Backup

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Options on this page affect the way a particular backup job is executed. Options that are marked with (*) might not be available in your edition - check Feature Matrix for detailed information on differences between editions.

Comparison

Comparison criteria

Selected by default, shows the current attributes used to determine which files will be backed up. By pressing the Change Criteria button a new window will open with special settings for advanced file comparison. You can set what properties of a file will be used when deciding if a file was modified or not.

Legacy (using archive bit)

If this is selected, Backup4all will determine which files will be backed up by verifying if the archive bit attribute is set. If the archive bit attribute for a file is not set, that file will be ignored (even if its size was modified for instance). Our recommendation is to use the Comparison criteria option since it's more accurate than using the archive bit alone.

Options

Use local catalogs (.bkc)

If this option is checked, Backup4all will keep a local copy of the backup catalog for the current backup job. Keeping a local copy of the catalog is recommended in most cases, except when using a backup rotation scheme to back up to CD/DVD, USB or external drives.

Example: the option Use locals catalogs is unchecked and you are performing an incremental backup to DVD, but on each working day you're changing the DVD so that if one DVD fails you'll still be able to recover most of your files. So on Monday you insert DVD 1, Backup4all runs and performs a full backup. On Tuesday you insert DVD 2 (which is empty) and Backup4all performs a full backup that includes all the data that's on DVD 1 plus the data that was added in between.

Now, if the Use local catalogs option would have been checked, Backup4all would have executed on DVD 2 an incremental backup because of the full backup already executed on DVD 1.

Test after backup

If this option is set Backup4all will test the resulting backup for data integrity after every backup process. Only the latest backup number will be tested after the backup execution. If you wish to test other backup numbers you can do so from the Test Backup window.

Delete sources after successful backup (*)

If this option is checked the backup sources will be deleted after performing the backup. Only the files will be deleted.

This option is disabled if the Test after backup option is not enabled.

Delete empty folders after successful backup (*)

If this options is checked the empty source folders will be deleted after performing the backup.

Ask for backup label before execution

If this option is set a window will be shown and will prompt the user to enter the label description of the backup increment .

If you do not want to give a label to the current backup, leave the edit control empty. Check the Don't label next backups if you do not want to see this window when the current backup job is executed in the future. This feature is particularly useful for incremental backup types, when the label can be seen as a milestone for all files backed up. These labels are visible on the Versions page of the Restore Wizard and in the list of file versions in the Explore view.

Backup open files (XP/Win2003 Server/Vista only)

If this option is checked, Backup4all will use the Volume Shadow Copy service to back up local open files from NTFS partitions in Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server or Windows Vista. This way you can back up files that are in use (for example your .pst file without closing Ms Outlook).

Backup execution priority

Using the slider you can set the backup execution priority compared to the rest of the running processes on your system. Setting it to Highest priority, for instance, will determine the system to allocate most of its resources for this backup execution.

Volume label

Use default labeling

If this option is set, the system will generate labels for each removable media with the following pattern: "<BACKUP NAME><DISK SPAN>_<BACKUP NUMBER>":

·	<BACKUP NAME> is the name of the backup job as shown in the General page

·	<DISK SPAN> is the number of disk span in the current backup

·	<BACKUP NUMBER> is increased at each backup job execution

For example "Myfiles2_3" is for the third execution of the Myfiles backup job, second disk span.

Volume label prefix

The prefix can be maximum eight characters long. This option is useful only for removable media (like CD/DVD, ZIP disks, floppy disks etc.) and is disabled when Use default labeling is checked.