Inventory Backups and Restores

Collectify Home Inventory stores all the information about each inventory in various data files on your computer's hard disk. If these data files are lost, all the information about the inventory will be lost as well. No computer is completely reliable, and there is always a small chance that your computer's hard disk may crash or some other mishap may occur. For this reason is it a very good idea to back up your inventory data files on a regular basis.

Backing up your data

By default, CHI prompts you to back up your inventory every two weeks. Upon closing your inventory, you will be prompted with the following message:

Click Backup Now to continue with the backup process, or Not Now to ignore. If you decide to run the backup, you will now need to choose where to save your backup file (*.hbk). We suggest using the default folder, Collectify Home Inventory. Either use the file name already entered (which is the name you originally gave your inventory) or type in a new name. Click Save.

If you do not wish to wait for the backup reminder and want to prompt a backup manually, first close your inventory by clicking on File in the menu bar, Close. You will be brought to the Login window.

Click on the Backup button (or, from the menu bar click File, Backup...). Follow the aforementioned backup steps.

Backup Frequency

You may change the frequency of inventory backups at any time. First make sure your inventory is open. Go to Tools, Options... and click on the Settings tab.

Schedule the reminder in Database Settings

From the Preferences section click on the Backup reminder drop-down menu. Select the backup frequency you prefer. Click OK to save your changes.

Please note that if the backup file is on the same hard disk as your inventory data files, and your hard disk or computer are lost, then you will lose both your inventory data files and the backup file. It is thus very important to regularly back up your CHI backup files, along with all other important files on your hard disk, to another location such as a DVD, flash drive, or remote Internet location.

Restoring Your Data

Should your inventory data files ever be lost or damaged, you can restore (replace) them from the Collectify Home Inventory Backup (*.hbk) file. This is done using the Restore tool.

Access the Restore tool from the menu bar by clicking File, Restore. Select the inventory you wish to restore to CHI and click Open. All inventory data will be retrieved, including all media files.

Select the inventory you want to restore

Any changes you made to the inventory since the last time you backed up your files will be lost. Hence, we recommend you back up your inventory often.