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This article applies to:

  • Product: Companies House Accounts Filing,Digita Accounts Production,Digita Accounts Production Advanced,Digita Company Secretarial,Digita Corporation Tax,Digita Corporation Tax Advanced,Digita Personal Business and Trust Tax,Digita Practice Management

Use Windows to schedule backups of Digita Suite products - excluding FileCabinet and Practice Management Advanced

Check out how to schedule a backup in Windows 8 / 10 & Server 2012 / 2016 / 2019 for all Digita products except Digita FileCabinet and Digita Practice Advanced
note
Microsoft do not support the scheduling service with SQL Express, so we cannot use this in our database backup tool.
There are two scripts that can be used, number 1 is the standard script for most users, and number 2 is an advanced script for Systems Administrators who need more control.

1. Windows Schedule Task Database Backup using Database Backup Tool

  1. Download this file, then save the file to your local hard drive.
  2. Extract the
    DigitaBackup.bat
     file from the ZIP.
  3. Right-click on
    DigitaBackup.bat
    , select
    Edit
    .
  4. Amend near the top of the script (USER CONFIG section) to specify your backup location. The text \%backdir% must remain on the end of the path, for example C:\Digita\Backups\%backdir%.
  5. Save and close the file.
  6. To test it, right-click on the
    DigitaBackup.bat
    , then select
    Run as administrator
    . Make sure the backup DDB files appear in the folder automatically created in the path you entered for the backup location.

2. Advanced: Windows Schedule Task Database Backup using SQLCMD and Powershell for advanced users only

  • A user account with Administrator privileges and a password (blank passwords not accepted) needed to create scheduled tasks.
  • Windows User Account Control may need to be disabled on the machine as it can cause the generation of prompts which cause the process to stall.
  • The Digita Database Backup Tool is not required.
  1. Download this file, then save it to your local hard drive.
  2. Extract the
    DigitaSQLBackup.bat
     file from the ZIP.
  3. Right click on
    DigitaSQLBackup.bat
    , then select
    Edit
    .
  4. Amend near the top of the script (USER CONFIG section) to specify your backup and destination locations. The text \%backdir% must remain on the end of both paths, for example C:\Digita\Backups\%backdir%.
  5. Save and close the file.
  6. To test it, double click on the
    DigitaSQLBackup.bat
    . Make sure the backup ZIP files appear in the destination folder automatically created in the path you entered for the destination location.
  7. Read the supplied readme.txt for more information.

Create a Windows Scheduled Task

  1. Take one of the following steps based on your Windows version.
    • Windows 8 & Server 2012: Open
      Settings
      Control Panel
      Administrative Tools
      Task Scheduler
      .
    • Windows 10 & Server 2016 / 2019: Right-click the
      Windows icon
      Control Panel
      Administrative Tools
      Task Scheduler
      .
  2. From the
    Action menu
    , select
    Create Basic Task
    .
  3. Name your task, then select
    Next
    .
  4. Select how often you wish it to run (Daily recommended).
  5. Enter a time for the task to start (after business hours is recommended).
  6. Select
    Start A Program
    .
  7. Browse to the location of the DigitaBackup.bat (or DigitaSQLBackup.bat file) you saved earlier.
  8. Tick the
    Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish
     checkbox, then select
    Finish
    .
  9. Select
    Run whether user is logged on or not
    , then tick
    Run with highest privileges
     and select
    OK
    .
  10. Your username should auto populate the top box, then enter your password in the following box:
    (The user account entered here needs to be an administrator and have a password to run the scheduled task)
    .
  11. Select
    Task Scheduler Library
    , then right-click the newly created scheduled task and select
    Run
     to test it works ok.
    • You'll see a folder with the current date appear in the backup location that you specified within the DigitaBackup.bat file. This folder will contain auto archived backups for all Digita databases you have. If you used the Advanced DigitaSQLBackup script, ZIP files will appear in the destination folder path rather than DDB files.
    • Completed Backups will not be over-written or deleted, keep an eye on the hard drive’s free space.
    • If you're running any of the Windows Home editions the user password will have to be re-entered into the scheduled task every time the machine is rebooted as storing the credentials is a limitation of this particular version of Windows.