Aomei Backupper: User Manual
Aomei Backupper: User Manual
Aomei Backupper: User Manual
User Manual
User Manual AOMEI Backupper
Table of Contents
1 Getting Started .............................................................................................. 1
1.1 Overview of AOMEI Backupper .................................................................. 1
1.2 System Requirements and Supported Operating/File Systems ................. 1
1.3 Install and Uninstall AOMEI Backupper ...................................................... 2
2 Backup .......................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Files and Folders Backup ........................................................................... 3
2.2 System Backup .......................................................................................... 4
2.3 Disk Backup ............................................................................................... 5
2.4 Partition and Volume Backup ..................................................................... 6
2.5 Backup to AOMEI Cloud............................................................................. 7
2.6 Schedule Backup ....................................................................................... 8
2.7 Backup (to) Network Attached Storage (NAS) .......................................... 11
2.8 Backup to Cloud Clients ........................................................................... 13
2.9 Backup Management ............................................................................... 13
2.10 Incremental and Differential Backup ..................................................... 14
2.11 Backup Scheme .................................................................................... 16
2.12 Edit Backup ........................................................................................... 19
3 Backup Options ........................................................................................... 20
3.1 Operation Priority ..................................................................................... 20
3.2 Data Compression.................................................................................... 20
3.3 Encryption ................................................................................................ 21
3.4 Splitting .................................................................................................... 21
3.5 Email Notifications .................................................................................... 21
3.6 Backup Mode ........................................................................................... 23
3.7 Command ................................................................................................. 23
3.8 Comments ................................................................................................ 24
3.9 Other ........................................................................................................ 24
4 Sync ............................................................................................................ 25
4.1 Basic Sync ............................................................................................... 25
User Manual AOMEI Backupper
1 Getting Started
This Chapter describes AOMEI Backupper’s main features, the system
requirements, supported file systems, operating systems and storage media.
Please take the time to become familiar with Backupper’s powerful and
comprehensive features before using Backupper for the first time.
Additional assistance, including screenshots, can be viewed at:
www.ubackup.com/help
A Glossary is contained in Chapter 9.
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Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2003 R2 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS) 2011
Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2011
Supported File Systems
NTFS
FAT16
FAT32
ReFS
Ext2/3
ExFAT
For ReFS, ExT2/3, ExFAT file systems and other known file systems, Backupper will
image, clone and manage each file with sector-by-sector.
Backupper supports almost all storage devices recognized by Windows, such as
IDE, SATA, SCSI, SSD, USB external disks, RAID (Redundant Array of Independent
Disks) and NAS (Network Attached Storage). Additionally, Backupper supports MBR
(Master Boot Record) and GPT (Globally unique identifier Partition Table) disk
standards and works effectively with the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface) start-up process.
Install
Run AOMEI Backupper setup program AOMEIBackupperSetup.exe.
When the popup window appears, select “Next” and follow the wizard
installation instructions.
After the installation process has completed, a prompt may appear to restart the
computer to complete the installation.
Uninstall
Backupper can be uninstalled using one of the following two methods.
1. Go to the Start Menu -> AOMEI Backupper -> Uninstall AOMEI
Backupper
Or
2. Go to the Windows Control Panel -> Uninstall Program, right-click AOMEI
Backupper and uninstall it.
To completely uninstall Backupper, a prompt may appear requesting the
computer be restarted, which can be deferred until a later time.
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2 Backup
It is essential to make regular copies of important data to ensure data is secure. If
original data becomes corrupted, the data can be recovered from a backup image
file.
Backupper can back up files, folders, disks, partitions, volumes, applications and
system drive into a compressed image file(s) and supports full backup, incremental
backup and differential backup, all of which can be scheduled to be carried out at
configured times.
Backup guides are contained in the “Backup” menu at www.ubackup.com/help.
In a few steps, personal files, working files and other important data can be backed
up into specified image files.
As well as being able to specify which folders to back up, filters can be set, such as
a file inclusion/exclusion mask, a folder exclusion mask and whether to exclude
hidden files/folders and system files/folders.
To back up files/folders
1. In the left tab page, select “Backup” followed by “File Backup”.
2. Enter the backup name into the “Task Name” box, such as "My File Backup
123" to distinguish this backup from previously created backups.
3. Click either “Add Folder” or “Add File” and then select the files/folders to be
backed up. Or, you can directly drag files/folders to here to add them.
4. Select or type into the destination path to store the backup image file. If
available, always select a destination storage medium that is different than
the source medium. This will ensure that if the source drive fails, the data can
be recovered from the destination medium.
5. Select “Start Backup” button to begin the backup process. And, click ”Finish”
once the process has completed.
To customize the advanced configuration for the current backup task, please see the
Backup Options in Chapter 3. And, The Backup Schedule and Backup Scheme
can be enabled as described in Section 2.6 and 2.11.
Selecting “Add Folder” will allow file inclusion/exclusion and folder exclusion masks
to be configured by expanding the “Filter Settings”: move the arrow of mouse to the
added folder, then click the icon to open Filter Settings Dialog.
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Moving the arrow of mouse to the added folder/file, click the icon to delete the
folder/file when you don’t want to back up it.
Note:
After backup process starts, you can click the icon in the lower left corner to
set to check backup integrity and/or Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep PC
after backup is completed.
In order to avoid backing up temporary files, garbage files and other useless
data, we suggest you perform a data clean up first and back up later.
Files and folders in the Recycle Bin cannot be backed up.
Backupper can effectively back up files like NTFS compressed files or EFS
encrypted files, but the files will no longer have NTFS properties after
restoration.
Backupper can back up NTFS files along with their security permissions
automatically, and also supports restoring each file’s security permissions
together with the file.
We suggest you first put files you plan to back up into the same folder, and then
back up this folder. To save all those files you would then only need to add one
backup source to the Backup List, rather than several (Note: every item in the
Backup list is called a backup source). This would make backup management
more convenient. We suggest you do not add too many backup sources to the
Backup list (e.g. the backup source count has reached 2000 or more).
Some files may be in use by other programs exclusively, program will prompt to
skip them.
Some files don’t have system permission (you can check permissions under
properties of files/folders), program will prompt to skip them.
2. Enter a name for the backup in the “Task Name” box to distinguish the new
backup from a previous backup.
3. Select or type into the destination path to store system backup image file. If
available, always select a destination storage medium that is different than
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the source medium. This will ensure that if the source drive fails, the data can
be recovered from the destination medium.
4. Select “Start Backup”button to begin the backup process. And, click ”Finish”
once the process has completed.
Because System Backup is a single-select solution, the system partition and system
reserved partition will be selected as source by default.
To customize the advanced configuration for the current backup task, please see the
Backup Options in Chapter 3. And, The Backup Schedule and Backup Scheme
can be enabled as described in Section 2.6 and 2.11.
Note:
After backup process starts, you can click the icon in the lower left corner to
set to check backup integrity and/or Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep PC
after backup is completed.
Generally, system backup will back up “system” partition, “boot” partition(C:
drive) and system’s recovery partition. It will not backup factory OEM recovery
partition.
For encrypted system partitions, Backupper will use sector by sector backup
way by default.
Backupper only supports backing up windows system.
Disk backup will back up all data on the disk into a compressed image file, including
all data partitions/volumes and system partitions/volumes. If a system disk has been
backed up then after restoration, the restored disk will be used to boot the computer.
Backupper supports backing up the Master Boot Record (MBR), GUID Partition
Table (GPT), external hard drives, SSDs, USB storage and other devices that are
recognized by Microsoft Windows.
Backing up disks
1. In the left tab page, select “Backup” followed by “Disk Backup”.
2. Enter a name for the backup in the “Task Name” box, such as "My disk
backup 67" to distinguish the new backup from a previous backup.
3. Click “Add Disk”. In the popup window select source disk(s) to backup.
4. Select or type into the destination path to store system backup image file. If
available, always select a destination storage medium that is different than
the source medium. This will ensure that if the source drive fails, the data
can be recovered from the destination medium.
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5. Select the “Start Backup” button to begin the backup process. And,
click ”Finish” once the process has completed.
To customize the advanced configuration for the current backup task, please see the
Backup Options in Chapter 3. And, The Backup Schedule and Backup Scheme
can be enabled as described in Section 2.6 and 2.11.
Note:
After backup process starts, you can click the icon in the lower left corner to
set to check backup integrity and/or Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep PC
after backup is completed.
Backupper allows several disks to be backed up at a time. But, you only can
select one disk from image file to restore at a time.
Disk Backup can’t list and back up dynamic disks. To backup volumes on
dynamic disks, please use system or partition backup.
For encrypted disks, Backupper will use sector by sector mode by default.
If there are non-NTFS or FAT32 partition on the disk, Backupper will use sector
by sector mode when backing up this partition.
Backupper currently doesn’t support backing up the disk with 4096 bytes/sector.
But, you can save image file to 4096 disk.
2. Enter a name for the backup in the "Task Name" box, such as "My partition
disk backup 52" to distinguish the new backup from a previous backup.
3. Click “Add Partition or Volume”. In the popup window, select the partitions
or volumes that need to be backed up.
4. Select or type into the destination path to store system backup image file.If
available, always select a destination storage medium that is different than
the source medium. This will ensure that if the source drive fails, the data can
be recovered from the destination medium.
5. Select the “Start Backup” button to begin the backup process. And,
click ”Finish” once the process has completed.
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To customize the advanced configuration for the current backup task, please see the
Backup Options in Chapter 3. And, The Backup Schedule and Backup Scheme
can be enabled as described in Section 2.6 and 2.11.
Note:
After backup process starts, you can click the icon in the lower left corner to
set to check backup integrity and/or Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep PC
after backup is completed.
Backupper will back up in sector-by-sector mode for ExT2/3, ReFS, ExFAT and
other non-Windows file systems.
Backupper will back up encrypted partitions with sector by sector mode.
Backupper allows several partitions to be backed up at a time.
For system partitions, we doesn’t suggest that you use partition backup way.
After logging in to their AOMEI account, new users can choose to backup their
personal files, work files and other important data to AOMEI Cloud. Backing up to a
cloud disk is more secure and not easy to leak. Currently, only files or folders can be
backed up to AOMEI Cloud.
To back up files/folders
1. In the left tab page, select “Backup” followed by “Cloud Backup”.
2. Enter the backup name into the “Task Name” box, such as "My Cloud Backup
123" to distinguish this backup from previously created backups.
3. Click either “Add Folder” or “Add File” and then select the files/folders to be
backed up. Or, you can directly drag files/folders to here to add them.
4. Click “Login” or “Sign up” on the AOMEI Cloud directory to log in or register an account.
After successful login, the used space and total space will be displayed.
5. Select “Start Backup” button to begin the backup process. And, click “Finish” once the
process has completed.
this folder, please click the icon to remove it from the list.
Note:
Tasks created on different machines do not support backup operations, but only
support restore and view details operations.
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In order to avoid backing up temporary files, garbage files and other useless
data, we suggest you perform a data clean up first and back up later.
Files and folders in the Recycle Bin cannot be backed up.
Backupper can effectively back up files like NTFS compressed files or EFS
encrypted files, but the files will no longer have NTFS properties after
restoration.
We suggest you first put files you plan to back up into the same folder, and then
back up this folder. To save all those files you would then only need to add one
backup source to the Backup List, rather than several (Note: every item in the
Backup list is called a backup source). This would make backup management
more convenient. We suggest you do not add too many backup sources to the
Backup list (e.g. the backup source count has reached 2000 or more).
Some files may be in use by other programs exclusively, program will prompt to
skip them.
Some files don’t have system permission (you can check permissions under
properties of files/folders), program will prompt to skip them.
When AOMEI Cloud has expired, you will no longer be able to perform the task
of backing up files to AOMEI Cloud, and the data in AOMEI Cloud will be deleted
after a few days of countdown. An email notification will be sent in advance, and
the software will also pop up a window. Prompt details are shown in Data
Retention Policy.
Backupper can back up data automatically and periodically allowing data security to
be greatly enhanced.
The following four methods are available to set up a backup schedule: Daily Mode,
Weekly Mode, Monthly Mode and Event Triggers.
Set the scheduled backup
Method 1: Select the “Backup” option --> select a backup type (such as the
“System Backup”) --> check “Schedule” --> to set the scheduled backup.
Method 2: Select a backup task in the Home screen --> click the icon -->
select “Schedule Task” --> to set/edit the scheduled backup.
Schedule Settings-->General
Daily Mode
1. Set a future time point to perform the backup task once only.
2. Set a time point to perform the backup task once each day.
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3. Set a time frame in a day first then choose the time interval between each
backup.
4. The program will perform the backup at intervals of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 hours
within the selected time frame each day.
Weekly Mode
1. Choose the day(s) for the backup task.
2. Set a time point. The program will automatically perform the backup at a
given time point on the chosen day(s) each week.
Monthly Mode
1. Specify one day each month to perform the backup task. For example,
perform the backup on the third Tuesday of each month.
2. Choose one day from the calendar to perform the backup task each
month. Multiple days can also be selected on the calendar.
For daily, weekly and monthly mode scheduled backup tasks, Backupper
currently can wake up computer to perform. You can tick the option
“Wake the computer to run scheduled tasks” under the Schedule
Settings-->General to configure it. In this way, the program will wake your
computer from sleep or hibernate 2 minutes before running a scheduled
backup. This feature is unavailable for Event Triggers, USB plug in and
Real-time Sync scheduled tasks.
For daily, weekly and monthly mode scheduled backup tasks, Backupper
currently can set up to Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep PC after the
schedule task is completed. You can drop down the option of "Turn off the
computer after the scheduled task is completed" under the Schedule
Settings -> "General" and then tick it to configure. In this way, the
program will automatically perform Shut down/Restart/Hibernate/Sleep
operations after the scheduled task is completed and the countdown is 3
minutes. This feature is unavailable for Event Triggers, USB plug in and
Real-time Sync scheduled tasks.
Event Triggers
There are four event trigger types: User Logon, User Logoff, System Startup
and System Shutdown.
1. User Logon. Performs a backup automatically when a user logs on.
USB plug in
When the program detects that source or target USB device of the backup task
is plugged in, it will automatically back up the data from USB device or back up
to USB device.
If “Run one time every day” is selected, then the backup task will run only once
a day.
When you insert the USB device after USB tasks are created, it will pop up
“USB Plugged in” window with information “AOMEI Backupper has detected a
USB device plugged in and will run the following tasks associated with the USB
device. Please confirm how you would like to proceed”, you can select to run
tasks immediately or delay 15/30/60 minutes to perform or skip tasks. And, you
can check “Do not show this dialog again” so that the tasks can be performed
immediately every time.
Schedule Settings-->Advanced
For Daily/Weekly/Monthly mode, you can manually select use Windows Task
Scheduler or install AOMEI service to run scheduled tasks. “Install a service to run
scheduled tasks” is selected by default.
If “Run missed backup at the next system startup” is selected, when a scheduled
task doesn’t perform at schedule time point due to some reasons, for example,
computer is closed at schedule time point, the scheduled task will be perform again
when system is started up at the next time.
Tips: Run missed backup at the next system startup only is performed one time.
If the task is enabled with Event Triggers or USB plug in, it is unable to manually
specify neither Windows Task Scheduler nor AOMEI Service to perform this task.
And,”Run missed backup at the next system startup” is also unavailable.
Note:
If you set shutdown event backup on Windows 10, please close “Fast Startup”
under Control Panel-->Power Options-->System settings.
NAS is often used by file servers for business users. Backing up to a NAS will save
local computer storage as well as ensuring the safety of the backup image.
Backupper also enables the backup data of NAS devices.
Backup to NAS
1. Click the destination path box in the Backup option once the source data has
been selected.
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2. When the window pops up, click “Share/NAS” on the left-hand side to open
“Network Location Management” window, or open the drop down list of the
destination path to “Select a network share or NAS”.
3. Select the “Add Network Location” button in the lower-left corner in
“Network Location Management”.
Enter the “Display name” of the NAS (Optional).
Enter the IP address of the network location in “Network Path”,
“Anonymous” login is available. Or, disable “Anonymous”, then type into
NAS username and password.
4. After the NAS device has been added, all the folders in the NAS will be listed
in the right-hand side list box. Choose one folder as the destination path then
select “OK”.
Backup NAS
Only File Backup/Sync way can select NAS’s data as source.
1. Select the “Backup” tab on the left column then select “File Backup” or “File
Sync”.
2. Click “Add File” or “Add Folder”, when the “Open” window pops up, click
“Share/NAS” on the left-hand side to open “Network Location
Management” window.
3. Select the “Add Network Location” button in the lower-left corner in
“Network Location Management”.
Enter the “Display name” of the NAS (Optional).
Enter the IP address of the network location in “Network Path”,
“Anonymous” login is available. Or, disable “Anonymous”, then type into
NAS username and password.
4. After the NAS device has been added, all the folders in the NAS will be listed
in the right-hand side list box. Choose files/folders you want to backup/sync
then select “OK”.
Note:
Backupper currently only support NAS with using SMB protocol.
Real-Time Sync feature doesn’t support syncing NAS.
After added a network location, it will be retained under “Network Location
Management”, so you don’t need to add again when creating backup task at
next time.
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Cloud drives (such as OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) are very popular.
Backupper does support backing up/syncing files or folders to a cloud drive if the
system has installed the appropriate cloud Desktop App.
1. Select the drop-down menu of the destination path selecting box in the File
Backup/Sync option.
2. Click “Select a Cloud” to open the list of cloud clients installed in the system.
Select the required cloud client as the destination location for backups.
Before performing a backup, the desktop app of the destination cloud drive must be
installed. For Dropbox, installation instructions are located at
www.dropbox.com/install.
Note:
Backupper only can choose a cloud drive desktop app as the target path for File
Backup and File Sync.
Backupper currently supports OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox,
SugarSync, hubiC and CloudMe.
Select “Home” on the left tab page to list backup/sync tasks with built-in shortcut
options to start or manage backups. These include Backup, Restore, Schedule
task ,Edit Backup and so on. Backups can be listed by day, week, month or any
other custom time.
Moving the mouse over any backup task you have created to select a task for
further operations.
Directly start a new backup for the selected task via clicking the icon , a wizard
will provide a guide through the process. It will create the incremental backup by
default.
Click the icon on the selected task, then list the following options:
Schedule. Displays the Daily, Weekly and Monthly schedule for automatic data
backup. And, allow to modify the schedule settings. For more details, please see
Schedule Backup in Section 2.6.
Edit Backup. Allow to modify the backup source, destination and edit task
name. And, enable Email notification, enable Backup Scheme, enable
Command etc. For more details, please see Edit Backup in Section 2.12.
Delete. Deletes the selected backup task or all backup files.
Shortcuts. Create a shortcut of a task to desktop so that you can directly click
to start backup without opening Backupper.
Advanced.
Explore Image. Mounts the image file to virtual drives for the data in the
image to be viewed in "My Computer". File Backup’s image file can't be
explored to virtual drives. You can explore or restore file backup .afi file to
other location. For more details, please see Explore Image Tool in
Section 6.2.
Check Image. Checks the data integrity of the selected backup to ensure
it can be successfully used to restore data. For more details, please see
Check Image Tool in Section 6.1.
Merge Image. Merge a incremental backup chain with multiple backups
to one backup file. For more details, please see Merge Image Tool in
Section 6.3.
Locate Image. Opens the folder where backups are located.
Properties. Shows general information for the selected backup. And, view logs
of the task.
As time progresses, there will be an increasing amount of data and files stored on
the system drive, data partitions, etc. In order to ensure data integrity, it is important
to backup changed data regularly.
There following three options are available: Full, Incremental and Differential
Backup. The following describes the differences of each option and can assist with
developing a backup plan.
For a step-by-step guide, please reference the “Incremental/Differential Backup”
tutorial located in the “Backup” menu at www.ubackup.com/help.
Full Backup
A Full Backup takes a snapshot of all the data on the selected folders, partitions
or hard disks at the time the backup is performed and saves the backup to an
Image file.
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A Full Backup is always the basis of any incremental and differential backup. A
Full Backup can be used to restore all the files and folders in its image to the
system state when the image was created.
Once a Full Backup is performed, an Incremental or Differential Backup can be
created, which are much quicker to create than a Full Backup as the images
created are normally much smaller.
Incremental Backup
An Incremental Backup takes a snapshot of only changed and/or newly added
files based on the previous related backup, be it a Full or Incremental Backup.
Data that have not changed is not backed up. Therefore, the time and image
storage space required for an Incremental backup is normally much smaller than
a full backup. A Full Backup must exist as the start point for a series of
Incremental backups. A typical Incremental in time sequence backup
progression would be as follows.
Full Backup, as basis
Incremental Backup 1
Incremental Backup 2
…..
Incremental Backup n.
All incremental Backup series image files share a sequential relationship so If
any one of the incremental image files in the sequence is damaged or missing,
then subsequent image files cannot be used for recovery.
When restore, only need to select an incremental backup file to restore, then
data can be recovered to the state when the selected Incremental Backup was
performed.
Implementing a Full Backup with a regular Incremental Backup regime is the
most commonly-used backup scenario.
Differential Backup
A Differential Backup is always directly related to its originating Full Backup and
will back up all data added and/or changed since the last Full Backup was
performed.
Therefore, compared to a Full Backup, the backup time and image file storage
space required are both normally much less. If one of the Differential Backup
image files becomes damaged or lost, it will not affect the subsequent
Differential Backup image files.
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When restore, only need to select a differential backup file to restore, then data
can be recovered to the state when the selected differential backup was
performed.
If data is added and/or changed significantly then each Differential Backup will
become progressively larger, because each one will contain more changes
made since the last Full Backup was performed. Compared to an Incremental
Backup, Differential Backup takes more time and requires more disk space.
Incremental Backup
Perform a full backup at first, and then perform an incremental backup each time.
Check the option "After n incremental backups, perform one full backup", that is, the set
number of times plus one is used as a backup cycle (group), which includes one full backup
and several incremental backups.
Differential Backup
Perform a full backup at first, and then perform a differential backup each time.
Check the option "After n differential backups, perform one full backup", that is, the set
number of times plus one is used as a backup cycle (group), which includes one full backup
and several differential backups.
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