Leasey Personal Backup: An Easy Way to Backup Files and Folders.

Today I introduce you to Leasey Personal Backup! As with podcasts, the Beta Testers are enjoying using this one and have provided valuable suggestions so as to build on the basic concepts.

Leasey Personal Backup.

Leasey Personal Backup is a feature designed to provide users with a reliable and efficient way to protect important files and folders by creating backup copies that can be restored when needed. Whether safeguarding personal documents, work-related materials, or cherished media collections, this tool simplifies the backup and restore process, ensuring that your data remains secure and accessible.

Backing up files and folders is often an overlooked aspect of computer maintenance, yet it can prevent significant frustration and loss if something goes wrong. Accidental deletions, unexpected system failures, and hardware malfunctions can happen at any time, making it essential to have an up-to-date backup. Leasey Personal Backup offers a straightforward method for selecting which folders to back up, storing them in a designated location, and keeping them synchronized over time. The process is designed to be as effortless as possible, only backing up modified files after the initial backup, which drastically reduces time and system resource usage.

A key advantage of this feature is its flexibility. You can back up your folders to a location on your computer, an external USB drive, or a cloud-based service such as Dropbox or Google Drive. The ability to specify, edit, and change both the backup source and destination ensures that users retain full control over their backup strategy. Additionally, Leasey Personal Backup provides a Selective Restore option, allowing users to restore only specific folders rather than all backed-up data at once.

This utility is not designed to make a backup of your entire computer or to restore an entire machine back to a previous condition, nor is it designed to restore your JAWS for Windows settings.

Setting up Leasey Personal Backup is a simple process. You begin by specifying the target location where the backup files will be stored. Once this is set, you can choose the folders that should be included in the backup. The system ensures that no duplicate folders are added to the backup list, keeping everything organized. Running the backup is just as straightforward; after the initial backup, only changed or newly added files are copied, reducing the time required for future backups. If files are removed from their original location, they are also deleted from the backup to maintain consistency.

Restoring files is equally efficient, with two methods available. You can restore all backed-up folders to their original locations, or you can use Selective Restore to choose specific folders to recover. This flexibility ensures that you are not forced to restore unnecessary files, saving time and storage space.

Specifying the Target Location.

The first decision to be made is where to backup the folders and files. It could be a local drive or folder on your computer, but more likely, it will be a USB external drive or a cloud storage service such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

  1. Using File Explorer, browse to the folder where you wish to backup the folders and files. We call this the target.
  2. Press Enter to open up the folder or drive. This is an important step. You must be inside the folder or drive.
  3. Press the Leasey key then Control+B for Backup.
  4. An edit field appears which contains the full path to the drive or folder, such as, e:\ or d:\Dropbox\John James.
  5. Using the Left and Right Arrow keys, examine the path character by character. If you do not see a full path such as that described above, you have not customised Windows correctly to display the full path in the window title of File Explorer and you should revisit the Installation section of this documentation. For example, if the Edit Field contains just the folder name and not the full path, Windows is not configured correctly.
  6. At this point you can adjust the path by editing the text in the field if you wish.
  7. When the full path to the potential Backup folder is correct, press Enter. This is saved permanently until you change it.

Specifying the Source Locations.

You can now decide which folders you would always like to be backed up to Leasey Personal Backup. The procedure for adding folders to the backup process is almost identical to that which we have been through for storing the target location.

  1. Using File Explorer, browse to each folder in turn.
  2. Press Enter to open up the folder.
  3. Press the Leasey key followed by ALT+B.
  4. An Edit Field appears displaying the path to the folder. As before, you can edit this location if necessary.
  5. When the path is displayed correctly, press Enter. The folder is then added to your backup list and is stored permanently until you change it. If Leasey identifies that the folder already exists in the backup list, it is not added a second time.

Running Personal Backup for the First Time.

It is now time to backup your folders to Personal Backup. The copying process is very efficient. However, if you are backing up a large number of Gigabytes of data, this can take a minute or two. Future backups of the same folders will be much faster.

  1. Open up the Leasey Backup and Restore Manager by pressing the Leasey Key then Control+Shift+B.
  2. Press Down Arrow to select the option “Backup Folders Using Personal Backup”.
  3. Press Enter and the backup will begin. You will be requested to “Please wait”. A sound will play periodically to notify you that the backup is ongoing, however in many situations it will only play out once or twice as the backup is very fast!
  4. In time you will be advised that the backup is complete and the sound will no longer play.
  5. Finally, using File Explorer, browse to the folder containing the backup and verify all the content is present.

What Happens With Subsequent Backups?

It is highly likely that you will make regular backup copies of the same folders. When you run Personal Backup as directed above, Leasey will only copy files which have been modified since the last backup was run. In many cases, this means that the backup will take place in only a few seconds.

If you have removed some files from the original source locations, the removed files will also be removed from the backup.

Backing Up Selected Folders Only.

There may be situations where on a temporary basis you may only like to backup selected folders from your core source locations.

  1. Press the Leasey key then Control+Shift+B to enter the Leasey Backup and Restore Manager.
  2. Select the item “Select individual folders to copy to Personal Backup”.
  3. Press Enter. An Edit Field is displayed containing a list of all the paths to folders which are currently in the Personal Backup. There is one path on each line. Using standard Windows editing techniques, remove all the folder paths you do not wish to be part of the backup process on this occasion. In short, the edit field should only contain a list of those folders you wish to be backed up this time.
  4. Press Enter and the backup process will begin.

Note that the selection of sources in the list is temporary. The next time you repeat the above steps for a selected backup, all the sources originally set for Personal Backup are displayed.

Restoring Folders.

The reason why we are making a backup of folders is that there could be a need to restore them at a later time. There are two methods for doing this. You can either restore all folders back to the point where they were last backed up or you can use what we call Selected Restore.

To restore all folders from the target back to the original sources:

  1. Press the Leasey key then Control+Shift+B to move into the Leasey Backup and Restore Manager.
  2. Select the option “Restore all folders from Personal Backup”.
  3. Press Enter and the restoration process will begin. A sound will play periodically as the restore is taking place. How long the restoration takes will depend upon a number of factors including the speed of the drive where the folders are stored and the size of the folders.
  4. When the process is complete you will be advised of this and the sound will no longer play.
  5. You should now revisit the original source folders to check everything is in place.

We will now describe the process for restoring specific folders from the backup only:

  1. Press the Leasey key then Control+Shift+B to enter the Leasey Backup and Restore Manager.
  2. Select the item “Restore individual folders from Personal Backup”.
  3. Press Enter. An Edit Field is displayed containing a list of all the paths to folders which are currently in the Personal Backup. There is one path on each line. Using standard Windows editing techniques, remove all the folder paths you do not wish to be part of the restore process. In short, the edit field should only contain a list of those folders you wish to be restored.
  4. Press Enter and the restoration process will begin.

Note that the selection of sources in the list is temporary. The next time you repeat the above steps for a selected restore, all the sources originally set for Personal Backup are displayed.

Changing the Target Location.

If you wish to change the target location for the Personal Backup, you can:

  1. Browse to a new folder for the Personal Backup.
  2. Press Enter.
  3. Press the Leasey Key then Control+B.
  4. Check the new target location in the edit field.
  5. Press Enter. The new target will be used for future backups.

Alternatively:

  1. Press the Leasey Key then Control+Shift+B to move into the Leasey Backup and Restore Manager.
  2. Select the item Edit Personal Backup Target Storage Location”.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. An edit field will appear containing the current path to the target location. If you are just using this as a mechanism to remind yourself of the target location, read the content of the edit field and press Escape. However, you can change this if you know the path to the new target location.
  5. Press Enter to save.

Points to Bare In Mind When Backing Up and Restoring Folders.