# User's Guide |

» Contact HP |  |

# Backing up Important Files on this Computer

Your HP Media Vault is bundled with NTI Shadow software. NTI Shadow is an easy-to-use application that lets you run automatic backups for the important files and folders on your computer. You can back up any data you want, including photo, music, video, and financial files. Using NTI Shadow does not disturb your computer use because it works transparently in the background.

NTI Shadow offers two ways to back up folders on your computer.

- Simple Backup—Select this option to backup selected folders and their sub-folders on this computer every time you make change to their contents.
- Custom Backup—Select this option if you want greater control over the folders or files that you backup. Likewise, you can choose to backup your selections every time they change or schedule a specific time for backups.

If you want to back up an entire drive, see Backing up an Entire Hard Drive (on HP Media Vault Pro models only).

This help topic has steps:

- To perform a simple backup
- To create a custom backup
- To modify a custom backup

| To perform a simple backup

A simple backup backs up only the My Desktop, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, and My Documents folders that are installed by Windows for each User Account on this computer.

After configuring Simple Backup, each file is backed up every time you make a change to the file.

Additionally, Simple Backup creates one version of each file and places that file in a directory called Revision.

1. At the computer, click Start, All Programs, HP Media Vault, and then Control Center.
2. On the Backup tab, click Back up Important Files.
3. The Simple Backup tab should be selected.
4. Select one or more of the following folders:

| Note
| Only the following folders and their sub-folders are backed up.

- My Documents
- The default folder for documents, graphics, and other personal files. Many programs automatically save data files to this folder.

- My Music
- The default folder for audio files, such as those you download from the Internet or save on your hard drive.
- My Pictures
- The default folder for photographs. Many digital-camera and photo-editing software programs automatically create a sub-folder in this folder to which they save their pictures.
- My Videos
- The default folder for video clips, such as those you download from the Internet or saved on your hard drive.

- My Desktop
- All files and folders on the Desktop are backed up, including shortcuts. Note that backing up a shortcut does not backup the program that the shortcut opens.

| Note
| Any file stored in one of the above folders is backed up regardless of its type. For example, a document file stored in My Music is backed up.

5. Click Start.
6. The backup process starts. Your first back up could take some time, depending on the amount of data. The selected folders are backed up and copied to \\HPMediaVault\Backup.

| Note
| If you need more backup capability, see Run automatic backups for important files.

| To create a custom backup

1. At the computer, click Start, All Programs, HP Media Vault, and then Control Center.
2. On the Backup tab, click Back up Important Files.
3. Click the Custom Backup tab.
4. Click Create Backup Job.
5. Select the folders or files to back up.

- To back up an entire folder:
- In the Backup job wizard, click the check box next to the folder that you want to back up. A blue check box next to the folder indicates that you have selected to backup the entire contents of that folder.
- To back up specific files:

- In the left pane, select the folder that contains the files you want to back up. Selecting a folder opens the folder and displays its contents in the right pane.
- In the right pane, select the files you want to back up.
- To select a file or folder, click its associated check box.

| Note
| If you add any new files to a folder that has a gray check box next to it, these files are not included in future automatic backups.

6. Click Options to backup files of a specific type.
7. NTI Shadow backs up all file types unless you specify that you want to back up only specific kinds of files for backup. For example, you can specify that only the audio files in a folder are backed up.

1. Check a file type or type a custom file type.
2. Select to either include or exclude all of the selected file types from the backup.
3. Click OK to return to the Backup Job Wizard.

8. Click Next.
9. Browse or type your Backup Destination.
10. Schedule your backup using one of the following options:

- Save your folder/file to the HP Media Vault every time you save changes to your computer
- Save your folder/file changes every
- Use the drop-down lists to select the time interval for your backup in Minutes, Hours, or Days.
- Save your folder/file changes every

- Select one or more check boxes for the days you want to schedule your backups.
- Select the Hours, Minutes, and AM or PM.

| Note
| If you select a fixed schedule (specific day or time), to ensure optimum performance, choose a different time for each computer to back up its files. This avoids multiple backups to the server at the same time.

11. Click Next.
12. Select the number of previous file versions to save:

- Save all the previous file versions
- Selecting this option backs up each version of your files. This options keeps all previous versions of your files
- Save a limited number of previous file versions
- Selecting this option backs up the number you specify in the list box up to nine versions.
- Do not save any previous file version
- Selecting this option stores only the latest version of the files.
- Option button
- Allows you to delete the backup files/folders from your server when you delete the file from your computer. Select Delete the file on the HP Media Vault when the file is deleted on your computer, and then click OK.

13. Click Next.
14. Type a Job Name.
15. NTI Shadow automatically names the file based on the computer name, date, and time. You can rename the backup if desired. You should use a unique name to identify the backup.
16. Check if you want to Show progress bar.
17. Click Finish.
18. The Start Backup dialog box appears asking whether you want to start the backup now. The selected files and folders are backed up and copied to \\HPMediaVault\Backup.

- Select Yes to start the backup immediately.
- Select No to save the backup. If you chose this option, the backup with start as scheduled or you can start the backup in the Modify Backup Job pane (see Modify a backup job).

| Note
| The NTI Shadow icon is displayed in the computer Task Bar whenever a backup job is configured.

| To modify a custom backup

Your HP Media Vault is bundled with NTI Shadow software. NTI Shadow is an easy-to-use application that lets you modify any backup jobs you have previously created. You can change the settings of the job, enable or disable jobs, and delete jobs. (For information about creating a backup, see Run automatic backups for important folders or files.)

The Modify Backup Job list box shows the list of backup jobs that have been created. The list includes the name of the backup job, the last time the job ran, which folder/files were backed up, and the location of the backup folders.

1. At the computer, click Start, All Programs, HP Media Vault, and then Control Center.
2. On the Backup tab, click Back up Important Files.
3. Click the Custom Backup tab.
4. You can modify a backup as follows:

- Edit
- Opens the Backup job wizard, where you can modify the backup as described in Run automatic backups for important folders or files.
- Disable/Enable
- Disables or enables the selected backup job. A disabled backup is not run until it is re-enabled.
- Disable All
- Disables all backup jobs.
- Delete
- Deletes the selected backup job.
- Start Backup
- Immediately starts the selected backup. The backup must be enabled to start.

5. You can also view the log file:

- View Log File
- Displays information about the backup process.
- Done
- Closes the NTI Shadow screen. If a backup is running, it continues to run. Changes to the enabling or disabling of any backup jobs are saved.

6. Click Done.

» Back to top | < Back | Next >