Vault Question

[TRESinc]

I haven't used alamode in over 5 years and never used their vault but i have a friend who does and asked me a question i can't answer.

my understanding was that however many files you paid for storage (say 50 or even 500) was what the vault would automatically backup for you. it would rotate out the older files when a new file was created, thus keeping your newest 50 or 500 in the vault. apparently it doesn't work like that anymore. can someone confirm?

if that is the case is there a way to make it operate like that? he has several years, maybe even decades, of files and he is constantly getting a "vault full" message.

 

[bnmappraisal]

I can't quite confirm but I just looked at my Vault and it shows 1,648 of 2,020 files used

 

[Don Clark]

I haven't used alamode in over 5 years and never used their vault but i have a friend who does and asked me a question i can't answer.

my understanding was that however many files you paid for storage (say 50 or even 500) was what the vault would automatically backup for you. it would rotate out the older files when a new file was created, thus keeping your newest 50 or 500 in the vault. apparently it doesn't work like that anymore. can someone confirm?

if that is the case is there a way to make it operate like that? he has several years, maybe even decades, of files and he is constantly getting a "vault full" message.

I have no clue about old file automatically being eliminated. But, you can eliminate them yourselfmif you want to. I suggest he contact Alamode technical support and ask them. they may have a better way. The Vault proved very valuable to me when my old computer died a quick death. The tech's at Geeks on Call tried to retrieve from the old hard drive and it caught on fire with the attempt I had a lap top(thankfully) with total on it so used that until I got a new comuter set up. Then I sent the files in the lap top to the Vault, then retrieved them to the new computer. I have Vault set up to retrieve all new files every Sunday afternoon, and it automatically does that.

 

[Tom D]

i think vault is way too expensive to save appraisal files. you can back up to a removable disk, some very good programs available, and the on line back up companies are more price reasonable. i do use the alamode exact backup. those are the most important files to backup, with an easy re install on a new computer. either way, it's not hard to back up everyday.

 

[Don Clark]

i think vault is way too expensive to save appraisal files. you can back up to a removable disk, some very good programs available, and the on line back up companies are more price reasonable. i do use the alamode exact backup. those are the most important files to backup, with an easy re install on a new computer.

Expensive? I just paid $95.00 for 1,000 files.

 

[Tom D]

Expensive? I just paid $95.00 for 1,000 files.

i got 10,000 files backed up for a little bit more on line. it doesn't cost me anything to backup to a 1 64 gig flash drive, once i bought the backup program, and set it up. the best backup & easiest is called SynceBackSE. i just hit the button, and the new files are saved to a drive. you probable should have more things saved up, like backup of your pdf & workfile. lose the appraisal and at least you have a backup of the pdf & work file. you do enough for everybody don, look into this to save a little bit of money. any questions, i will be happy to help you figure it out.

 

[TRESinc]

i agree, i never used vault when i was using alamode software. much cheaper to buy an external hd and my own backup software.

btw, if anyone is looking i highly suggest this one:

https://bvckup2.com/

cheap, easy to use, set it and forget it!

 

[Dale Smalley]

It backed up my older files until it hit my limit and stopped. Did not start from new to old. . You have to tell what folders to backup and leave yourself enough space for new files.

 

[Overimprovement]

I still use vault because I like the convenience of it. I don't have to DO anything each day, and it backs up my settings too. That said, I only pay for about one year's worth of reports. After that, I manually move the older files on my computer that Total is not searching for vault backups. These I save both to an ext HD and a thumb drive, including the total version of the reports (saves workfile, notes, etc). The thinking being that except for a lawsuit, I probably won't need 99% of my files after about a year, which is the shelf life of most 1004D requests.

I use it for ease, not for permanent storage. As stated, many alternatives to that, and the more I think about it, the less I like having a conglomerated company having 24/7 access to all my files. But for now, if my PC were to crash, how many hours would I lose in getting another one up and running? Vs using an external hard drive and all. I figure using vault costs about one hour of my billable time, so if I would save an hour or more using vault while recovering from a crash, its worth the extra money...to me. I mean if it takes me an extra 5 hours to recover from a crash using another method, that's an appraisal I could have just completed.

Let me ask this--do these other backup programs offer seamless scheduling, so I could continue to DO nothing each day related to backups? Also, is there a way to backup my total settings like exact does?

Observation--when I manually viewed my vault files last, there were about 10% that were duplicates somehow, or otherwise did not need backed up. If you still use vault, might want to check the files it is actually archiving.