Back up your LENA Pro data

If your LENA Pro computer's hard drive crashes, the only way to restore your LENA data is with a complete and current backup of your LENA data directory.

Follow these instructions to manually copy your LENA data to a secure location so that if your system crashes your data will remain intact. These instructions apply to all LENA Pro packages as well as to LENA Collector.

To implement an automatic data backup system that regularly creates incremental or differential backups of all of your LENA data, please contact your IT support person. IT support will need to know the LENA data location information in Step 2.

Any time you work within the underlying structure of a software system you run the risk of data loss.

  • PLEASE contact an experienced technician for assistance.
  • These instructions assume that your active LENA data are stored in the default location, selected at the time of installation.
  • These instructions assume that you have not used the "move audio" feature or otherwise altered your data structure.

LENA provides this information as a courtesy to its customers. LENA is not responsible for any data loss that may occur as a result of following these instructions.

1. Choose a backup location and create your backup storage path.

1.1. Select a location that would be accessible in the event of a system crash.

This could be a network drive or external hard drive.

1.2. In the selected location, create a folder called "LENA Backups."

1.3. Within LENA Backups, create a subfolder named for the date of the backup.

Tip: Use a YYYYMMDD naming convention to easily sort your backups.

The example below shows that:

  1. Backups are being made on the D: drive...
  2. in a folder unambiguously named LENA Backups.
  3. Two backups have been made so far - the first on September 30, 2013, and the second on October 4, 2013.
  4. Each backup contains the entire LENA directory as it existed on that date, as explained in the next step.
Within LENA Backups, create a subfolder named for the date of the backup.

(Make sure the application is closed first.)

Default Windows 7 location - C:\ProgramData\LENA

Default Windows XP location - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\LENA

Note:  If you do not see the ProgramData directory, show hidden folders and files.  If you do not see the LENA directory within ProgramData, your data may have been stored to a custom location.  

2.1. Check for the subdirectories.  

Please look inside the LENA directory to be sure you see the subdirectories shown below.  

Specifically, if you do not see the subfolders db_lite and storage, you have not followed the correct file path to your data - please review the previous step.  

Check for the subdirectories.  

3. First time checks:

There are a few things to look at the first time through that will help you verify that:

  1. your data are being stored in the default location, and
  2. the audio files are not being routinely separated from the rest of the data.

Note:  These checks are not exhaustive.  This information is provided as a courtesy to help our users avoid backup errors that may result from previous customizations; however, the LENA Research Foundation has no way of anticipating all possible customizations that may be made during initial installation and use of the LENA software.

3.1. Verify that \storage contains subfolders.

In \storage you should see \childdata, containing one subfolder for each Child Key in the system.

If you don't see Child Key subfolders, your data may have been stored to a custom location. The procedures in this article will not back up your data.

Verify that \storage contains subfolders.

3.2. Verify that the subfolders contain the .upl (audio) files.

Why?  If the "move audio" function was ever used to separate the original audio from the derived files - out of space concerns or for client privacy protection - the procedures in this article will not pick up the .upl (audio) files for the backup.  (Of course you can skip this step if you are intentionally not keeping audio.)

  1. Search \childdata for *.upl
  2. Does the search return the expected number of recording files?

If so, proceed.  If not, your audio files may have been moved.  Please contact LENA Support for assistance.

Verify that the subfolders contain the .upl (audio) files.

4. Copy the LENA data.

4.1. Copy the entire LENA folder with all subfolders.

  1. Right click LENA.
  2. Select Copy.

This will include audio files, data files, and all child information data.  If you have a large amount of data, this could take several minutes or up to an hour.

Copy the entire LENA folder with all subfolders.

5. Paste the copied LENA directory into LENA Backups subfolder for today's date, created in Step 1.3.

  1. Open the dated subfolder.
  2. Right click.
  3. Select Paste.

Again, if you have a large amount of data, this could take several minutes or up to an hour.

"Only brush the teeth you want to keep...

                          ...and only back up the data you want to keep safe."

  • Back up your data at intervals that fit your recording schedule.  For example, if you upload 10 files a day, a daily backup will help keep your data intact in case of a crash.  If you upload 1 file a week, then weekly backups may be sufficient.
  • Plan to keep the last 2-3 backups at all times. Problems aren't always caught immediately, so the option to backtrack is valuable.