Preparing for disaster How to prepare your computer for disaster

     Everything you do with 123Backup is aimed at the ultimate goal of restoring files which have been damaged or lost. You may need to restore few accidentally deleted files or an entire Windows computer that is no longer working. Following are set of instructions to best prepare your system to later restore of a few files or an entire computer.

     To prepare your system for later restore you have to:

1. Make a complete backup of your files

     Before everything you have to make a complete backup of all your hard disk volumes. Set the scheduling properties of a Backup Set to update your backup as often as you can. 123Backup is a powerful tool but if you didn't backup a few weeks, you will lose everything you have done during these weeks.

2. Save repair information

     FIles with repair information contain everything you need to prepare 123Backup to restore your files after a disaster: definition of all your Backup Sets, encryption keys, catalog files and other configuration files.

     If you use encryption keys to encrypt your backup archives, you MUST have files with repair information to restore your files. Without keys you won't be able to decrypt your backup archives! Even if you don't use encryption keys, files with repair information will save you a lot of time. To restore your files you will need to:

• Have all encryption keys you used during backups. You can't recreate or somehow recover them! If you lose them, you lose your backups!
• Recreate all your Backup Sets. You can do that manually, but much more easy to allow the Repair Wizard to recover them automatically.
• Download catalog files. You can download catalog files from backup media (disks, CD-Rs, FTP Server) but it can take a lot of time. Fresh repair information will save your time with that task too.

     To create files with repair information, use Repair Wizard. Press Save/Restore repair information button at the Program Settings. This opens Repair Wizard. Choose "I want to save configuration and encryption keys" option and press the Next button. The following page will appear.

     Choose a place to save your repair information. It can be a disk (select a target folder) or FTP Server. Press the Finish button to save repair information.

     Do not forget the passwords you used to generate your encryption keys. You will need to enter them during restore.

3. Locate your Windows and 123Backup installation Software

     123Backup is not intended for backing up system files and you can not use it for restoring the whole operating system. That's why, you have to install your Windows operating system and 123Backup to restore your files. Have your Windows and 123Backup Installation Software and your License numbers ready. You will use them to install Windows on your hard disk if you need.

     Note that you always can download 123Backup from InterNet, but a local copy of it is safer (you may have problems with internet access).

     At this point you have done 123Backup's disaster recovery preparation. Any time you add a new Backup Set or encryption key you should update your repair information. To do that you should use the Repair Wizard again. Now you are ready to restore your files after a disaster.