An Online Backup Service is an Internet-based service that allows computer users to routinely backup and recover their important data using a secure and trusted server on the Internet.

If you use your computer to create and save valuable data for business or personal reasons, you should make some type of backup of your important data to prevent a total loss in the event of any kind of system failure or human error. Simple data backup can be done by saving your data to multiple locations, copying the data from its original location to removable media, another hard drive, or another computer's hard drive on the network.

To make this task easier, specialized programs known as Backup Software exist to aid users in regularly making a backup copy of their data. Since some users are not interested in managing the tasks necessary for maintaining their own backups, a new breed of backup software was created, known as Online Backup Software. Online Backup software is designed to routinely copy your important files to a private, secure location on the Internet by securely transmitting your data over your existing Internet connection.

If you have a working Internet connection on your computer, you can use DataRescue's Online Backup Service to keep your important files safe from disaster on a daily basis.

Depending on the speed of your connection and the size of your backup, your initial backup over the Internet may take several hours. Many people with large backup sizes and slower Internet connections will often run their first backup over the weekend. Once the first backup is completed, each subsequent backup is usually a small amount of data that can be backed up in just minutes over a slower dial-up connection.

Our software can also resume a canceled backup, so you can start the backup during your slow times and cancel it during your busy times. The next time you start the backup, it will pick up from where it was canceled until the entire backup is complete.

In order to control how much data is stored on the online backup server, your online backup software allows you to view all of the data stored on the server and selectively remove files from the server. To view the data stored under your account, run your online backup software and click on the folder tab labeled "Restore". In the left windowpane, Right-Click on the Desktop icon and select "Get Volume List from Server". This will show you each computer that has been backed up to your account. Now you can navigate the folders to see what data is stored on the server. To delete files, click on the button with the Red "X" to enable the Delete Files mode. Mark any files you wish to delete by clicking your mouse in the empty box next to the file(s) you wish to delete. Click the "Delete Files Now" to issue the command to delete the selected files from the server. WARNING: Once a file is deleted from the server, it can no longer be restored.

It's up to you. We encourage people to do both local and remote backup for absolute protection. Users that want an added level of protection will perform local backups in addition to their online backup. Local backups can allow you to backup ALL of your files, while the online backup is a great way to automatically store your critical files off-site.

Contact our technical support group for assistance during normal business hours (8am - 5pm CST).

In the case of many backup software programs, files and databases that are in use during the backup may not get backed up successfully because they are locked to prevent any other program from altering the data. To solve this problem, DataRescue Online Backup can be used with the optional SQL and Exchange Plug-ins to make sure that these open and locked database files get backed up successfully. Additionally, DataRescue Online Backup now has Open File Backup protection which takes advantage of Microsoft's VSS Option ensuring open files are not skipped.

The FastBIT patching process is the core technology behind our speedy backup service. The patching process involves the comparison of two different versions of the same file and extracting the differences between the files. When the differences are extracted from the two files, they are saved into a new file and compressed into what is known as a Patch. The patch file is often 85% to 99.9% smaller than the file which the patch was extracted from originally.

Applying this technology to the backup process will reduce the use of communication lines, backup tapes, and physical storage, all leading to one thing... Cost Savings! Reduce your costs without sacrificing the integrity of your backups. Here's how our FastBIT patching technology is applied to your backup process.

When our backup program encounters a file for the first time, it compresses the file and sends it securely to the backup server. Once a file has been compressed and sent to the server, never again will we send that entire file to the server. All future changes to your files will result in only the changes within the files being sent to the server. When the changes are received by the server, they are applied to your backup files creating a complete up-to-date copy of your file system. As an optional service, your daily FastBIT Patch Backup files can be stored separately on the server allowing the flexibility of restoring any file(s) from your backup data as of any point in time.

If you're wondering about the reliability of the patching technology, there's no need to wonder anymore. This technology is not new. It has been the only choice for IBM, Microsoft, Novell, and many other hardware and software companies needing to update commercially distributed software. DataRescue is the first to tightly integrate this existing technology into a high performance backup application.

The FastBIT patching process manipulates files at the binary level. This means it can process any file type without error. Different types of files will yield different FastBIT patch sizes based on the binary organization of the file.

If you are an end-user, the efficiency of FastBIT will dramatically reduce the time required to backup your data from any network location, include slow dial-up connections.

If you are the server administrator, FastBIT will minimize your overall bandwidth utilization for a large installed base. FastBIT will also provide the most cost-effective method of storing ongoing file histories for every user. FastBIT backups can be 15 times smaller than the nearest competitor. That means DataRescue will only need 10 Gigabytes for user data that would need up to 150 Gigabytes of storage using competitive software for the same amount of user data.

The client software can be installed on any Windows 98SE, Me, NT, 2000, 2003 (.NET), XP or Vista computer. The DataRescue client software communicates to the DataRescue Server using the TCP/IP protocol.

The secret key is a special text string used to encrypt all data that is stored on the server. The secret key can be changed at any time in between backups or restores. If the secret key is forgotten or lost, the Backup Server administrator may not be able to recover the data on the server.

When you change the secret key, the previous secret key (and all keys before it if any) are encrypted together using the latest secret key. This way, you need only remember the latest key and do not have to be troubled with remembering, potentially, many keys from past changes.