Backups 

BACKUPS ARE USELESS UNLESS YOU REGULARLY VERIFY THEIR QUALITY BY RESTORING THE BACKUP TO ANOTHER COMPUTER. We suggest either a high quality USB flash drive, an online backup, autoback-up to a removable hard-drive or both.  USB drives are very inexpensive, so get a few and rotate them. CDs can cause problems and we don't recommend them except for long-term archival.

You must always encrypt your data so that patient data remains secure, for example in cases of theft or loss.  There are two methods of encrypting your data.

Hardware Encrypted Drives (Recommended), such as those offered by Apricorn. 
Data is encrypted by a dedicated processor located on the encrypted drive instead of using the computer's processor.  Hardware encryption devices run independently of the operating system and any additional software.  Data is protected from unauthorized access by unique pins. 

Software Encryption, such as BitLocker.
Software encryption uses the computer's resources to encrypt data.  Software must be updated, or reinstalled if you change operating systems.

Online Backups
See the Online Backups page for information about online backup services.

Reminder
You will see this reminder once a month.  There is no way to disable the monthly reminder because it is an absolutely critical issue that everyone must think about.

Built-in Backup Tool
In the Manage module, click the Backup button. You will need to enable Security permission first for this feature. 

Because the data is not encrypted, you must use a USB flash drive which incorporates encryption.  An example is https://www.ironkey.com/demo-personal

Step-by-Step Backup
1. At the office, put in a flash drive in the server and go to the Manage module.
2. Select the "Backup" button.
3. In the window above, make sure the first line is correct (Backup database FROM this folder). If not, browse to the correct folder and select. Typically, it is C:mysqldata.
4. In the second line, make sure you have the correct letter for your flash drive. This will differ depending on your computer's drives. If not sure, go to "My Computer" in the desktop and open it and look for your flash drive. Make a note of the letter and that's what should go into the second line in the backup window. In the simplest case, it would be D:.
5. Click on the "Backup" button and wait until a message appears that says Backup is complete.

Step-by-Step Restore
1. Make sure you have a working copy of EZ 2000 at home that runs.  
2. Insert the flash drive in your home computer.
3. Open your EZ 2000 Plus Dental software and go to the Manage module.
4. Click the Backup button and in the backup window above, you will notice that it has restore options below the backup options.
5. There are three lines for restore. The first one is the letter for the flash drive. It is not necessarily the same as the one at the office. You can check in your "My Computer" folder to verify you have the correct letter. In the simplest case, it is D:, but it may be different in your computer. Make sure you have that letter in the first line for restore.
6. The second and third line is where you want to restore your database and A-Z folder. Make sure these are correct. You can browse to find the correct folders if they are not correct.
7. Click the "Restore" button and the software will ask you if you want to restore from the backup on the flash drive done on whatever date it was done. Click OK and the restore process begins.
8. As soon as the process finishes, close your EZ 2000 Dental software.
9. Click to open EZ 2000 again and the software will start.
10. It will then get to a window that asks the paths to your images folder. In the first line you will see the name of your office server. You have to change it to the name of your home computer. Enter C:EZ2000DentalImages.  Leave the other options as they are.
11. Click OK and your EZ 2000 Dental software should finish opening.

Tips for advanced users:
1. If problems with restore, try running EZ 2000 Dental as Administrator.
2. If you changed the name of the database from opendental you must also change it on the new computer before attempting the restore.

Manual Backup
(if not using our built-in tool for some reason)
There are many available backup software programs on the market.  We have heard good things about Backup4all.
This must be done from the server, where your database is located. Plug a USB flash drive into your computer. It would then be recognized as the D: drive in MyComputer. The backup software will then copy two folders to your flash drive:
SERVERmysqldataEZ2000dental
SERVEREZ2000DentalImages
You should try to make sure nobody is using the program during a backup, but you don't need to close the program.

Manual Restore
Restore your backup to your home computer to make sure it's a good backup. You will have already installed Open Dental on that computer. The version should be the same as your office computer. Verify versions from Help | Update.

• Stop the MySQL service as follows: Right click MyComputer | Manage | Services and Applications | Services, then look for MySQL in the list. Highlight it, and stop the service.
• Rename the old database folder from C:mysqldataez2000dental to something else, like C:mysqldataez2000dentalold02152006.
• Copy the database folder from the backup source, (e.g. D:ez2000dental) to the appropriate location on the main hard drive, (e.g. C:mysqldataez2000dental). Make sure you don't end up with too many layers (e.g. C:mysqldataez2000dentalez2000dental).
• (optional) Copy the ez2000DentalData folder (with the A-Z folders) to the hard drive (e.g. C:ez2000DentalData).
• Restart the MySQL service.
• Open the program.

If you have trouble opening the program after restoring, you may need to run the setup program buried within your backup. The location of the setup program is D:ez2000DentalImagesSetup.exe. If the installed version is newer than the backup version, then you will need to uninstall ez 2000 Dental from your control panel before running the Setup program.

Archives
You also need to keep old copies of some of your backups. You can make separate weekly backups to a different flash drive. When it fills up, put it in storage, and get another one. If you are using imaging, then manually backup the C:EZ2000DentalImages folder to CDs, DVDs, or removable hard drives.

A good use of archiving would be to use CrashPlan or other file versioning systems which allow you to go back to a specific date and time and restore files that might have been accidentally deleted or modified.  These programs can typically backup to multiple locations safely and securely.