Setting up a backup

Follow the steps shown below to set up a backup.

Step 1: If you didn’t check the Launch Duplicati now option, you can also launch Duplicati via Start > All Programs > Duplicati

Step 2: Since this is the first time you’re using this tool, in the welcome window select Setup a new backup option and click Next.

Step 3: Give a name to the backup. Additionally, you can also create a group and place the backup in that group. For example, in the sample shown in Figure 1, the backup is named ‘ Sample’ and it is placed in Critical group. This is helpful when you want to categorise your backup ( e. g., Critical, Important, Normal, etc). Click Next once this is done.

Step 4: The next window allows you to select the folders to be backed up. By default, the tool selects My Documents as the folder to back up and gives you an option to select the individual components. However, if you want to specify your own folder list, select the Custom folder list option, specify the folders (as shown in Figure 2) and click Next.

Step 5: In the next window, set a password for this backup and select the encryption method. Let’s choose AES-256 encryption, built-in for the purposes of this article. Make sure that Use these settings on new backups option is checked. This will ensure that any future backups use the same settings. Click Next once this is done.

The GNU Privacy Guard, external option also does the encryption but requires the user to separately install GNU Privacy Guard, which is free open source encryption software that can be downloaded from http://gpg4win. org/download.html (for Windows). For other platforms, please use http://www.gnupg.org/download/ to find the appropriate package.

As stated earlier, one of the good things about Duplicati is that it provides an option for file-based and cloud-based storage of backups. Therefore, Steps 6 and 7 will differ based on your choice. The following text will explain Steps 6 and 7 for both file-based backup and cloud-based backup (using Google Docs).

Step 6 (for file-based backup): In the Select a place to store the backups window select the File based option and click Next.

Step 7 (for file-based backup): In the next window, set the path to the location in which you want to store the backup. This can be a local path or a network location.

In case you’re entering a network path and it requires a separate set of credentials, make sure that the Use alternate credentials option is checked and credentials are set in the respective fields. Alternatively, you can also select the Removable disk option to store the backup on removable media such as a USB drive or a memory card. Select the desired disk from the drop-down box.