Backup spreadsheets?

[Kirsten]

I had exactly the same problem - corrupt file

What's the best way to automatically back up spreadsheets in a separate file name so that if the corruption happens I don't lose all the formulas and formatting?

My company will soon be quite dependant on spreadsheets and we have to do everything possible!

What do companies usually do to protect their spreadsheets?

Many thanks, kirsten.

 

[Oaktree]

My 2 cents is to save your work to a network server and backup the server every night. Most companies (should) have this process already in place.

 

[Kirsten]

spreadsheet security and backup

We do have this in place. I'll ask our tech guy if I could have retrieved the previous day's file.

I had a problem with autorecover. It saved the data but I lost all the formatting and formulas, so I had to start it almost from scratch.

Does autorecover always do this? Is there a way to retrieve the formulas and formatting?

 

[katphish]

There is no guarantee and Excel is notorious for corrupting itself. This tends to be worse for VBA enhanced Excel files. Sometimes I've had a file that's been working for months all of a sudden fail to open, no warning, no nothing that it was about to die. One sure fire way to corrupt Excel file is to use the sharing feature, it's miserable.

There are add-ins you can use such as AutoSafe, http://www.jkp-ads.com/Download.asp

Deb

 

[Kirsten]

Spreadsheet backup

Thank you for your reply. My bosses were planning on working with an off-the-shelf accounting system, and have our customized calculations be produced in excel.

If excel is this touchy, our control process is shot. We simply can't rely on a program like this!

I would appreciate any input other experienced users care to offer.

Manyt thanks

 

[Oaktree]

I wouldn't completely write-off Excel just yet, I'd just make sure you were using Excel appropriately. If you're trying to maintain a database for your data, Excel can be a very good tool when managing small amounts of data. For large datasets (particularly those greater than the infamous 65,536 row limitation of Excel), you're better off using a program designed for data warehousing.

Excel files do crash once in a while, though the later versions of Excel have built in tools for automatically saving your work and repairing corrupt files. Of course, those tools do not serve as a substitute for backing up your work. Then again, *any* program running in Windows is likely to hang once in a while.

All of this is a long way of saying that, whether Excel is the right software for your situation really depends. You probably wouldn't want to use Excel as your general ledger, but you probably wouldn't want to use a data warehouse program to do on-the-fly, what-if scenarios with charts.

 

[adulted]

Batch file Scheduled task

Hi Kirsten,

I run an scheduled task batch file nightly here. You can use something as follows:

Where I save my excel files usually on the local hard drive C:\, and back them up to a network drive.

This line in the batch file below, is on a line itself, although it may appear as two lines, as it is just wrapping in this message body. There are 8 lines in total below.

xcopy "C:\A_DiskHam\EXCEL\*.*" "I:\HamBack\Disc Two\DiskHam\EXCEL" /m /s /y /c /r

1. echo off
2. cls
3. cd \
4. echo Backing UP C:\A_DiskHam\EXCEL
5. xcopy "C:\A_DiskHam\EXCEL\*.*" "I:\HamBack\Disc Two\DiskHam\EXCEL" /m /s /y /c /r
6. goto END


7. :END
8. echo Complete

Hope this helps,
Paul

--/clip/--
echo off
cls
cd \
echo Backing UP C:\A_DiskHam\EXCEL
xcopy "C:\A_DiskHam\EXCEL\*.*" "I:\HamBack\Disc Two\DiskHam\EXCEL" /m /s /y /c /r
goto END


:END
echo Complete
--/clip/--

 

[Kirsten]

tempermental spreadsheets

Thank you both.

We'd be using excel for a number of complex calculations. Example: $200,000 of overhead costs allocated based on support staff and clinician employment status within each department (100 or so). The spreadsheet would need to be updated monthly (preferably by importing the data) from ADP and from another spreadsheet with full-time equivalent calculations.

I think the problem is with too many links over too many lines. MS Access or SQL will probably be a more robust and end-user friendly solution.

However, excel does have it's place in our processes - I will pass the backup information to our programmer and see where we get with it.

Many thanks again!