to a file called AutoBack.log in the ForScore data files folder.