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A new backup in Get Backup can be created by two simple methods: using drag-and-drop method or choosing New Backup Project command in the File menu or in the program toolbar.
To create a new backup using drag-and-drop method:
To create a new backup using the New Backup Project command, you need to:
A new item will appear in the backup list. It will be named as the first selected file or folder. All the selected folders and files will be added to the content table of this backup. In future, the created backup can be renamed.
By creating a new backup, you compose a list of files or folders, define type of backup, and choose the location for saving it. Note that creating a backup is only the beginning of the process. It does not mean that backup archive was actually created. To complete the procedure, you should build your backup.
All parameters and settings of any opened backup are stored by the program in the backup information file. Such files can be saved in two formats depending on the program Preferences:
These files are saved automatically in the
~/Library/Application Support/Get Backup/Backups/
folder for all opened backups. Never remove them from there manually! This is the service data bank of the program.
The list of the opened backup projects, in the left part of the program main window, displays the names of all opened backup projects created by the current user. The following operations can be performed upon this list: changing the sort order, changing the title of a backup, saving backup properties, deleting backup, opening backup.
To change the sort order, click on the Backup Projects list header.
To rename a backup project, double-click on its name in the list, then enter the new name, and finish by pressing the Return key.
To save backup properties, choose the Save Backup Project menu item in the File menu. All settings of the selected backups will be saved in the
~/Library/Application Support/Get Backup/Backups/ folder. The properties of all opened backups are saved automatically when you quit the program.
To remove a backup project from the list, choose the Remove Backup Project item in the File menu. The corresponding "*.bif" or "*.bifx" file will be removed from the service folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Get Backup/Backups/.
Note that deleting a backup project from the list (closing) does not actually delete archived data. Later, you will be able to open such backups again. Closed backups are not processed by the program. Automated rebuilding of closed backups is impossible.
To open a backup project you should:
The program will open the chosen backup project and add it to the list of the opened backups.
You may need to open a backup when it is not in the list of the opened backups due to the following:
For more details, see the Backup Properties and Building a Backup sections.
Backup properties are displayed at the bottom of the main window. Here you can edit settings for the selected backup project, such as backup location, filters and schedule.
Specify where a new backup should be saved.
Destination – the device where backup archives should be stored; you can choose one of the available locations in the pop-up list.
Folder – the place where the backup files should be stored; enter the path in the field or use the file dialog by pressing Choose.
You can use hard drives or CD/DVD burning drives, and any mounted or network devices, and those connected via USB or FireWire ports. The main requirement is that the current user should be authorized to copy/write onto such a device. It is better to use devices with quick access, such as: network devices (in case of high speed of transmitting data through the network), devices connected via FireWire or USB 2.0, extra hard drives, and RAID arrays.
Also, note that when making a backup on a CD or DVD disc, you will not be able to specify a folder. In this case, the program will create a folder for a new backup on a disc. The folder will be named as the current backup.
Specify the method of backup creation.
Backup Method – a way of building backup archives. It specifies which files/folders should be included into the following backup, and how to handle the previous copy of the backup. The program supports the following methods:
Your choice of backup method, should depend on the nature of the saved data and on the free space on a device, where backup archives are located.
Use compression – before building backup archives, the program compresses files.
Using compression allows to minimize the size of the resulting archives, depending on the nature of the saved data by 10-60%. Handling compressed backups requires more time. Remember, some data are poorly compressible, normally they are files of the built-in compression format, for instance, image files in JPEG format.
Backup archive size limit – the maximum size of the backup archive file. If the full size of your backup exceeds the limit, the program will create a multi-volume backup. This setting cannot be chosen together with the compression. To set the size limit for your archive, select one of the variants in the pop-up list. Choosing Custom, you can specify the size in megabytes.
Any additional information on backup methods can be found in the Managing Backup Archives and Building a Backup sections.
Filters
Specify which files should not appear in your backup archives.
Invisible files – indicates whether invisible (hidden) files should be excluded from the resulting backup.
Finder data – indicates whether the Finder files should be excluded from the resulting backup.
Applications – indicates whether application files should be excluded from the resulting backup.
Aliases – indicates whether aliases (links to the original files or folders) should be excluded from the resulting backup.
By pattern – indicates whether files, with names matching the pattern, should be excluded from the resulting backup. Selecting the check box, enables an edit box in which you can enter a regular expression based pattern.
You can also use a special file dialog, which helps to form a pattern of the existing files. Click the Capture button, then choose a file. The program will identify the type of this file and add it to the pattern box.
The regular expression based pattern processed by the program should meet the IEEE Std 1003.2 ('POSIX.2') standard, sections 2.8 (Regular Expression Notation) and B.5 (C Binding for Regular Expression Matching). To learn more on regular expressions, read the documentation on system utilities using regular expressions for files. For this, launch the Terminal application from the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and entering the command "man re_format".
Schedule
Set up the schedule for regular automatic backup creation.
Use scheduled backup – indicates whether the program should use the schedule for automatic backup creation.
On the day – indicates the week day (or date) for backup creation. This control is not displayed for daily backup schedule.
At the time – indicates desirable time for automatic backup creation.
For more details about scheduling automatic backup, see the Scheduled Backup Creation section.
Get Backup offers a number of ways for managing backup content.
The backup content table is located in the middle of the main window.
Each row of the table displays the added file or folder together with their attributes:
1 – Folders & Files – the names of the added folders and files in the current backup. The original icons are shown next to file names.
2 – Location
A file or folder may be located:
on the hard disk (original location);
in a backup archive;
on the hard disk and in a backup archive
3 – Date Modified – the date of the last file modification.
4 – Size – displays file size.
5 – Include – check boxes indicating whether files or folders have been included to the future backup archive.
All files in the table are sorted alphabetically. To change the sorting order, just click on the header of the Folders & Files column.
You can add any file or folder to the current backup at any moment. For this, click Add Files button in the toolbar. Then, in the file dialog, that comes up, select the needed files and click Select. Or, use the Add Files item in the Backup menu.
Alternatively, drag-and-drop a file or folder from a Finder window into the content table of the current backup.
To remove any file from the backup select it in the content table and click Remove Files in the toolbar. Or choose the Backup > Remove Files menu item.
Depending on the chosen backup method, Get Backup creates backups with different names. It uses the uniform name format which includes the date and time of backup archive creation:
methYYYYMMDDhhmmssn.ext
where:
meth – backup method: "full" – full, "incr" – incremental, "vers" – versioned;
YYYY – the year of building (for instance, 2005);
MM – month (for instance, 01);
DD – day (for instance, 14);
hh – hour (for instance, 22);
mm – minutes (for instance, 23);
ss – seconds (for instance, 17);
ext – extension: "tar" – for archives without compression, "tgz" – for archives with compression.
For example, the archive with the name "full20050114222317n.tgz" shows that it was built as a full archive on January 14, 2005 at 10:23:17 p.m., with compression enabled.
Note that for a full backup, the old archive is replaced with a new one. Thus, there is only one archive for each backup. For the other methods, there are as many archives as many times you created backups.
The Completed Backups drop-down list contains available backup archives that were created for the current project. The archives are sorted by time, so that the latest one is at the top of the list. So, for incremental and versioned backups you can choose the archive from which restoring should be done. You can also see which files are located in each archive looking at the Location column in the content table of the current backup, after you have chosen an archive.
In case of incremental backup each next archive contains only modified files. To join them together, select the All incremental archives item in the Completed Backupspop-up list.
In the Completed Backups list, an archive at the top is the latest created one. It is selected by default.
Backup building is a process of saving data files to backup archive files. For this purpose, Get Backup uses the tar system utility. That is why all the created archives are fully compatible with standard tar-archives.
The backup building process can be activated automatically, according to the schedule set for a backup, or initiated by the user. For more detailed description on scheduling automatic backup creation, see the Scheduled Backup Creation section.
To start building of a backup:
Select the backups to be built in the list of the opened backups.
Click
Backup Now on the toolbar or choose Backup >Backup Now in the menu.
While building a backup, Get Backup creates a sub-folder named as the current backup on the specified backup device. The backup info file and created archives will be saved into this folder.
The process of building a backup can take some time depending on the number and the size of the included files. The program performs operations in the background mode displaying corresponding messages in the status bar. During this process, most operations in the program are unavailable. The log messages reflect the course of the process.
To cancel the process at any moment, click the Stop button in the toolbar, or choose Backup > Stop in the menu.
Restoring is a process of direct copying files from backup archives to the specified hard disk location. Get Backup allows to restore files from a backup archive both to their original location on the hard drive, and to the folder specified by the user. Doing this, the program restores all the original sub-folders and file attributes.
To restore all the backup files to their original location on the hard disk:
To restore all the backup files to an alternative location on the hard disk:
Note: Restoring files from the backup will replace files on your hard drive if they have the same names. If you want to restore and replace only several selected files, restore the whole backup to an alternative folder, then using Finder, copy the needed files to the desired location.
The process of restoring files can take some time depending on the number and the size of the included files. The program performs operations in the background mode displaying corresponding messages in the status bar. During this process, most operations in the program are unavailable. The log messages reflect the course of the process.
To cancel the process at any moment, click the Stop button in the toolbar, or choose Backup > Stop in the menu.
You can save your backup archives directly on CD, DVD or Blue-ray discs. For this, Get Backup sends all the necessary information to the Toast disc burning software.
To burn a backup archive on a disc:
CDs or DVDs are recommended for incremental or versioned backups.
You should remember that for building a backup on CD/DVD, the software requires some extra space on the system hard disk for temporary files.
If your backup archive requires more space than one disc, you can burn in on several disks. The software will split the archive into several parts.
Get Backup provides a possibility of flexible automation for regular backup creation. For this, you should set up a backup schedule described in the Backup Properties section.
In the program Preferences (Cmd-,) you should select the Enable schedule and Use Agent options. They are selected by default. Once you have activated using a schedule, the program starts tracking time with ten seconds intervals. And when the scheduled time comes, the program starts creation of scheduled backup archives.
If the Use Agent option was not enabled, you should keep the program running. Otherwise, Get Backup launches a special agent-program GetBackupAgent. This program works in the background mode, tracking the time with ten seconds intervals. When scheduled time comes, the agent launches Get Backup program, which builds the needed backups.
The agent is terminated, when Get Backup program is running. When you quit Get Backup, the agent-program activates again. The agent is launched by default after re-starting the operating system or turning on the computer.
GetBackupAgent takes less system resources than the main application.
To control the backup processes, Get Backup opens a separate log for each program session. In this log, the program adds various service and diagnostic messages, which allow to track all the processes. The program log is saved in a text file, located in the ~/Library/Application Support/Get Backup/Logs folder. The program log is also displayed on a drawer – a panel which is opened and closed by the Log toolbar button, or by the View > Toggle Log menu item. Use the program Preferences to set up how detailed the log should be.