Yes, BackupChain offers several means to alert  you to backup task statuses and problems. These include: sending email alerts directly via SMTP (see Log Options tab of your task), monitoring the Windows Event Viewer logs because BackupChain will write to it automatically, and lastly, you have the option of running external scripts, commands, or applications […]

We are excited to announce the second maintenance release of BackupChain version 4 (build 4.0.5441) and the 10 year anniversary of BackupChain! New Features & Changes The major new features and changes are outlined below: Breaking changes: none Centralized Management This new feature allows you to connect all your BackupChain instances together and control and […]

In order to set up remote management you need to decide which topology you want to use. You can have slaves connect to the master console or the master connects to the slave, or combination of both methods. Setting up the Master Console From the main menu, open Security and Remote Settings: In the screen […]

In order to manage many servers from a single screen without having to log on to each server individually, you need to use the Server Enterprise edition as the “master” and connect to it all other instances of BackupChain you have running on other computers. All instances of BackupChain can be remotely managed, except the […]

BackupChain v4 no longer requires a .Net Framework installation because .Net already comes preinstalled in Windows since Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. BackupChain works with .Net 4.0, included in Windows 8 and 10 and Windows Server 2012 and later, but also works with .Net 2.0 which is included in .Net 3.5 installations, on Windows […]

You can run many backups at the same time in BackupChain. However, there are certain services that do not allow parallel backups. These can sometimes include Exchange Server and SQL Server; it depends on the internal database structure. Then there could be an error with the Hyper-V backup. Our recommended method is to define several […]

In order to do a bare metal recovery you will need to prepare a Windows boot USB drive, see How to: Bare-Metal Recovery via USB Windows Server Boot Disk. Once you have this USB hard disk set up to boot Windows via USB, you can install BackupChain on it and use the disk image backup […]

Yes, tape drives work with BackupChain. For best performance you will want to use a task without deduplication (compression is OK) because deduplication requires fast random file access and tapes can naturally not provide random access as efficiently as hard drives. Moreover, your tape system will have to be accessible using a drive letter, for […]

Below is an overview and definition of DriveMaker Freeware and DriveMaker Plus features. DriveMaker allows you to connect to an FTP site via a mounted drive, so that all FTP files and folders become accessible from all your applications, for example on the path F:\ Download DriveMaker Now  Purchase What Can I Do With DriveMaker? DriveMaker opens […]

Backup strategies often revolve around certain constraints, such as: • backup time is limited • backups are performed around 500-1,000x more often than restores; hence, backup time windows tend to be prioritized over restore time • storage space is limited • human labor is expensive • business consequences of data loss may range from expensive to fatal • business data is […]

Plain file backup is basically a straight copy job. In the New Task Wizard in BackupChain the option is called “no processing” because no compression, encryption, or deduplication is being used (see link to step-by-step article at bottom). A great bonus in BackupChain is you can keep more than one copy of each file, if […]

How to Move Backup Logs BackupChain’s task settings are stored in: C:\ProgramData\BackupChainService Logs are stored in C:\ProgramData\BackupChainService\Logs\<task name>   You can back up these folders as necessary. How to Move Backup Settings to Another Server In order to move the settings to another server or PC, take a copy of BackupSets.xml. On the target PC, exit […]

You don’t have to use Granular Backup to back up everything; it’s there for added flexibility and value. Most users create two or more tasks, one for the full backup, whether compressed / deduped or not. The other one runs more frequently and backs up only specific folders from inside the VM, via Granular Backup. […]

BackupChain doesn’t use the concept of a backup store. It’s a target folder it writes to, which may be freely rotated. BackupChain continues where it left off last time it wrote into that folder. If you switch off dedupe and compression you’ll see the original file / folder structure and files being reproduced inside the […]

Yes, the trial is fully functional for 20 days. In v2.4 if you need to do a emergency restore to a new computer, install the trial and set up a ‘dummy’ task which doesn’t do anything. Simply save it and once you access the main screen in BackupChain, click Restore in the main menu and […]