Tri-Edre Tri-Backup - 4 Instruction Manual

Tri–BACKUP 4

USER GUIDE

Licensing and Copyright Agreement

Except as permitted under copyright law, no part of the Tri–BACKUP program (the

“Software”) or this user guide (the Guide”) may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of TRI-EDRE. The Software, and this Guide, are licensed only for individual use on a single computer. You are permitted to make working copies of the Software, solely for your own use. Only one copy (original or working) may be in use at any time. If you ever sell, lend or give away the original copy of the Software, all working copies must also be sold, lent or given to the same person, or destroyed.

Limited Warranty

TRI-EDRE warrants to you that the Software will perform substantially in accordance with the documentation for the ninety (90) day period following the date of delivery of the Software to you. If the Software fails to meet the speciﬁcations of the warranty set forth above, TRI-EDRE’s liability and your exclusive remedy will be replacement of the CD or a reasonable effort to make the product meet the above warranty speciﬁcation. Except for the above express limited warranties, TRI-EDRE makes and you receive no warranties or conditions, express, implied, statutory or in any communication with you, and speciﬁcally disclaims any implied warranty of non-infringement, merchantability or ﬁtness for a particular purpose. TRI-EDRE does not warrant that the operation of the program will be uninterrupted or error-free. In no event will TRI-EDRE be liable for any loss of use, loss of proﬁts, interruption of business, or indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages of any kind, however caused and under any head of liability, arising out of use of or in connection with the Software.

Trademarks

Tri–BACKUP is a trademark of TRI-EDRE. Apple, Macintosh and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Conputer Inc, registered in the United States and other countries. Adobe, Reader and Photoshop are trademarts of Adobe Systems Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. StuffIt Expander is a trademark of Aladdin Systems Inc., registered in the United States and other countries All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

22 Place de l’Eglise - BP 111

83510 LORGUES (FRANCE)

Web site

Email address: contact@tri-edre.fr • contact@tri-edre.com

: www.tri-edre.fr • www.tri-edre.com

TRI-EDRE

Phone:+33 4 98 10 10 50

Fax:+33 4 98 10 10 55

Cover ...................................................................................................................................1

Note: This User Guide makes extensive use of hyperlinks. Click wherever you see the mouse pointer turn into a pointing hand (in Adobe® Reader®) to navigate to the linked destination. Links include Internet URLs, all text

shown with this style and color, and all entries in

this Table of Contents.

Legal Notices ........................................................................................................................ 2

Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................3

Introduction ...........................................................................................................................7

Administrator Mode (Mac OS X only) ........................................................................................ 9

Basics ................................................................................................................................ 10

Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Welcome! ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Thank you for registering .................................................................................................................. 7

Installation ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Updates ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Updating to version 4.x ............................................................................................................................. 7

Upgrade from version 3 or 2 ...................................................................................................................... 8

Uninstalling .................................................................................................................................... 8

Launching and Registering the Software ............................................................................................

Technical support ........................................................................................................................... 8

Contact TRI-EDRE ........................................................................................................................... 8

Activating Administrator Mode .......................................................................................................... 9

Actions—Immediate vs. Programmed .............................................................................................. 10

Immediate Actions ................................................................................................................................. 10

Programmed Actions .............................................................................................................................. 10

What can be backed up or synchronized? ........................................................................................ 11

Complete Automation ....................................................................................................................

Normal Operation .......................................................................................................................... 11

Backup ........................................................................................................................................ 11

Backup Destination ....................................................................................................................... 11

Copying ........................................................................................................................................ 12

Restoring ....................................................................................................................................

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Contents 3

Synchronizing ............................................................................................................................... 12

Multiple conﬁgurations ................................................................................................................... 12

Backup Strategies ................................................................................................................ 13

What kind of backup to use? .......................................................................................................... 13

Background Backups .............................................................................................................................. 13

Create conﬁgurations for every backup ..................................................................................................... 14

Backup of several computers over the network ................................................................................. 14

Backup / Restore / Source / Origin / Destination ............................................................................... 14

Back up your backup! .................................................................................................................... 14

Backup Modes .................................................................................................................... 15

Finder Backup .............................................................................................................................. 15

Synchronization ............................................................................................................................ 15

Immediate Backup ........................................................................................................................ 15

Programmed Mirror Backup ............................................................................................................ 15

Programmed Evolutive Mirror Backup .............................................................................................. 16

Programmed Incremental Backup ................................................................................................... 16

Restore Modes .................................................................................................................... 17

Manual Restoration from the Finder ................................................................................................ 17

Using Synchronization to Restore .................................................................................................... 17

Using Immediate Restoration .......................................................................................................... 17

Using the Programmed Actions Restore button ................................................................................. 17

The Main Window ................................................................................................................ 18

Assistant ...................................................................................................................................... 19

Immediate Actions ........................................................................................................................ 19

Programmed Actions ..................................................................................................................... 19

Groups of Programmed Actions ................................................................................................................ 19

Controls ................................................................................................................................................ 19

Tools ............................................................................................................................................ 20

Action Progress window .......................................................................................................................... 20

Preferences ......................................................................................................................... 21

Immediate Actions ............................................................................................................... 23

Actions Menu vs. Main Window ...................................................................................................... 24

Common Immediate Actions Settings .............................................................................................. 24

Filter Settings ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Choosing Folders and Disks ..................................................................................................................... 25

Display options ...................................................................................................................................... 25

Immediate Backup ........................................................................................................................ 25

Running a Backup .................................................................................................................................. 26

4 Contents Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Checking First ........................................................................................................................................ 26

Immediate Restore ........................................................................................................................ 26

Immediate Copy ............................................................................................................................ 27

Immediate Synchronization ............................................................................................................ 28

Immediate Compression/Decompression/Protection ..........................................................................

Delete a Disk or Folder’s Contents .................................................................................................. 29

Programmed Actions ............................................................................................................ 30

Creating a Programmed Action ....................................................................................................... 31

Mode Panel ........................................................................................................................................... 31

Title ................................................................................................................................................ 31

Group ............................................................................................................................................. 31

Mode menu ..................................................................................................................................... 31

Administrator Mode (Mac OS X only) .................................................................................................. 32

Items Panel ........................................................................................................................................... 32

About unmounted volumes ................................................................................................................ 33

Options panel ........................................................................................................................................ 33

Alert and Launch of File or Script ....................................................................................................... 33

Direct Copy ...................................................................................................................................... 33

Mirror Backup .................................................................................................................................. 33

Evolutive Mirror Backup ..................................................................................................................... 34

Incremental Backup ......................................................................................................................... 34

Synchronization ............................................................................................................................... 35

Compress/Decompress ..................................................................................................................... 35

Delete ............................................................................................................................................. 35

Trigger Panel .......................................................................................................................................... 35

The Filters Panel .................................................................................................................................... 36

Predeﬁned Filters ............................................................................................................................. 36

Speciﬁc Filters List ........................................................................................................................... 36

Filters Editor .................................................................................................................................... 37

Links Panel ............................................................................................................................................ 38

Restoring ............................................................................................................................ 39

Restoration constraints .................................................................................................................. 39

Restoration’s powerful possibilities .................................................................................................. 40

The Restore Window ...................................................................................................................... 40

The Security Folder—Extra Safety in Restoration ..............................................................................

Tools .................................................................................................................................. 42

Compare Two Disks or Folders ........................................................................................................ 42

Partition a Folder’s Content ............................................................................................................ 42

Regroup Folder Contents ................................................................................................................

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Contents 5

Modify Properties .......................................................................................................................... 43

Check Volume Access .................................................................................................................... 43

Information ................................................................................................................................... 43

Latest Files ................................................................................................................................... 44

Errors .......................................................................................................................................... 44

Common Filters ............................................................................................................................ 44

History ......................................................................................................................................... 44

Browser ....................................................................................................................................... 45

Other Features .................................................................................................................... 46

Search ......................................................................................................................................... 46

Create a File to Run Selected Actions .............................................................................................. 46

Activate/Deactivate Selected Action(s) ............................................................................................ 46

Compression/Decompression ......................................................................................................... 46

Evolutive Backup Data ................................................................................................................... 46

Lock Application ............................................................................................................................ 46

Table of Icons ...................................................................................................................... 47

Programmed Actions ..................................................................................................................... 47

Immediate Actions ........................................................................................................................ 47

Restore ........................................................................................................................................ 48

Backup Browser ............................................................................................................................ 48

Results and Errors ......................................................................................................................... 48

Frequently Asked Questions .................................................................................................. 49

6 Contents Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Introduction

Note: You may want to

check the settings for each of your previously Programmed Actions, as new options are available under version 4, and some existing options have been modiﬁed.

Welcome!

Thank you for purchasing Tri–BACKUP!

Tri–BACKUP is the quick and simple way to backup, restore and synchronize the ﬁles on your Macintosh®. Features include:

• Backup in a variety of modes

• Restoration of ﬁles lost to accidental erasure or corruption, or to return to an earlier version of your documents.

• Synchronization of ﬁles on different volumes or computers.

• Regularly scheduled backups and synchronizations to your speciﬁcations.

Thank you for registering

A registration card is included in the software package. Please complete and submit the form to enable your access to technical support and timely notiﬁcation of updates and product news from TRI-EDRE.

Installation

Simply drag the Tri–BACKUP 4 Folder from the CD-ROM or downloaded archive to your Applications folder. If you downloaded your copy of Tri-BACKUP, you may require StuffIt® Expander® to decompress the SIT archive before use. Please read the Read Me ﬁle in the downloaded folder for the latest information about Tri-BACKUP.

Updates

Visit our web site at http://www.tri-edre.com to ensure you are always running the most up-to-date version of Tri–BACKUP. Updates can be downloaded directly from the site using your assigned serial number. There is no charge for updates to the same main version number—your Tri–BACKUP 4 license includes all updates from 4.01 through 4.99 as and when they become available.

Updating to version 4.x

Tri–BACKUP 4 will automatically update and use settings ﬁles created in version 4.0. Your new Tri–BACKUP 4 settings ﬁles are stored in the Tri–BACKUP folder, and a backup copy of the previous settings ﬁle is automatically saved in the Tri–BACKUP.prefs folder located in the Preferences folder.

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Introduction 7

Note: Tri–BACKUP is required to recover ﬁles compressed with the application.

Note: Keep your serial number in a safe place to access upgrades and technical support and to reinstall the software if necessary.

Upgrade from version 3 or 2

At ﬁrst launch, Tri–BACKUP 4 will ask you to select one of your previous settings ﬁles, located in the ƒTri–BACKUP.prefs folder under version 3, or in the Tri–BACKUP folder under version 2. Tri–BACKUP 4 will then create new settings ﬁles automatically.

Uninstalling

To completely remove Tri–BACKUP from your hard drive, quit the application and drag the following items to the Trash:

• The Tri–BACKUP Folder.

• The Tri–BACKUP.prefs folder from the Preferences folder.

• Under Mac OS 9 only, the “Tri–BACKUP Auto” ﬁles located in the Startup Items and Shut Down Items folders in the System Folder.

Launching and Registering the Software

Double-click the application icon to launch Tri–BACKUP. Enter your serial number at the prompt (sent to you by email, or located on a sticker on your CD) to activate all of the features of Tri–BACKUP 4.

We recommend having Tri–BACKUP automatically launch at your system startup in order to be sure your automatic actions always run on time to protect you from data loss:

• Under Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then select the Accounts preference, click the Startup Items tab, press the Add button, and choose Tri–BACKUP 4 in the dialog.

• Under Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then select the Login Items preference, press the Add button, and choose Tri–BACKUP 4 in the dialog.

• Under Mac OS 9, create at least one Programmed Action within Tri–BACKUP that will be automatically triggered. Tri–BACKUP will create a ﬁle in the Open at Start Up folder in your System Folder.

Technical support

Free technical support can be accessed by email, fax or phone. Please have your serial number and software version number handy before calling, and be sitting in front of your computer with Tri–BACKUP running.

Contact TRI-EDRE

Please contact TRI-EDRE directly if you have comments, problems or questions about Tri–BACKUP, this user guide or the TRI-EDRE web site, or require additional licenses or a site license.

TRI-EDRE 22 Place de l’Eglise - BP 111 83510 Lorgues, France Email: contact@tri-edre.com Phone: +33 4 98 10 10 50 Fax: +33 4 98 10 10 55

8 Introduction Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Administrator Mode (Mac OS X only)

Under Mac OS X, a user’s access to ﬁles and folders depends on the permissions assigned to the items. When a user attempts to read or delete a ﬁle or folder without the necessary permissions, the system will not allow the operation. This limitation includes Tri–BACKUP, since application programs under Mac OS X have the same permissions as the current user. Since many ﬁles in the System folder are accessible only to the administrator or ”root” user, this can cause backup of items like preference and support ﬁles to fail. The solution to this problem in Tri–BACKUP is using Administrator Mode.

Activating Administrator Mode

Using a correct administrator-level password, you can grant Tri–BACKUP the authorization to fully access the ﬁles on your Macintosh, in order to run a complete backup, or to create a bootable copy of a Mac OS X system. This authorization applies only to the

Note: If Tri–BACKUP is moved or reinstalled, you may have to reactivate Administrator Mode.

Note: If you forget your password, you will have to delete and reinstall the application to regain use of Tri–BACKUP.

Tri–BACKUP application itself.

On ﬁrst launch, Tri–BACKUP will offer to save your authorization password, after which you can switch from normal to administra tor mode without typing the password. Once the password is saved within Tri–BACKUP, administrator mode can also be automatically enabled and disabled during Programmed Actions. When running in Administrator Mode, a red circle icon appears in the main Tri–BACKUP window and on the application’s icon in the Dock.

To enable Administrator Mode, do one of the following:

• Choose Backup > Activate Administrator Mode

• Press the Activate Administrator Mode button in the main window

To disable Administrator Mode, do one of the following:

• Choose Backup > Deactivate Administrator Mode

• Press the Deactivate Administrator Mode button in the main window

For added security, choose Tools > Lock Application or press the Lock button in the main window. Once Tri–BACKUP is locked, program settings, Immediate Actions and restorations will be accessible only by entering the correct password. Programmed actions will run normally, but no additional actions can be programmed without the password. On ﬁrst use of this command, you will be asked for a new password for the application. This password is set by you and is separate from your normal login or administrator password, though it can be the same password if you so choose.

To unlock the application, choose Tools > Unlock Application or press the Lock button in the main window, and enter your password.

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Administrator Mode 9

Basics

Actions—Immediate vs. Programmed

Immediate Actions

Use Immediate Actions to quickly and easily run a backup, copy or synchronize ﬁles and folders, with very few settings.

Immediate actions include:

• Copying a folder or disk

• Backing up a folder or a disk

• Restoring a ﬁle, folder, or an entire volume

• Synchronizing a folder or a disk

• Compressing, decompressing or protecting a folder’s content

• Comparing the contents of two folders

• Deleting the contents of a folder.

Programmed Actions

Use Programmed Actions for any tasks you need run often, for those you want to run automatically, and for those where you want to exercise ﬁne control over the ﬁles and folders affected. Your settings for Programmed Actions are saved and can be run manually at any time, or can be set to run automatically at regularly scheduled intervals with no further input from the user.

Programmed Actions include:

• Backup of folders and disks

• Copying of ﬁles and folders

• Synchronization of folders and disks

• Compression of ﬁles

• Deleting the contents of folders (for example, to regularly “clean out” cache folder

10 Basics Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Note: Under Mac OS X, Tri–BACKUP must be launched to execute actions scheduled for shut down. Under Mac OS 9, Tri–BACKUP will be launched automatically at system shut down to execute these actions.

What can be backed up or synchronized?

Tri–BACKUP can manage the contents of any volume attached to your Macintosh. This includes the source and destination volumes for a backup, copy or synchronization. Tri–BACKUP handles any ﬁle type, including documents and applications, so long as the source and destination volumes are currently mounted on your system

Complete Automation

The ﬁrst requirement for Tri–BACKUP to execute actions automatically is that it is running. Fortunately, even this can be automated. To automatically launch Tri–BACKUP at system startup, see Launching and Registering on page 8 above.

Normal Operation

Once you have created a Programmed Action and scheduled it, choose Tri–BACKUP (OS X) > Preferences and check the box marked “Automatically launch when actions are to be done.” Once this checkbox is enabled, Tri–BACKUP will automatically launch under Mac OS X when necessary, perform the Programmed Action, and then quit until the time set for the next action.. Alternately, you can simply leave Tri–BACKUP running at all times. Under the advanced memory handling of Mac OS X, almost no resources are used by Tri–BACKUP when it is not the active application.

Under Mac OS 9, we advise you to avoid manually quitting Tri–BACKUP, to ensure your Programmed Actions will execute when in tended. Tri–BACKUP creates a ﬁle in each of the Startup Items and Shutdown Items folders in the System Folder, so that Programmed Actions will automatically execute at system startup and shutdown, and quit when necessary. Tri–BACKUP does not install any extensions or control panels under Mac OS 9.

Backup

Tri–BACKUP makes a backup of your data by copying every modiﬁed ﬁle onto a local disk, a network drive, removables such as Zip or Jaz disks, CDs and DVDs. Tri–BACKUP can backup a complete volume or only speciﬁc folders. You choose the conﬁguration you need.

Tri–BACKUP makes copies of original ﬁles for backup. Files are automatically duplicated into the backup location, in much the same way as copying them manually. The difference is that Tri–BACKUP preserves owner and permission settings, while the Finder changes them during a copy. The directory structure of folders and subfolders is kept intact, which means you can easily verify your backup contents, and even restore backups without using Tri–BACKUP (except when backups are compressed—see

on page 28 for more). You can also choose from a variety of backup modes, including mirror, evolutive mirror, incremental and more

(see Backup Modes on page 15 for more)

Immediate Compression

Backup Destination

In a Backup action, Tri–BACKUP creates a new folder in the destination volume for volume and folder it backs up. For example, if you back up your disks “Hard Disk” and “Second Disk” in the “BACKUP” folder on an external hard drive, folders named “Hard Disk” and “Second Disk” would be created in the “BACKUP” folder on the external drive.

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Basics 11

Caution: There is no warning in a Programmed Synchronization Action when an older ﬁle is overwritten by a newer one. If you want to manually compare versions before they are overwritten, use an Immediate Synchronization action.

Copying

In a Copy action, ﬁles are directly copied to the destination.

Restoring

File restoration is linked to the backup operation. This allows all ﬁles that were copied during backup (or those deleted or modiﬁed in the source) to be restored in the source folder or volume. Restoration is used to retrieve lost or deleted ﬁles, to retrieve a previous version of a document, or to rebuild an entire folder or disk. Since Tri–BACKUP makes exact copies of ﬁles during backup, you can also restore a ﬁle manually by copying it directly from the backup location to the source folder in the Finder.

Synchronizing

Tri–BACKUP Synchronization actions are most useful to keep sets of ﬁles identical between two Macintoshes, such as a desktop Mac in your ofﬁce and the laptop you carry on the road. In a Synchronization action, Tri–BACKUP compares the contents of two folders or disks (including their sub-folders). If a ﬁle is present in only one of the folders, it will be added where missing. If a ﬁle is present in both folders, the newer version will overwrite the older version.

When synchronization is ﬁnished, the contents of the two folders or disks will be identical, with each containing the latest version of the ﬁles. Tri–BACKUP synchronization is automatic and therefore easier, quicker and safer than opening every folder to make copies of ﬁles manually.

Multiple conﬁgurations

A great advantage of Tri–BACKUP is that you can create and schedule multiple backups or syn-chronization operations, in as many conﬁgurations as needed, organized in different groups for easier management. These can then be launched automatically, without further user action.

For example, you can schedule:

• An hourly mirror backup of vital documents, to ensure always having an up-to-date copy

• An incremental backup of a frequently-used folder, every evening at shutdown—thus keeping successive versions of reports in progress.

• A complete backup of your hard disk, on the ﬁrst day of every month at 8:00 AM, as a safety backup on a DVD or external hard drive.

• Different backups for different days of the week.

• A synchronization of your “Customer File” nightly at 11:00 PM, ensuring that all computers on your network are up-to-date.

• Any other conﬁgurations that ﬁt your needs.

12 Basics Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Backup Strategies

Although backups can be run manually with Tri–BACKUP, its main purpose is to backup data automatically, without any user interaction. Once conﬁgured and scheduled, these operations will do their job without disturbing you. By creating conﬁgurations according to your needs, you will be able to make full backups as well as speciﬁc backups of important folders.

What kind of backup to use?

Tri–BACKUP offers multiple backup possibilities (see Backup Modes on page 15 for more).

Mirror Backup—This creates an exact copy of your data, allowing you to easily retrieve your work environment after accidental data

Note: Errors or corrup-

tion in source ﬁles will be created in your backup as well. Keeping successive or evolutive backups will protect you from this possibility.

loss.

Evolutive Mirror Backup—Like a normal mirror backup, this creates an exact copy of your disk or folder. However, on the next execu-

tion of an evolutive mirror backup, when a ﬁle has been modiﬁed or removed, the evolutive backup saves the previous version prior to copying the new one into the backup. This results in Tri–BACKUP saving the evolution of the content, which means you can then easily return to a previous version of the ﬁles. This backup mode requires more disk space than the normal mirror backup, and uses increasing disk space as versions multiply. To control this effect, evolutive mirror options allow you to specify how many versions are saved before the oldest are discarded.

Incremental Backup—This creates a new backup in a new folder each time it is executed. This mode allows you to conserve successive

versions of a document, as well as successive versions of an entire disk.

Archiving Backup—This mode saves the chosen ﬁles to the backup destination, but deletes each original ﬁle from the source folders

as it progresses.. Use archiving backups when you want to save older ﬁles externally, but no longer need them taking up space on your main system. You can also make your archives smaller using Tri–BACKUP compression, and you can secure them using password protection.

We recommend combining backup strategies to suit the purposes of your ﬁles and folders. For example, you may want to limit incre mental backups to important, frequently used ﬁles.

Background Backups

Tri–BACKUP will execute backups even while you work in other applications. However, Tri–BACKUP works faster while it is the foreground application.

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Backup Strategies 13

Create conﬁgurations for every backup

We recommend setting up several backup conﬁgurations to ﬁt your needs. Using multiple conﬁgurations optimizes your backup strategy, taking less time and using less space than one full data backup. Also, be sure to regularly execute a global backup to protect your entire system.

Backup of several computers over the network

Once Tri–BACKUP has completed a backup of your local volumes, you can save the content of network drives, using a different conﬁguration for each computer as needed. You can also keep a designated server hard drive as a destination for backups of all computers on your network, with each computer using its own Tri–BACKUP copy with its own customized conﬁgurations.

Backup / Restore / Source / Origin / Destination

Whether you are backing up or restoring, the process of working with your ﬁles is directional. Throughout this User Guide, you will see references to the “source” or “origin” folder or volume, and the “destination.” Remember that just as a restore is the opposite of a backup, so then the origin or source of a restore is opposite to the origin or source of a backup. The source for a backup is your original or primary disk. The source for a restore is the backup ﬁles you have made. To help ease confusion, when talking about restore operations, we refer to the source folder as the “source backup.”

Back up your backup!

The safety in backups is having your data stored in more than one location, but backup media can also fail. For the highest security, we recommend regularly storing copies of your data on CD, DVD or other high capacity disks designated for backup copies only. You may also want to keep two backup sets that are used for alternating backup. For example, using one set for even days and one for odd days will ensure you never lose more than one day’s worth of data. Finally, it is best to keep regular backups on completely separate media, such as CD or DVD sets, to guard against catastrophic computer failure which can sometimes corrupt even external hard drives.

Always think of your backups as your safe, last resort. Tri–BACKUP is the easy, efﬁcient, unobtrusive way to secure your data. Make the most of it!

14 Backup Strategies Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

Backup Modes

As mentioned earlier, Tri–BACKUP gives you several ways to perform your backups. Each method is similarly easy to set up and use, and each uses the same basic technique—create a copy of each ﬁle, placed in a copy of the original folder structure (folders and subfolders). The result is a much easier and efﬁcient process than using simple Finder copies, and the different modes can be chosen depending on the goal of the backup.

Finder Backup

You can copy a folder or a volume directly from the Finder to create a backup, though the method is cumbersome and inefﬁcient for any more than a small number of ﬁles, and makes no easy distinction between versions. However, even backup copies made directly from the Finder can be restored efﬁciently using Tri–BACKUP.

Note: Synchronization only copies ﬁles that are missing or modiﬁed. If the same ﬁle names exist in both folders with the same modiﬁcation dates, they will not be copied in either direction.

Synchronization

Synchronization can be used as a backup mode, though we do not recommend it for this purpose. This is because synchronization works in both directions. Any ﬁle that you have removed from your hard disk but previously backed up will be automatically copied back to your disk. You can control this effect by using Immediate Synchronization, so that you can precisely control which ﬁles to include and whether different ﬁles are copied in both directions (full synchronization) or only one way. Synchronization is best used to keep folders identical between two computers being used to work on the same ﬁles, such as a laptop and desktop.

Immediate Backup

An Immediate Backup is best used for a one-time backup, or when you want to preview and control which ﬁles will be copied. With this mode, you can do a full copy if all items are selected before running the backup.

Immediate Backup performs an “intelligent” backup, copying only ﬁles that need it. Using the compress option will reduce the size of

Note: Modiﬁed ﬁles always replace older versions when a mirror backup executes. If the modiﬁed ﬁle is corrupted, this corruption will be created in the backup as well.

Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide Backup Modes 15

the backup ﬁles.

Programmed Mirror Backup

Use this mode for the simplest backup and possible restoration of a folder or a disk. As its name implies, a mirror backup creates an exact copy of a folder or volume. The copy will be updated each time the backup is run, with only modiﬁed or new ﬁles copied into the backup.

Note: Use the Tools > Evolutive Backup data command to “clean” the evolutive folders by removing all data from them at once. This effectively converts the Evolutive Mirror Backup into a standard Mirror Backup.

Note: Use the Options tab in the Action settings to copy only the ﬁles modiﬁed since the last backup. This mode creates a relatively small sized backup.

A mirror backup requires as much disk space in the destination volume as it takes up in the source folder or disk, but the compress option can considerably reduce the backup size.

The Programmed Mirror Backup is a good way to keep a recently updated copy of your hard disk, which can then quickly restore your usual working environment after a hard drive crash or other failure

Programmed Evolutive Mirror Backup

This mode offers the highest level of data security, and an easy way to restore the data.

A Programmed Evolutive Mirror backup is the same as a normal mirror backup, except that in subsequent executions, older versions are not overwritten in the backup destination. Instead, when a new version of a ﬁle is copied to the backup, the previous version is moved to a second level backup folder. This process continues each time the backup is executed, resulting in the possibility of multiple versions of each document being saved.

The advantage to this mode is that the evolution of changes to your source folders is preserved, but at the expense of increasing disk space used in the destination volume. Using the compression option can counteract the size needs somewhat, and you can also deﬁne how many versions are retained, and for how long, before the oldest versions begin to be discarded, using the Options panel.

If you have enough free space (for example, a large external hard disk), this mode is an excellent way to have a complete copy of your disk as well as the successive versions of each document. You will be able to use this copy to restore your disk, as well as to choose older versions of individual documents.

The evolution of your data in this mode are saved, folder by folder, in special folders named (ƒBACKUP.Evolutive.folder**). These folders are invisible, but can be made visible in the Options tab of the action’s settings.

Programmed Incremental Backup

This mode creates a new backup each time it is executed. Each backup is created in a new folder in the destination folder, and is named with the date and time of the Backup. The Programmed Incremental Backup mode easily preserves successive versions of a source folder’s content, as well as different versions of an entire disk. You can also set an option to delete the oldest backup, so that you can, for example, keep the latest states of work done during one week or one month, without having your backup increasing with each execution.

Tri–BACKUP’s method of copying ﬁles and folders in their original structure creates a huge advantage when you need to restore your ﬁles from a backup. This system allows you to restore uncompressed backups even when you cannot access the Tri–BACKUP applica tion—for example in extreme failure of your main hard drive.

16 Backup Modes Tri–BACKUP 4 User Guide

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