Defaults


Backup

Restore

Live Update

Scheduled Tasks

Editors

VBSript Generation

Network


Backup Defaults

Compression

File Size

Password

Disk Space Management

Auto Verify Image

Verify File System

Priority

 

Compression

 

Compression Level

Select the compression (if any) to use for this image file. A Typical compression factor is about 50% at medium compression setting. Increasing the compression level will increase the amount of time required to backup and restore the image.

 

 It is only recommended that you select the 'High' compression setting if you are backing up to optical CD /DVD drives. This is because the relatively low transfer rate of the data means that the compression level will not compromise performance.

 

 

File Size

 

 

Automatic

Let Reflect determine the maximum image file size. The maximum file size will be determined by the file system and the available space on the destination drive. For FAT32 the maximum file size is 4GB, for NTFS and optical drives (CD / DVD) the file size is determined by the amount of free space on the drive. If there is no more free space on the drive then you are prompted for a new location for the remainder of the image data. If the resultant image file is larger than 4GB and you are saving to a FAT32 location then the image file is split into multiple files and the file number (at the end of the image file name) is incremented.

 

Enter a fixed size

You can enter a fixed number of MB or GB for the maximum file size. This is useful if you want the speed of a local hard disk for the initial backup, but later want to transfer the image files to CD / DVD where space per disk is limited. As soon as the file size is reached a new image file is created and the file number (at the end of the image file name) is incremented.

 

Password

 

 

If a password is entered, then the image file cannot be restored or browsed without entering the password first. For security reasons the password is not stored with the file, only an MD5 hash value of the password is stored.

 

The password can be up to 256 characters in length, any combination of letters and numbers and is case sensitive.

 

If you forget your password, there is no way of recovering the image data. You should make sure that you always choose a password that you, and only you, can remember.

 

AES Encryption, allows you to specify up to 256 bit encryption, making your data totally secure.  There is a minimum password length requirement for AES as follows:

 

128 Bit - 8  Characters

192 Bit - 16 Characters

256 Bit - 32 Characters

 

Disk Space Management

 

 

Disk space management allows you to automatically purge the destination directory of old backups to make space available for the latest.

 

If a Full backup is removed from the destination directory then all linked incremental and differential backups will also be removed as these are now invalid.

 

An Image will not be purged / deleted, regardless of age,  if you are running a incremental or differential backup and there is only one full image in the destination directory.

 

 

 

Auto Verify image

 

Choosing this option will automatically verify each image or backup file when it is created. This is generally only necessary when writing to optical media (CD/DVD) as this media is less reliable than other storage types.

 

 

If an image or backup file fails verification then this always indicated a hardware failure. This is most likely to be the storage medium, but can also be due to main memory (RAM) errors.

 

 

 

 

Verify File System

 

Select whether to verify the file system on each partition before it is imaged.

 

 

 

Priority

 

 

The priority setting sets the default thread priority for running backups and images. Reflect is a multi threaded application and is designed for optimal performance with multi-cored processors. The thread priority can be changed at run time.

 


Restore Defaults

Drive Letter

Verify Image

Master Boot Record

Verify File System

 

 

Drive Letter

 

Select whether to assign a drive letter to the restored partition.

 

The selected drive letter will be permanent and will persist through successive reboots of the operating system.

 

 

 

Verify Image

 

Verify the image before restoring. If selected then the restore will not start until the image has been successfully verified.

 

The image is also verified as it is being restored and will abort the restore if damaged data is attempted to be read.

 

It can take several minutes to verify an image, but, if the data is stored on optical media (CD / DVD) then it is recommended that you verify as this medium is inherently less reliable that hard disk based storage.

 

If you are restoring to a new or different hard drive then verification is not strictly necessary, as the restore will abort if corrupt data is read and you can then try a different image (if available).

 

 

 

 

Master Boot Record

 

The Master Boot Record a small program that executes when the computer starts up. If this program has become corrupt, perhaps due to a virus, then you may have problems starting the computer operating system.

 

 

 

Verify File System

 

 

Verifying the file system after restoring is a good idea to ensure that there is no corruption. However, file systems with many files (millions) can take many hours to verify.


 

 

Live Update

 

 

Periodically we issue bug fixes and updates to Reflect. Unless you have a problem accessing the internet it is recommended that you leave this set at 'Check once a day'.


 

 

Scheduled Tasks

User Name

Interactive Prompt Time Out

 

 

User Name

 

 

All scheduled task will run under the user name entered here.

 

 It is essential that this user is a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

 
 

 

Interactive Prompt Time Out

 

A batch job is defined as either:

  1. A backup or image started from a VBScript file.

  2. A backup or image started from an MS-DOS batch file.

  3. A backup or image started by passing an XML file to the Reflect command line.

  4. A backup or image started by the scheduler.

 

If a batch job requires user input and time out is enabled then the following dialog is displayed:

 

 

If a scheduled tasked runs without a user logged on to Windows then this time out ensures that Reflect isn't waiting indefinitely for user input.  

 

Examples of user input wait states are:
a) CD/DVD formatting required.
b) Out of disk space when writing the Image / Backup file.

 

 


 

 

 

Editors

 

 

Enter the default editors for VBScript, MS-DOS batch and XML files here.

 

VBScript Generation

Log File

Shutdown

Application Event Log

Email

Run Once a Day

Run Programs

Vista Elevation

Duplicate Backup File

 

 

Log File

 

Select to add VBScript code to create a log file during the backup or disk image.

The log file name will be unique use the format: log-YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS.txt

 

 

Shutdown

 

Select to add VBScript code to shut down or log off your PC at the end of the script.

 

Combine this option with Run Once a Day to avoid creating too many backups or images.

 

 

 

 

Application Event Log

 

Select to add VBScript code to add messages to the Application Event Log in XP and Vista.

To access the 'Application Event Log'.

1. Right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'.

2. Expand the 'Event Viewer' node.

 

The 'Source' field for the generated messages will always be WScript.exe

 

 

Email

 

Select to add VBScript code to generate and send email messages on backup success and failure.

 

Your SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) Server name can usually be found by looking at your email client settings. For Outlook Express select 'Tools' from the main menu then 'Accounts'.

 

 

Run Once a Day

 

Select to add VBScript code to only allow the script to run once a day. This is achieved by writing the script full path, file name and last run date to the Windows registry. The last run date is then compared with the current date and the script is terminated if they are the same.

 

 

 

Run Programs

 

Select to add VBScript code to execute any program or script at the beginning or end of the script.

 

 

 

Vista Elevation

 

This option only applies to Windows Vista. By default Vista enables a security feature call 'User Account Control' (UAC). With UAC enabled, any attempt to execute a program that could access restricted areas of your PC will result in an 'Elevation Prompt'. This prompt requires the user to verify administration user and password details. Reflect requires elevated privileges to run and will always prompt for elevation before executing if the calling program or script is not already elevated. However, it is often preferred that the script that executes Reflect is elevated before calling Reflect. The advantages of this are:

1. Only one elevation prompt is required. A script could be calling multiple backups but if it has already been elevated then no further elevation prompts are required.

2. Some scripting functions may fail if the script isn't running with elevated privileges.

 

 

 

Duplicate Backup File

 

 

 

 

This option enables you to copy the backup/image file(s) just created to an alternative backup directory. This can be a useful way to ensure that your files are contained in two locations and therefore the risk of backup corruption is greatly reduced.


 

Network

 

 

When backing up to a network location Reflect will first try and connect to the network share with the default credentials for the logged on users. If this fails then the user name and password specified here is used and the connection tried again.