Regularly performing backups of your data ensures you have a copy of your practice data in the event of an emergency.

💡Tip: Schedule a reminder to log into your backup data, to check your backups are saving correctly, and that you can access the saved data, should you need to.

Configuring Network Backups

A network backup is performed internally in your practice, without any of your data being saved externally to your practice network.

Setting up a Backup on Closing EXACT

⚠️Note: Backup configuration is per computer; therefore, it is necessary to complete these steps on each computer that you wish to perform backups.

1. Go to Configure - Computer Settings.
2. Tick the option Prompt for Backup on Exit.
   • You will now be prompted to select a backup location - this location must have the necessary file permissions for EXACT to save a copy of the data.
     ⚠️Note: This location must also have enough space to perform backups, otherwise it may affect the performance of your computer. Alternatively an external backup device can be used, which can then be removed from the practice, if required.
     
3. An additional option to backup sub-directories is also available; tick this option if required.
   💡Tip: Sub-directory files include folders containing X-rays, patient contacts, scanned and imported files, completed Patient Portal and Clinipad forms, email attachments and letter templates. These additional folders usually make up 75%+ of the EXACT data folders' size.
   ⚠️Note: Your X-rays may be stored outside of the EXACT folder due to their combined size. Contact the EXACT support team for assistance locating your X-rays if you’re unsure where they are stored.

Once configured, whenever you log off from EXACT on that workstation, you will be prompted to perform a network backup.

Backups can be performed as often as you wish; however, if people are using the system, it could cause performance issues, as well as making the backup take longer to finish. 

💡Tip: Perform backups at lunchtime or at the end of the day to minimise practice disruption.

Additional Information

Consult with your IT support to set up the backup in conjunction with any other backup systems you are running in the Practice.

The backup will write to a log file which will be located in the data folder of EXACT, e.g; \\server\EXACTData\logfiles\backup.log
This will tell you the computer, user ID, location and whether the backup was successful or failed. If the backup fails for any reason, it will automatically open this log file on screen.

Please note: the location you are backing up to will need Windows permissions to write to the folder. If you have any errors regarding this, please do the following:

1. Right-click the backup folder (i.e. C:\DataBkup) and go to “properties”.
2. Then, on the Security tab, click edit, highlight users, and tick the full control box to make sure all Windows users can read/write to that folder.

Checking the backup log (viewing backup history)

1. Go to D:\exactwin\data (or where your data is located).
2. Locate the folder called logfiles, then double-click Backup.log.
3. Scroll to the bottom to view the most recent backup information.

💡Tip: This will show whether the prompt to back up was accepted, declined, failed or successful.

This can also be viewed by going to \\SERVERNAME\EXACTData\Logfiles and opening backup.log from there (Replace SERVERNAME with the name of your EXACT Server name).

Why Backups are Important

If your Server computer encounters an issue, preventing you from accessing EXACT, an up-to-date backup means you can log in and start working quickly.

Without a backup strategy, it is possible that you will not be able to recover your EXACT data, and may need to start again, inputting all your data from scratch.

EXACT has built-in capabilities to perform a Backup each time a user exits the program, which we recommend doing at the end of each working day. This process makes a copy of the EXACT database on the local workstation or an External drive.

This alone makes your data quite resilient, but does not cover you for practice-wide catastrophes such as fire, flooding or theft.

This is why 3rd party backups (i.e. Cloud) are recommended. Please speak to your IT support for assistance with this. You will need to configure your backup software to copy the EXACT database while the database is not in use.

⚠️Note: If your practice is using Online Booking/Payments or Patient Portal forms, the data will be live data, 24 hours a day. In this instance, we advise configuring the backup to be performed at a time to cause the least disruption possible.

💡Tip: Each workstation can store one copy of the data, so it could be advisable to cycle through different workstations each day, or make sure that your offsite backup (i.e. Cloud) store multiple days in case some corruption is not discovered for a few days. 

Disclaimers for Backup Strategy and Functionality

• The dental practice is responsible for arranging, configuring, maintaining and testing a backup strategy.
• Software of Excellence or Henry Schein One cannot be held responsible for any backup negligence on the part of the practice, nor is Software of Excellence or Henry Schein One responsible for ensuring that backup tapes are regularly checked for functional operation – this remains the responsibility of the dental practice or its associated IT services.
• The practice and / or its associated IT contractor is responsible for configuring, maintaining and testing a backup strategy.
• Software of Excellence or Henry Schein One cannot be held responsible for any negligence on the part of the practice.
• The responsibility for third party backup technology remains with the dental practice and / or its IT supplier.
• Software of Excellence or Henry Schein One is not responsible for ensuring that backup tapes are regularly checked for functional operation – this remains the responsibility of the dental practice and / or its associated IT services.
• Software of Excellence and Henry Schein One take no responsibility for any issues arising from a manual database restoration, and it is strongly recommended that you contact the Support Desk for help if you need to restore a database from a backup.
• Software of Excellence and Henry Schein One do not specifically recommend any 3rd party backup software providers.