Backup Buddy. Welcome to Backup Buddy! The simplest, friendliest backup application for the Mac.

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1 Backup Buddy Welcome to Backup Buddy! The simplest, friendliest backup application for the Mac. Just like Apple s Time Machine, Backup Buddy will create a chronological archive of your data. But unlike Time Machine, Backup Buddy lets you control the really important stuff. You can choose exactly what you want to backup, where you want store your backup, and when you want the backup action to run. And that s it! No complicated settings, no baffling options. Backup Buddy will make all the hard technical choices for you. Although Backup Buddy s user interface is pretty much self-explanatory, this guide will walk you through the steps needed to create a backup action.

2 Backup actions When you launch Backup Buddy, you will see the main window, which lists all the backup actions you create. Each backup action is simply a set of what, where and when. You can define a new backup action by clicking on the new backup button, and edit or delete an existing backup action. The open backup folder button will open in the finder the window in which your backup is stored. You can run a backup action any time you want, regardless of its schedule settings, by clicking the execute backup button. Did you know... Backup Buddy can run in the background, without displaying any windows. You can make Backup Buddy visible via the menu bar. menu in the

3 What to backup The backup options window has three tabs. The first one is source. Here s where you choose what you want to include in your backup. Enter a name for your backup action here Drag files and folders here to add them to the backup You can also use the + and - buttons to add or remove items With the calculate sizes button, you can see how much disk space your backup will take

4 What not to backup Sometimes, you may want to backup an entire folder s contents except for some specific items. For this purpose you can use the exclusions list. Click here to expand the exclusions list Drag files or folders here to exclude them from the backup You can also use the + and - buttons to add or remove items

5 Where to store your backup You can choose where to store your backup from the destination tab. You have two choices, either store your backup raw as files and folders, or store it inside a disk image. What are disk images? A disk image is a file that behaves like a storage device. Double clicking on such a file is like connecting a device, e.g. a USB stick, to your computer. Backup Buddy uses a type of disk image that s called a sparse disk image. This means that the disk image file will grow in size as more data is stored in it. You can define a size limit, beyond which the disk image will not grow any more, or allow the disk image unlimited growth. You can choose whether you want your backup to be stored in a folder or inside a disk image. For more information, see the appendix. Disk images can be limited in size, so that your backup does not grow beyond a certain point. Click here to select where your backup will be stored.

6 When to run the backup Finally, you can select how often your data will be backed up. This is achieved through the backup schedule tab. If you prefer to run your backup manually, simply leave the activate backup schedule check box unchecked. Click here to activate the schedule. You can create biweekly or monthly backup schedules by increasing this number. Did you know... Backup Buddy s scheduling requires the application to be open in order to work. Please read appendix II for more information. Click on the days of the week you want your backup to run. Click on all days if you want a daily backup schedule. Select when during the day the backup will be run.

7 Appendix I How to choose the destination type Backup Buddy gives you a choice between storing your backup in a folder or in a disk image. Each option has advantages and disadvantages: A folder is best used when you want to access your backup data from other operating systems or devices which cannot read disk images. Since a folder has no fixed size, the backup will grow until all the free space in the volume is used up. (This is the same way Apple s Time Machine functions.) Also, a folder must be stored in a volume formatted in Mac OS Extended format. This means that if you want to store your backup on a network volume which is formatted for Windows or UNIX, you can t use a folder as your destination type. A disk image is required when you want to store your data in a non-mac-formatted volume. Also, a disk image can have a maximum size limit, so that it will not take all the available free space of the volume. This is especially useful when you store your data on a network volume, which may serve many users (and therefore you don t want to hog all the free space).

8 Appendix II How to use scheduling effectively Backup Buddy s scheduling feature is only active when the application is running. (This is necessary to conform to Apple s sandboxing guidelines for the App Store.) There are two simple ways to make certain Backup Buddy will be running: Method 1: Right-click on the Backup Buddy icon on the dock, and then choose Options Open at Login. This will ensure that Backup Buddy will always be active and able to execute all scheduled backups. Method 2: If you donʼt want Backup Buddy to be always active, you can make it run at specific times by creating a repeating ical event. In the alert options, select Open File as the alert type, and then Other... from the second menu. Select Backup Buddy in the file dialog that will appear. Finally, select the time the alert will open Backup Buddy. When Backup Buddy opens, all scheduled tasks will execute automatically.

9 Appendix III Restoring your files Backup Buddy stores your files in either a folder or a disk image. In both cases, you can access your backups directly from the Finder. How to view the contents of a disk image A disk image is a file stored in your computer. Double click on its icon, and a new volume will appear on the desktop: Your backup is inside this volume. Double-click to open it. Your backup is stored in individual dated folders. Each folder contains all the files included in the backup. To restore files from a specific date, open the corresponding folder and copy them where you want. You can also use Spotlight search to find a specific file. To unmount the volume after you re finished, drag its icon to the trash.

10 Appendix IV How does Backup Buddy s incremental backup work? Backup Buddy uses a Mac OS X feature called hard links. These allow Backup Buddy to store data more efficiently. (Apple s Time Machine uses the same technique.) How hard links work is more apparent in disk image backups, although the same applies to folder backups as well. Normally, storing all the files in a backup multiple times would use a lot of space. For example, in this backup it appears that the data stored uses over 300GB of disk space. Did you know... Hard links confuse the Finder s size calculation. In reality hard links take no additional space, but they appear to take the same amount of space as the original item. So the Finder will incorrectly report that a backup folder has a much larger size than it actually has. However, if you examine the actual space taken by the disk image, you will note that it only takes about 90GB. This is because Backup Buddy uses hard links to store only the changes from one backup to the next.

11 2012 Koomasi Disclaimer Backup Buddy is a powerful tool and should be used with great care by the user. The creators of Backup Buddy shall not be liable for any damage or loss of data arising from the use of the software.