Back Up Your Repair Shop Data

A repair shop's records are worth more than the computer they live on. Tickets, customer phone numbers, warranty history, stock counts and the cash log are what let you honor a warranty, settle a dispute or file your taxes. Losing them to a dead drive or ransomware can set a shop back for months. A backup plan does not need to be complicated, but it does need to exist and be tested.

What you are protecting

• Open and closed repair tickets, with their notes and approvals
• Customer contact details and device history
• Inventory counts and the trail of stock changes
• Sales, refunds and cash records for your accountant
• Price lists and shop settings that took hours to set up

The 3-2-1 idea, sized for a small shop

The classic rule is three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy kept away from the shop. For a small shop that can be as simple as the working copy on the counter computer, a second copy on an external drive, and a third on another drive that goes home with the owner each week. A fire, a flood or a break-in should never be able to take all three.

How often to back up

Ask how much work you could stand to type in again by hand. For most shops that limit is one day of tickets, so a daily backup is the minimum. Run it at closing, after the last ticket is saved, so the copy holds the whole day. Keep a few older copies as well; if a problem goes unnoticed for several days, the newest backup may already contain it.

Keep one copy offline

Ransomware encrypts every drive it can reach, including backup drives that stay plugged in. Unplug the external drive after each backup, and rotate two drives so one is always disconnected. A copy that is not attached to anything cannot be scrambled.

Test the restore

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan. Once a month, restore the latest copy on a spare computer and open it. Check that recent tickets are there and that the totals match. Note how long the restore took, so you know how long the shop would be down in a real emergency.

Write the recovery steps down

When the counter computer dies on a Saturday, the person on shift may not be the one who set up the backups. Keep a single page that says where the backups are, which drive is newest, and how to get running again on another computer. Store a printed copy away from the computer it describes.

Protect the computer itself

• Install operating system updates and keep antivirus running.
• Keep the shop computer away from personal browsing and email attachments.
• Do not open router ports for remote access unless you truly need it.
• Add a small battery backup so a power cut does not corrupt data in the middle of a save.

Where RepairAmigo fits

RepairAmigo stores the shop's repair, customer and inventory records on the shop's own computer instead of someone else's cloud. It runs as its own VM, a locked-down Linux system that stays on the shop network, so there are no router ports to open, and it is designed to keep common Windows viruses and ransomware out. Backing up means copying the entire VM, and that copy starts on another computer as easily as the first install did. Remote support stays switched off until someone in the shop clicks Allow. It runs on your computer (Windows PCs and Intel Macs), with a 30-day free trial, then an optional one-time $99 paid version with no subscription.

The checklist

Back up daily at closing, keep three copies with one off site, leave one drive unplugged, test a restore every month, and keep the recovery steps on paper. Ten minutes a day is cheap insurance for years of records.