NovaBACKUP PC Agent (PC), Server Agent (Business Essentials)
The NovaBACKUP 21 Quickstart Guide is a simple step-by-step guide designed to get you started performing backups quickly and efficiently with NovaBACKUP v21. The NovaBACKUP Quickstart Guide covers Creating a Local Backup device, Performing File Backup, File Restore, Image Backup, and creating your Image Backup Boot Disc. The new "Local Backup" device type that was added in NovaBACKUP 21 is a replacement for the legacy local backup device type (for local drives like C:), that uses the new faster backup engine in v21, that uses the Forever-incremental backup method, and retention is definable directly in the backup job settings (and both of those changes in the new backup engine greatly simplifies the setup and maintenance of backups to both the new Local Backup device type, and to the S3 Cloud, as both of those device targets utilize the new engine in v21). Note: If you need to utilize the legacy device types as device targets you can enable that in NovaBACKUP 21 by reading the KB article here. Note that this version changed the product names from PC to PC Agent, and Business Essentials to Server Agent, and the Server product was merged in to Server Agent.
You can also view the newer NovaBACKUP 21 User Guide website here. This web link is available via the NovaBACKUP 21.x client's "Help > Help Topics" menu function as well, as seen here:
You can also view the older Legacy NovaBACKUP 20.1 Quick Start Guide version PDF guide here. That would only be useful for knowing about the legacy device types though, not the modern device types in 21.x.
While the NovaBACKUP 21 Quickstart Guide is meant to be a simple introduction, more comprehensive guides exist for various configurations, see the following suggested how-to articles and how-to videos using the Support Knowledge Base links below. Note: Starting in NovaBACKUP 21 most of the articles below will still apply, but only if If you enable legacy device types first by reading the KB article here. Some of the articles will only apply to backups to the legacy device types, not to the new "Local Backup" device and "Cloud Backup" device types in NovaBACKUP 21, which for the latter two device types utilize the Forever-incremental backup method, and retention is definable directly in the backup job settings.
New to NovaBACKUP? Start Here
[Guide] NovaBACKUP PC (Home User) Configuration Walkthrough
This walkthrough will describe how to create 2 alternating File backups, one Copy job for your photos, and a Disaster Recovery Image Backup, all on a Schedule. This is designed for Home Users that want to backup data, but don't need a daily backup schedule (see "[Guide] Standard Backup Schedule with Retention" for a full schedule).
Backup With Retention Walkthrough (Video)
This step-by-step how-to video will walk you through setting up a scheduled file backup job in NovaBACKUP while utilizing data retention so that you don't run out of space over time.
Getting Started: Connecting to Your NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage
This article will walk you through connecting to your NovaBACKUP-hosted Cloud Storage account. This is a service that is included on some license keys starting in Q4 2019.
Keep Multiple Copies of your Backups
Use more than one device for your backups, ideally alternating between devices regularly to avoid a single point of failure.
The 3-2-1 rule of backup: 3 copies, 2 types of media, 1 offsite
Plan your Storage Space Requirements
NovaStor has a Storage Calculator! Check it out at backupcalculator.com
Keep 15% Free Space available on your storage device
Mechanical Hard Drives encounter physical issues once they become 85% Full, the performance degrades fast.
There’s no specific number or percentage that fits every Windows PC. All Microsoft will tell you is that you need 20 GB of space before you install a 64-bit Windows 10 system on a modern PC. After that, you’re on your own.
The rules of thumb can help. If you have a mechanical hard drive, leaving at least 15% of it empty can reduce fragmentation in newly created files and make it easier for Windows to properly defragment the drive, which is something modern versions of Windows do automatically in the background. If you don’t leave enough empty space, Windows won’t be able to move files around to defragment them and the contents of the drive will become fragmented and slower to access over time. If you have an SSD, this doesn’t apply.
If you have an SSD, leaving at least 25% of the SSD empty will ensure you have excellent performance. On modern SSDs with overprovisioning, this is probably much too conservative, and even 10% could be an okay number. It really depends on the SSD.
If you need to temporarily fill your drives up and only have 5% of disk space to spare, that’s not a problem. Things will just slow down over time, so you’ll probably want to free up some space when you can.
For more detail, review How-To Geek | How Much Free Space Should You Leave on Your Windows PC?
If your drive runs out of space while a backup is being performed, the backup file that was in progress will be corrupted, and will not be able to be imported into the software to recover data from in the future.
Types of Backups
Image Backup (Disaster Recovery)
An image backup is different than a standard file backup. It is intended to backup the underlying data structures of a computer including operating system and applications for emergency restoration in the event of a disaster. In this case your destination may be a completely different computer or set of hardware.
File Backup
A standard file backup is simply an archive of data that may be restored in the event of data loss. This is archive is generally made from the files which you select as being important (or an entire file system) and may be encrypted, or compressed.
Types of File Backup Jobs:
Full Backup
Differential Backup
- Benefit: Only 2 files ever required to perform a restore (1 Full and 1 Differential).
- Downside: Larger file sizes
Incremental Backup
- Benefit: Small file size with incremental backups.
- Downside: May require many files to restore which can be time consuming. More prone to user error
Suggested Support Articles to read:
Backup Flow Step-through
This article steps you through the processes performed when a job starts, and when each option or setting is performed during the backup process.
Backup Job Types and Modes
This guide will walk you through the different backup job types and modes available in NovaBACKUP to help you understand the differences between them. Covered are File Backup, Image Backup, and Copy jobs along with their modes Full, Differential, Incremental, etc.
[Guide] NovaBACKUP PC (Home User) Configuration Walkthrough
This walkthrough will describe how to create 2 alternating File backups, one Copy job for your photos, and a Disaster Recovery Image Backup, all on a Schedule. This is designed for Home Users that want to backup data, but don't need a daily backup schedule (see "[Guide] Standard Backup Schedule with Retention" for a full schedule).
[Guide] Standard Backup Schedule with Retention
This step-by-step guide will walk you through how to create, schedule, and implement a backup schedule. This includes a weekly Full file backup, daily Differential file backup, Retention, and a monthly Image Backup. This is the recommended way to backup all of your data while making sure that you don't run out of space over time.
What is the best practice for backing up and protecting my data
Our basic suggestions for best practices surrounding data backup and recovery with NovaBACKUP software. This includes using more than one device for your backups, ideally alternating between devices regularly to avoid a single point of failure. (3-2-1 rule of backup: 3 copies, 2 types of media, 1 offsite).
Boot from recovery disc and restore an image backup for a disaster recovery
This step-by-step guide will walk you through booting your recovery disc from your PC and restoring an image backup for a disaster recovery.
Create an image backup
This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on how to create a one-time, manual image backup. This process is only meant to create a one-time image backup and all of the steps have to be done manually. If you wish to have image backups run on a set schedule please follow this article regarding creating a scheduled image backup job with retention policy to delete oldest image backups automatically.
Create a recovery boot disc in Simple Mode
This step-by-step guide will assist you in creating a recovery boot disc for USB and CD/DVD using simple mode.
NOTE: If you are unable to create a boot disk using Simple Mode FOR ANY REASON, please try using Advanced Mode.
Simple Mode WILL NOT work on all systems as not all systems have the Recovery Environment for Windows installed.
Create a recovery boot disc in Advanced mode (with ADK instructions)
This step-by-step guide will assist you in creating a recovery boot disc for USB and CD/DVD using Advanced mode. It also has instructions for downloading and installing the Windows ADK.
How To Import & Restore .NBD Backup files
A collection of links to some of our Knowledge Base articles on the subject of importing backups (.NBD) and Restoring files/folders from a backup that was imported into the Restore tab.
Restore Image Backup using 19.2 or newer boot disk
Version 19.2 introduced a new Disaster Recovery boot disk (DRBoot) for restoring an Image Backup of a System Partition. This article will show the steps required to perform a Restore from an Image Backup file (Full - .NDF, Differential - .NDD, or Incremental - .NDI)
Backup with to NAS with Retention Walkthrough
This step-by-step guide will walk you through setting up a scheduled file backup job in NovaBACKUP combined with configuring a data retention policy so that you don't run out of space over time. This guide does not cover creating a scheduled image backup job, for a guide that covers that click here.
Exclude NovaBACKUP Files and Directories from Active Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Scanning
Occasionally, certain Anti-Virus software may incorrectly flag or interfere with your NovaBACKUP software from properly running. This can result in a failed backup job, unusually slow backup speed (transfer rate), failure for the application to start entirely, or the inability to see destinations to backup your files to. Please also confirm no files shown here have been quarantined by your Antivirus software if you cannot find the file in the listed location.
From the NovaBACKUP Blog
Differential and Incremental backups: Why should you care?
An article describing Differential and Incremental backup methods as utilized in NovaBACKUP and how they work.
Suggested Support Videos to watch:
Complete Backup and Creating a Backup Schedule (Video)
This step-by-step how-to video shows one of NovaStor's customer support technicians setting up a complete backup plan for a customer.
Backup With Retention Walkthrough (Video)
This step-by-step how-to video will walk you through setting up a scheduled file backup job in NovaBACKUP while utilizing data retention so that you don't run out of space over time.
Restoring Files in NovaBACKUP
This step-by-step how-to video shows how to restore files from both file-based backups, and also how to extract files from system image based backups.
Restore Image Backup using 19.2 or newer boot disk
This step-by-step how-to video shows how to restore Image-based backups.