Your first backup
Create a job in five steps, run it, and read the report: about ten minutes from start to finish.
On this page
A job says what to back up, where to, how, and when. The wizard walks through those in five steps. Nothing is written to the destination until you save the job and run it.
Before you start#
- A place for the backups: a USB drive, a second internal drive, or a folder on your NAS. A USB or external drive is the safest of the three for a first job, because it is a separate disk.
- About ten minutes.
Step 1: Name the job#
- On Home, click New backup (top right), or press Ctrl+N. The wizard opens. The steps are listed on the left, with the Job summary under them filling in as you go.
- Type a Job name. It is shown in the app and the tray, and it becomes the folder name on the destination, so
Documents & Desktopis better thanJob 1. - Under Start from, click a template if one fits (Documents & Desktop, Photos & videos, Developer, Whole profile, Music, Email), or keep Blank. A template fills in what to back up and how; you can change all of it. See Templates and copying a job.
- Click Next.
Step 2: Choose where the backups go#
- Keep This PC or USB selected. (Network share / NAS needs Home or Pro; Cloud (S3-compatible) needs Pro.)
- Under Drive, check the drive the wizard picked. It picks a connected external or USB drive first, and the drive Windows runs on last. Each drive shows its label and free space.
- The Folder is filled in as
<drive>\Backups\<job name>, for exampleH:\Backups\Documents & Desktop. If Settings ▸ Backup defaults ▸ Default destination is a folder on that drive, the job's folder goes inside it instead. It is created if it does not exist. Change it or click Browse… if you like. - Read the line under the folder. Room for the estimated 8.4 GB many times over is what you want.
- Leave Warn me if the drive isn't connected 10 minutes before a run ticked. The drive is recognised by its volume serial, so it is found under any letter Windows gives it.
- Click Next.
The wizard tests the destination by itself: Reachable and writable (34 ms). If you pick the drive Windows runs on, or another partition of the same disk, it warns you: if that disk fails, the backup goes with it.
Warning
The destination cannot be inside something you back up. The wizard refuses it, because a backup that backs itself up grows until the drive is full.
Step 3: Choose what to back up#
Three ways to pick, and you can mix them:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Smart items | tick Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos, Music, Downloads, Whole user profile, and data of apps found on this PC (Outlook, browsers and others) |
| Browse this PC | a folder tree with tick boxes; a ticked folder keeps picking up new files inside it, a ticked file is just that file |
| Type a path | for a \\server\share\folder path or a folder the tree cannot show |
- Tick what you want. With a template, it is already ticked.
- Check the figures at the bottom: Estimated size, Files, Folders ticked, Single files and Excluded (what the filters leave out).
- Click Next.
Filters & exclusions, at the top of the step, leaves out files you do not want. See Choosing what to back up.
Step 4: Choose how it backs up#
The defaults suit most first jobs. The ones worth a look:
| Setting | Default | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Backup type | Incremental (templates: Photos & videos and Music, Full; Developer, Differential) | each run stores only what changed since the last run |
| Compression | Balanced | a solid saving on documents and code, and fast |
| Encrypt this job with AES-256 | off | Home and Pro. You set a password, and a lost password cannot be recovered |
| Retention | keep 5 sets, a new full after 7 runs, delete sets older than 90 days | on Free only the number of sets can be changed |
| Verify files after each run | on | every stored file is read back and checked |
| Use a VSS snapshot for open files | on | backs up files other programs hold open; needs administrator rights at run time |
If GBM AI is not running as administrator, a Needs administrator banner appears under the open-files option. You can carry on: files that are open during the run are skipped and listed in the report. See Needs administrator.
Click Next.
The types are explained in The four backup types.
Step 5: Choose when it runs#
- Keep Simple and Daily at
02:00, or pick another rhythm: Every few hours, Weekly on, Monthly on day, When I sign in to Windows or Once, on. Manual only runs the job only when you press Run. - Pick a time when the PC is usually on. If it is off at that time, Run a missed backup as soon as possible (on) runs it when the PC is next on, up to 12 hours late.
- Check Next runs: the next five times the job will run.
- Click Save and run now. (Save job saves it to run at its next time.)
The rhythms and conditions are explained in The six schedule rhythms.
Step 6: The first run#
- Before a new job's first run, GBM AI shows what it is about to back up: the files, the size, and what the filters leave out. If it looks right, click Run now. (Not now leaves the job saved without running it.)
- The run page opens: Running: Documents & Desktop. It shows the phase (Scanning, Backing up, Verifying and so on), the current file, time left, and six counters: New, Updated, Unchanged, Deleted, Skipped, Errors.
You can close the window. The background agent finishes the run, and the icon in the notification area shows its progress.
To stop being asked before first runs, tick Don't ask before the first run of new jobs in that dialog, or turn off Settings ▸ Backup defaults ▸ Ask before a job's first run.
Step 7: Read the report#
When the run ends, the run page becomes its report. You can open it later from Home (Recent activity ▸ Open report) or from Activity.
The report shows the result, what was stored, how long each part took, and where the set is. If files were skipped, the Skipped tab lists each one with the reason, and Add a rule for these leaves them out from now on.
Your first backup is done. From now on the job runs on its schedule. Try a restore soon, so you know how it works before you need it: Restore a file or folder.