A CattleMax customer since 2004 experienced the worst - her cattle records were lost.

Sue* made regular backups. She stored them in multiple locations including an external hard drive, flash drive, and on CD. She even kept the CDs in storage offsite, just in case of a disaster in her ranch office.

Just a few months ago, Sue decided to upgrade to a new computer to increase speed and memory on her system. When the technician arrived to set up her new computer and transfer all of her files, she told him, "You can lose a lot of things in there, but don't you lose anything in CattleMax."

Sue says they both had a nice laugh about that comment, but when he finished a couple hours later, he told her he was able to transfer everything except the CattleMax files.

"I told him, 'Don't worry, I have all kinds of backups. I'll just restore them all,'" she says.

But, when she went to access her backups, she couldn't retrieve them. She found she had been saving shortcuts, rather than actual files. Shortcuts are often made to create a quick way to access and open a file on your desktop - they do not actually contain the file contents.

Two years of very meticulous record keeping including every vaccination, fly spray, castration, brand and even individual notes on unique or unusual events with each animal, had been lost due to a simple mistake.

"I had an incredible set of records," Sue says, "I will never get back to all the medical information, notes, and little details in. Now I'm just trying to get the basics entered."

She says if they had not upgraded to CattleMax 2006, and converted their herd file at that time, they would have lost even more records.

"I had read the manual, and felt very comfortable that I had excellent backups, and I didn't. My most important data was what I had been backing up incorrectly."

At first, Sue needed help determining how the mistake happened, so she contacted Customer Service.

"I called in and talked with Ken, and he was very helpful. I sent in screenshots of what I had done, and we figured it out."

Sue says Ken mentioned the new CattleMax Online Backup Service while they were on the phone.

"I think it's a great idea. It reduces the steps and chance for error in the backup process," she says.

Sue wanted other CattleMax customers to be aware of how a simple mistake could cause them to lose so much information.

"I just wanted to share my story in case someone else is doing the same thing," Sue says, "I would hate for them to experience this."

How exactly did the files get backed up as a shortcut?
    1. Sue created the backup in CattleMax, and saved them under "My Documents".
    2. She opened the "My Documents" folder, and clicked "Select All", in attempt to move all the files to a
     flash drive, external hard drive, or CD.
    3. She clicked "Send to", then selected the location to send the files, which created a shortcut to the file,     rather than an actual copy.

How can you tell if you have created a shortcut rather than saving the file?
Look at some of the icons on your desktop right now, including CattleMax. You can tell they are shortcuts by the blue arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon. If you see this on any file you are working with, you have created a shortcut.

*Name has been changed to share story with other ranches

Avoid Sue's troubles&mdash Learn more about the CattleMax Online Backup Service. or subscribe to CattleMax Online Backup today. Feel free to contact us or call toll-free 877-454-2697 to ensure your records are safe and secure.