Quick Start This tutorial will walk you through own simple backups and a restore.

     This chapter introduces you to basic BackupMe's backup and restore operations and walks you through a tutorial in which you perform your own simple backups and a restore. You may not learn the terminology used in this manual, but do not worry - it's not necessary to know these terms for this chapter. Just follow along!

Prepare a Backup Set

     Start BackupMe by selecting BackupMe item at the "Start - Programs - KieSoft - BackupMe" menu. The main window will appear. At the first startup, there is no known Backup Sets and the main window will look like the image.

     BackupMe works with data organized in Backup Sets. To backup or restore your data, you need to create a Backup Set defining which files to operate with, where to backup them, and when to update the backup. That's why you have to create a new Backup Set. Press the New button. A new Backup Set Wizard will appear. The first page introduces you in the Backup Set concept and allows to enter a description for a new Backup Set and its group.

Each Backup Set must have an unique description that will be used to identify this Backup Set on a backup media. It has to contain up to 50 symbols, digits or spaces. Enter a description for the Backup Set at the field.      To make your work easier with many Backup Sets, you can separate them in to groups. That's pure logical division and does not affect backup or restore operations. Just select your group at the combobox. Click the Next button to accept the entered description and proceed.

BackupMe supports a huge range of backup storages. This page allows you to select a backup storage you want to use for that Backup Set. When you click on a storage type, its description appears. Read it carefully to find out more information about the selected backup storage.

     Click the Finish button to save a new Backup Set. It's not ready yet. You still have to define a set of files and folders to backup, configure backup destination, schedule and password protection and other properties. But now a new Backup Set will appear at the list of Backup Sets and main window should look like the image below:

     The next step to prepare the Backup Set is to specify files to backup. The first page allows you to include and exclude files, folders and registry keys to/from backup.  When you add a new Backup Set, all boxes are white.  You can include folders, registry keys, or files to backup by clicking on checkmarks near a folder or a file. The selected folders, files and registry keys have a white box with a red check. A gray box with a black check means that this folder will not be included in the backup, but it contains included files or folders. By using the folders with this state, you can easily find included folders in the tree. A gray box with a red check means that this folder will be included in the backup, but it contains a number of excluded subfolders.

     Select few folders to backup. To preview a list of the selected files, press the button "Show list of files to backup".

     Destination page is used to configure a backup storage. This page depends on a type of backup storage you selected for this Backup Set. For example: if you backup on a removable disk, you should select a target folder to put backup archives.

     Scheduler page allows to set up the scheduling properties. You can specify week days to backup, type of the scheduled backups and time to run backups.

     Others page allows to enable password protection of your backups and set some other parameters.

     When you set all properties as you want, press the Save button. Now you are ready to start your first backup. Press the Backup button. BackupMe will ask you Would you like to backup only new or changed since the previous backup files?. Press "Yes" button. This is your first backup and BackupMe will backup all files anyway.

     During any backup or restore process, BackupMe shows a status window with all necessary information about the process.

     Wait until backup process is finished. If there were not any errors or warnings during the process, BackupMe will show a confirmation box "Your files were successfully backed up!". Otherwise, it will show you a dialog box with a log of the process. My congratulations! Your first backup has been done!

Quick incremental backup

     Exit BackupMe. Make some duplicates of some files in the folders you backed up. Make sure the names are different from the originals. Also you can make some new documents using your word processor or any other application you know well. Do not make them complicated; you need just few simple changed and new files.

     Start BackupMe and right click on your Backup Set. A context-sensetive menu will appear. Select Run incremental backup... command to start backup of only new or changed files. It will take much less time than the first backup. The same status window will appear again. Wait until this quick incremental backup is finished. Congratulations on your second backup!

Quick restore

     So we just backed up some files. Lets assume you have lost some or all of these files and you need to recover them.

     Start BackupMe and select your Backup Set. Press Restore button. A dialog box with a tree of all backed up files will appear. (see image below).

     You have to select the files you want to restore (click on a checkmark near a file or folder). If you want to restore all files and folders, do not select any files. When all necessary files are selected, press Restore button to start the restore process. A Restore Wizard will appear. Walk through it without changing anything to restore the selected files to their original location.

Preparing for disaster

     If you follow the Quick Start chapter and make a complete backup of all your files, you have to prepare your system for later restore your entire computer if it ever stops working. See Preparing for disaster chapter.