Selecting a backup folder

You need to specify a folder that will contain your copied files. You can have backuplist+ create a folder for you or backup directly into the destination folder (no special folder selected). There are some options listed at the top left of the settings window Backuplist+ remembers all these settings for future backups. You will also need to select a destination for this folder, in the main window. See "Choose a destination."

Backup to folder

This creates a default folder named "mybackup" which will be created at the selected destination. If you already have a folder by that name in that destination, your backup files will be copied into that same folder each time, replacing the originals if they have been modified since the last backup session. If you don not select to have a designated backup folder, the source files will be copied directly to the selected destination, indicated in the main window Destination text field.

Incremental backups

Clicking this check box, you will need to type a number in the text field to represent the maximum number of folders generated.If you select this option and enter a number, such as three, backuplist+ will create a new numbered folder at each session. Once the limit is reached it will begin again at 1, deleting the first backup and copying the new backup into the "1" folder. This allows you to have several backup versions spanning a given time period to refer back to if you wish to find a file before certain previous changes were made. These incremental backups are often called "Snapshots" since they are a complete picture of your files at a given time. This the same thing Time Machine does.

Rsync creates incremental backups that will be complete snapshots of your latest files but will not take up any extra disk space! Only the files that have been modified since last backup will be copied over. Each snapshot only takes up the amount of disk space for the changed bytes it contains-everything else is a hard link that seems "real" but is just a pointer to the original backup file.

Dated folder

This creates a folder named "mybackup" (or your choice of name) with the current date appended to the name such as "mybackup 03-02-06". Without a time stamp each backup would update the existing backup folder. A dated folder create a new unique "stamped" folder, an archive of your files from a given time period. Unless you choose "Incremental" backups" in conjunction with this choice, each archive will be a full backup copy.

Disk Image

Clicking this check box will tell backuplist+ to make a disk image with your backup files inside it. A disk image is useful for certain situations and is an exact copy that can be un-mounted and stored as an archive on an external disk or your own hard drive. You must specify the type and options for the disk image in the disk image settings panel. See more on Disk Image....

See also

Choose a destination folder