It’s sad to hear from our customers that they ‘thought’ they had a backup, but didn’t. We are finding this to be all too common among purchasers of online backup software, like Carbonite, Mozy, SOS, and other popular services. The problem isn’t the backup software, but a misconception about what they do.

Typically, these online programs are set to only backup the ‘most common’ folders on your computer. These include your ‘Documents’ folder, ‘Pictures’, ‘Videos’ and possibly your system files. There is no common default backup among all vendors, but the point is they usually don’t backup up ‘everything’, only the most common folders on your computer. If you have specific folders you need to include in your online backup (like the Tenant File), you MUST select that folder in the settings your your backup program. That includes other programs that install in private folders on your system.  So, it is up to you to tell the online software which folders to back up.

Now, the Tenant File has it’s own easy to use backup, which only takes a couple of clicks to back up your precious Tenant File data to a CD, DVD, Flash Drive, USB, Memory Stick or other media.  You should use it on a regular basis. However, it only backs up the ‘data’ not the entire folder. You should backup the entire folder as well, whether you use an online software or simply copy the Tenant File folder using Windows utilities. (To find the path to your folder, right-click the Tenant File shortcut, then choose ‘Properties’, and look at the ‘Start in’ path – that is the path to your Tenant File information).

So, if you have an online backup, that is great! Just don’t forget to include the Tenant  File in that backup, which might save a lot of heartache in the future if you computer crashes or becomes inaccessible.