Technical & Customer Support

Setting Up Offsite Data Backups

1. Complete the "Start Your Free Backup Account" form on our website to register your new account. Wait a moment for the account to process, and you will see a welcome message with instructions and a link to install your new account. The message will also be emailed to you for future reference. Print out 2 copies for your reference and store them securely offsite.
2. Click the download Backup Installer link.
   • ClientInstaller.exe
   • File Size: 8.19 MB
   • Operating Systems: Windows 98, NT, ME, 2000, XP and 2003
   Click "Open" or "Run" on the File Download popup screen to begin the installation. You must have a live Internet connection when you install the program and configure your online account. Follow the subscription and installation instructions in the program.
3. Click "Yes" on the "Security Warning" popup to download our program. Download time depends on the speed of your Internet connection. On most broadband connections, this will take less than one minute. Slower dial-up connections may take up to 15 minutes. Once the download is complete, software installation will begin.
4. Select your language from the list, then continue. We recommend that you accept all default settings unless you need to change the installation path. (Slower computers may hang at 99% for up to a few minutes -- please wait until it completes!) Once installation is complete, you should notice a new icon on your desktop and in your system tray.
5. Congratulations! Offsite Data Backups is installed. You are now ready to run the program (double-click the desktop or systray icon) and select your important documents for backup and set a schedule for automatic backups to run.

Running an Initial Backup

1. Create a new backup set by running the Backup Set Wizard. The Backup Set Wizard can be executed by going to the "Configure Backup Sets" window of the "Backup Sets, Schedules and Events" panel and pressing the "Add…" button. Also, backup set properties can be viewed and backup sets can be removed using the "Configure Backup Sets" window.
2. Select Files to backup. Backup files are selected by clicking on the checkboxes next to folders and files. Filters can be applied easily by right-clicking on folders.
3. Select which backup set you want to backup. One or more backup sets can be configured to hold file selections. "The Backup Set" button above the tree view is used to select the desired backup set. A list of all available backup sets will be displayed. When the desired backup set is chosen, the appropriate file selection will be loaded automatically.
4. Start the backup. A backup can be started in several different ways:
   • Press the "Backup Now" button from the Backup Client.
   • Choose one of the backup options from the "Backup" menu item.
   • Choose one of the backup options from the Backup Client Tray Control menu.
   • Run the Backup Client from the command line with the -b option. The -b option causes the Backup Client to automatically perform a backup when the program is executed.
5. Check the Log file. The log file contains a detailed list of actions performed during the backup. It also contains a convenient list of summary information at the top of the file.

Restoring Data

1. Select the files to restore. The desired restore files must be selected before beginning the restore. Restoring older versions of files can be accomplished by changing the backup date that is currently set for the display. The button on top of the tree view indicates the current date that is used to display current files available for restore. A list of available backup dates, along with three "view options" can be viewed by pressing this button. The three view options are described below:
   • Show Files Before: Displays all the files backed up before the selected date. If a file has been deleted in a previous backup, it will not be displayed in the restore view for selection.
   • Show Files After: Displays all the files backed up after the selected date.
   • Show Files On: Displays all the files backed up on the selected date. This is the most restrictive option. Only the specific files that were backed up on the selected date will be displayed for selection in the restore view.
   • TIP: To restore a group of files as of a specific backup, the Show Files Before option should be selected, along with the appropriate date in the restore date list.
   • To view all the files that are available for restore including previously deleted files, the Show Files After option should be selected, along with the oldest backup date in the restore date list.
2. It is sometimes necessary to highlight the volume and then from the menu, "Select" > "Get File List from Server". This gets the entire available file history from the server.
3. Start the restore by selecting the "Restore Now" button.
4. Specify where to save the restored files. This option allows restored files to overwrite existing versions of the files or to be copied to a specific location with a default of "C:\Temp"
5. Check the Log file. The log file contains a detailed list of actions performed during the restore. It also contains a convenient list of summary information at the top of the file.