How many backups to keep?

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I'm not sure where to post this question so here goes.  I go in and clean up my backup files periodically because I backup every time I close Legacy.  So, I accumulate a lot of backups.  Those are zipped files.  I realized that I had not done that to my recently added external hard drive.  I took a look at the backup files on the external drive this morning.  I have the regular zipped files that are on my PC.  But, I also have files with extensions: SC, TC, Rc3, PPL, and RGD.  When I open one of the zipped files, I can see those same file extensions.  So, I am assuming that my external hard drive is saving the zipped file but also saving the individual files.  My question is can I confidently delete those individual files as long as I save the zipped (compressed) files?  I have been saving one zipped file for each month just for safety's sake.  I hope I posted this to the write group.

Comments

  1. Rex KingJuly 10, 2016 at 3:55 PM

    I went to Legacy because there is no where in the File system that allows you to SAVE a FILE! This is my correspondence with Jairmie Technical Support Legacy Family Tree 2016 July 10

    Legacy Family Tree

    Jairmie
    Technical Support
    Legacy Family Tree

    Thank you for your reply, but what you are saying will not allow me to copy a file to my laptop when I am away from home. Your back up system is also very confusing. It never does what is expected and when I look in the zip folder it is empty.

    I love Legacy but your file system for saving is not helpful. I have determined before your response that "save as" is the only way I can understand where I save a file.

    I have tried moving the default location to a storage drive and named it Legacy Family Tree>Data folder also Media folder and a folder for _AppData but the program doesn't seem to recognize it. It still places the file where it seems to want to and does not rename it to what I choose.

    Please either make the file system simpler for someone like me or send better instructions on how Legacy does it saves!!!

    Let me try to explain the system again.

    There is no save system. At least not one that you need to do. Legacy auto saves in a file it creates when you create a new file.

    So for example. If you make a new file called genealogy and start adding all of your family members and relatives in the file it auto saves as you do it. Every time you open Legacy and that file and add information it auto saves into that file, no external saving is needed by you. This file has the extension .fdb and is stored by default at Documents>Legacy Family Tree>Data.

    Now if you wanted to move that original file you would either move it outside of Legacy or you could open the file and go to file>rename file. This will bring up a browse window were you can navigate to were you want to save it and then save it.

    If you wanted to move a copy of the file then you could open the file and go to file>save as. This will allow you to save a copy to any location of your choosing.

    It is important to note each family file is separate from all other family files. So if you do use save as to move a copy to a new location (like your laptop) then when you edit the copy on the laptop it will not affect the copy on your home computer.

    Now on the subject of backups. You do not open a backup. You restore from it. Here is a guide on how to restore from a backup. I will note though that you should not restore from a backup unless something happens to your family file and you need to recover your information:

    http://support.legacyfamilytree.com/article/AA-00869/14/Tips-and-How-Tos/Backup-Restore-how-to-restore-a-Legacy-file.html

    To change were Legacy saves the family file (new family files) you can go to options>customize>6.1. Now this will not move your current file, you will still need to use the file>rename feature to move the current file to a new location.


    Sincerely,

    Jairmie
    Technical Support
    Legacy Family Tree

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rex KingJuly 10, 2016 at 3:58 PM

    I guess they think we don't need to know how to save a file by our own Choice! I find this very hard to understand and unacceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shannon ThomasJuly 10, 2016 at 6:21 PM

    File - Save As will allow you to save your file with a new name or to a different folder with the same name. I don't understand what you are wanting to do Rex King

    Judy Burns I believe the files not in the zip file are your current database files.

    My working database files are saved in a folder in dropbox named working database and my back up files (zip files) are saved in dropobx in a folder named Legacy Backups. I keep the last 5 backups and delete the rest. My Legacy files and media files are both saved in the backups.

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  4. Judy BurnsJuly 10, 2016 at 7:44 PM

    Shannon Thomas Shannon, those numerous file extensions were repeated multiple times with different dates - really that many times with different dates.  There were also zipped files with numerous dates.  I believe that the subject file extensions are in the zipped files.  Or, at least, they appeared to be.  I was actually wondering why they were in the zipped files (backup) and also appear individually.  I will try submitting the question to support.  Thanks to everyone for their responses to my query.

    ReplyDelete

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