This tutorial will demonstrate the steps required to setup a Full Disk and Partition Image Backup
plan using the Seagate Black Armor Backup application.
To get started, launch the Black Armor backup application using the icon placed on your
desktop during the Black Armor Discovery Software installation.
You can also find a short cut to the application in the All Programs Seagate folder.
Once the application's splash screen displays, click on the Go to Main Screen menu link.
Then, on the Add Backups page, select the Disk and Partition Backup link.
The Disk Backup page displays a list of all the drives and their partitions, that are
connected to your computer system as well as a list of Destination drives.
The first step is to select the drive partitions you'd like to back up by putting a check mark
in the corresponding check box.
Next, select a Destination for your backup.
To select an alternate Destination than the one shown, first click on the drop down box
arrow button.
Then select a Destination from the list or use the browse feature to find the Destination
drive of your choice.
To continue the Back Up plan setup, click on the Disk Backup Options link at the bottom
left side of the screen.
Once the Disk Backup Options page launches, the Advanced tab displays by default.
We'll go through and explain each option on the four Disk Backup options pages starting
on the Advanced page.
Clicking on the Down Arrow buttons next to each of the titles will display the choices
available for that option.
First, we'll look at the Image Creation mode.
By default the program copies only the hard disk sectors that contain data, however, you
may select to back up your drive using the sector by sector method.
When performing sector-by-sector backups, unallocated space is "not" included in the
backup file.
To include unallocated space in your backup, put a check in the "Backup Unallocated Space"
check box.
Next, Backup protection options.
To protect the backup enter a password for your plan.
To increase the security of your confidential data, you can encrypt the backup with strong
industry-standard AES algorithm.
Click on the Encryption Method drop down menu and select an encryption key from the list.
Next, Pre and Post Commands.
You can specify commands or even batch files that will be automatically executed before
and after the backup procedures.
Please see the Black Armor Backup Help pages for further information on this option.
Next, Backup Splitting.
Back up Splitting allows you to split your back ups into several files that together
make up the original backup.
The default for this parameter is set to Automatic.
To change the parameter, first, click on the drop down menu.
Then select the type of splitting you want to use from the menu list.
Next, Validation Settings options.
When the "Validation" option is enabled, the program will check the integrity of the recently
created or supplemented backup version immediately after backup.
When setting up a backup of critical data or a disk and partition backup, we strongly
recommend that you enable this option in order to ensure that the backup can be used to recover
the lost data.
To enable Validation, put a check in the "Validate Backup When It's Created" check box.
You can also schedule validation of your backups.
To change from the default of validating immediately after the backup has completed, first click
on the "Regular Validation" link.
A "Schedule Your Operation" Dialog box will display.
Make the changes to the schedule that you wish.
When you've finished, click the OK button to continue.
Next, the Backup Reserve Copy feature.
From here you may select to create a reserve copy of your backups and save them to any
available backup location.
To make a reserve copy first, put a check in the "Create a reserve copy of my backups"
check box.
Then Click on the "Set location" link.
When the pop-up dialog box launches, specify a destination for the backup copies from the
locations available to you.
When you've finished, click the OK button.
You can also protect the backup reserve copy with a password.
To do so, first, click on the “Set Password” link.
Then, enter the password you wish to use in the spaces provided.
When you've finished entering your password, click the OK button to continue.
Next, we'll look at Screen Shot Settings.
Along with backup comments, screenshots help you to recognize a previous data state that
you may need to recover.
Black Armor Backup allows you to take screenshots at the moment of starting a disk or partition
backup.
To enable the option, select the “Take Screenshot” check box.
Next we'll review the Error Handling parameters.
If the program encounters an error while performing a backup, it stops the backup process and
displays a message, and waits for a response on how to handle the error.
If you set an error handling policy, the program will not stop the backup process, but will
simply handle the error according to the set rules and continue working.
Select any of the policies you wish to use by putting a check in the appropriate check
box.
Next, Computer Shutdown Setting.
If you know that the backup process you are configuring will take awhile to complete,
you may select to have the Seagate Black Armor application shut down the computer after the
backup has finished.
The program will perform the backup then turn your computer off automatically.
To take advantage of this option, put a check in the "Shutdown Computer" check box.
Next, we'll explain the different Backup Scheme choices available to you.
To continue, click on the “Backup Scheme Tab”.
Backup Schemes along with the Scheduler help you to set up your backup strategy.
The Schemes allow you to optimize backup storage space usage, improve data storage reliability,
and automatically delete obsolete backup versions.
To select a Back up Scheme, click on the Scheme drop down menu.
And select the scheme you wish to use from the list.
Next, Performance Options.
On the Performance tab you can configure the following settings: Compression level, Operation
priority and, Network connection speed limits.
First, Compression Levels.
You may choose the compression level for a backup by using the slider bar.
Please see the Black Armor Backup Help pages for further information on this option.
Next, Operation priority.
Changing the priority of a backup or recovery process will make it run faster or slower.
Decreasing the operation priority will free more resources for other CPU tasks.
Increasing backup or recovery priority may speed up the process by taking resources from
the other currently running processes.
Use the slider bar to set the priority setting that you wish to use.
Network connection speed.
You can specify the network backup data transfer speed limit by putting a check in the Limit
Transfer Rate check box then, select a speed from the drop down list.
Next, Notifications.
Black Armor Backup can notify you via e-mail when it has finished or, when the free space
on the backup storage becomes less than the specified threshold value.
To be notified by email when these events occur, put a check in the appropriate check
box and enter your email account information in the spaces provided.
When you've completed selecting the settings and parameters from all four tabs, click the
OK button to close the pop-up dialog box and return to the Disk Backup page.
Once you've set all the parameters for your backup, click the Backup Now button to start
your plan running.
Your backup plan will begin running.
This concludes the Seagate Black Armor Backup tutorial.
Please view the rest of the Black Armor Business Edition tutorials for more information on
the product and features.