How long will my first Backup take?
Depending on your Internet connection speed and the level of service that you sign up for, the length of time of your first backup will vary. Typically, a backup of 100mb can take from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Each successive backup thereafter will take approximately 6 minutes because only the incremental changes need to be compressed, encrypted and backed up.

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What (and how much) gets backed up?
This varies based on the Backup plan you have selected.   Please refer to Billing.

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What can and cannot be backed up
Connected's disaster recovery service is intended to protect your critical data files, not the commercial software that you install from disk or CD. If you were to have a system crash you would be better off re-installing your software so that essential information could be written back into the Windows registry database that is part of your operating system.

We recommend that you not back up multi-media files. Their size and sheer volume would make it costly and lengthy to restore via the Internet. Although you could order a CD of your backups, it is generally cost-prohibitive, possibly costing several hundred dollars.

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Where your data is stored
When you open your account, it is assigned to a mirrored pair of data centers that are geographically separate. Since the data centers are identical, you can backup to and restore from either one of them. The software automatically handles the connection for you. The protection of your data is increased with the redundancy of a mirrored pair. Additionally, the data centers are themselves backed up. Further, duplication permits maintenance to be performed without interrupting the service. An illustration of how data centers are organized can be seen in the backup software's Help file, under Contents | Welcome | Overview.

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Selecting files in Backup View
When you click the Backup View tab, a scan of your hard disk is initiated. Upon completion, a list of files needing backup is displayed.

You can deselect files by clicking the box in front of a file name. When you do, the file will be removed from the list.

If you want to add files, you will have to change the display to show a directory tree that you can browse. The button for this is in the blue window on the left; click "Explore to pick files." To select/deselect, click the box in from of a file name. In some editions of the software, you will also be able to click on an entire folder to include/exclude everything in it.

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Deleting files from storage
File management is automatic. Connected Corporation maintains the following data retention settings on our Data Centers for Service Customers.

Files older than 10 versions or 90 days are deleted but your most recent version is always kept. Files that have been deleted from your system will be deleted from the data centers 90 days later. Files that you backed up then deselected from your backup set will be deleted after 7 days. Files of accounts that have been cancelled are deleted 30 days after cancellation.

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Can't fine a particular file? Use "Find" to locate it.
Using the Find feature is a fast and easy way to locate a specific file. You can use find in Backup View and in Retrieve View. Simply click the magnifying glass icon at the upper right of the window, next to the question mark (the Help icon).

HINT: When entering a long file name, or one that you aren’t sure of, use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard symbol. An asterisk can be inserted at any point in a file name in place of characters that you aren’t sure of or are that you don’t want to bother typing. There’s only one rule: Don’t use two or more asterisks in succession; use one at a time as a placeholder.

Example 1: For a file named My Resume.doc, type *resume.doc
This tells Find to look for all files that end in resume.doc.

Example 2: For a file named Peaches and Cream.jpg, you could type P*and*.* or P*and*.jpg or Peach*.jpg

If you don’t see the file that you want with your first try, click Find Next until you do find it. You can click Find Next as often as needed, it will recycle through the list no matter where your starting point is.

If you are looking for an older file and are unable to locate it, then click the Retrieve Options button (bottom of window) and select ‘Show all versions of all files.’

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Message in Log: "0 Files backed up"
There are several circumstances that may prevent files from being backed up.

  • You cancelled the backup. Normal backups will resume without error.
  • You installed the backup software into an incorrect folder. Programs should always be installed in a folder of their own, separate from other programs. The default installation folder is C:\Program Files\Quicken Online Backup. The backup software excludes the directory it is installed into and any subdirectories within that folder. You should first uninstall and then perform an Account Recovery and reinstall the program to its own directory, such as (C:\Program Files\Quicken Online Backup).
  • You ran a second backup immediately after another backup, so there were no changed files.
  • Files needing backup were open. Close all files that you want backed up.
  • File selection method is set to Manual. You need to reset it – we recommend Automatic. You can leave it in Manual if you intend to select all the files that should be included in your backup group, but don’t’ forget to select the files. (Only applies to plans with this feature enabled)
  • Insufficient resources on your computer, such as not enough free hard disk space, not enough available RAM, too small a page file, open files, or numerous background processes.
  • An outbound connection to the Internet could not be made. Check your connectivity. Also, confirm that your connection setting in the software are correctly set for the way that you connect, either Dial-Up Networking (Modem) or Direct Connection. AOL is an example of a Direct Connection because the connection is already open when you go to back up. (Connection Settings are under Options, on the menu bar.)
  • Backup Schedule is set to ‘Backup On Connection To Network’ and there were no changed files since your last backup. No action required; backups will resume normally when there are changed files.
  • The backup software is installed in the same folder with the files you are trying to back up. Applications programs, such as the backup software, should always be installed in a folder of their own, not mingled with files from other programs. (Contact Support)
  • A synchronization error occurred, in which case the details of the log would show a Diagnostic with reference to ‘Base hash count.' (Contact Support)
  • You are running Norton Anti-Virus software and may have encountered a rare incident that causes the backup to stop transmitting files (Contact Support)

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