Z-DBackup supports a variety of methods for tape backups. If you are not sure which settings lead to optimal results for you and you just want to create a backup of your data for the first time, you can simply skip these backup settings, because for a simple copy backup, none of the fice backup methods must be activated in the setup! It is the default settings for a newly created backup set.

Copy Backup (default setting)
With a copy backup  all selected directories are saved without marking the files as copied (the archive attribute  remains unchanged). A possibly existing backup file is deleted prior to backup. With this backup method, you only need the most recent complete backup to be able to restore all files.
 

For a simple copy backup, none of the five different methods must be selected! This is the default setting after a new backup set has been created.

Normal Backup
The normal backup is a copy backup with the additional feature that the archive attribute  is reset/deactivated. A possibly existing backup file is deleted prior to backup. With this backup method, you only need the most recent complete backup to be able to restore all files.

Incremental Backup
A series of incremental backups starts with one full backup. At each following backup, only those files that were changed or have been created since the last (full or incremental) backup will be copied. All copied files are marked, i.e. the archive attribute  is deactivated. With this backup method, you need the most recent full backup and all following incremental backups to restore all your files.

Differential Backup
A series of differential backups starts with one full backup. At each following backup, only those files that were changed or have been created since the last full backup will be copied. The archive attribute  of copied files is deactivated during full backups, but not during any following differential backups. With this backup method, you need the most recent full backup and only the latest incremental backup to restore all your files.

 If you want to use a differential/incremental backup set for full backups, you can simply create an additional desktop shortcut  or Z-Cron job  with the action "Full differential/incremental backup"!

Backup by modified date
With this backup method, only files that were changed or created on the day that the backup is run are copied. The files are not marked as copied, i.e. the archive attribute  remains unchanged.

DirGuard
Select this option if you only want to back up data from after a specific date. The date must be entered in the format "DD.MM.YYYY" and must be between 1987 and 2076.

Windows Task Scheduler
For each backup set, you can choose to create a task for Z-Cron  or the Windows Task Scheduler. Select this option if you want to use Windows Task Scheduler for scheduling your backups.

Hardware compression
Use the data compression feature of the tape drive, if supported.

Eject tape after backup
The tape is automatically ejected from the drive, if the hardware supports this feature. You should disable this option if you use a tape auto loader.

Automatically prepare tape
Unformatted tapes are automatically formatted and prepared according to Z-TapeBackup settings prior to backup.

Empty directories
Include empty directories in the backup. This can be useful if you want to be able to restore the complete directory structure including empty directories.

Overwrite tape
Select this option and the tape will be overwritten each time you perform a backup. Otherwise the backup data will be written at the position after the last backup on the tape.
 

VShadow Copy
If this option is activated, a Volume Shadow Copy is created for the source drive. This allows copying locked files.

 Without the module Z-VSScopy , Z-DBackup cannot copy files that are locked by other applications!

Real-time

In conjunction with the VSScopy option, the data is backed up directly from the shadow copy, so you get a consistent backup of directories, Hyper-V or databases even during operation. If this option is set, files that are currently being backed up can still be opened while the backup is running. This allows users to continue working undisturbed, even while the backup is running and they need to access files that are part of the backup for their work. Without the VSScopy option, this setting has no function and is then deactivated in the setup.

Fast Seek
The position of the files on the tape is automatically tracked and stored in a file. Unfortunately, the FastSeek option requires a lot of time on old tape drives which can lead to massive slowdowns when backing up more than 5,000 files.

 Users who back up only few but large files should still use this function because it makes restoring single files much faster and more comfortable because the tape drive can immediately reel the tape to the correct position instead of reading in the whole tape looking for the file.

Multi-Spanning
The files will be spread across multiple tapes.

The amount of empty tapes needed will be determined at the beginning of the backup process. Z-TapeBackup presumes that 96% (default value) of the native tape capacity can be used to store the data (this value (used tape capacity) can be changed in the settings of Z-TapeBackup). The native tape capacity is the capacity of the tape without taking hardware compression into account. The remaining  capacity (4% by default) is used for file information and tape markers by Z-TapeBackup and also serves as a buffer in case there are 'bad blocks' on tape (blocks that can't be used for data storage anymore). The number of bad blocks on a tape increases over time, depending on how ofter the tape gets used. A bad block can only be determinded when you try to write data on tape. That's why Z-TapeBackup can't determine beforehand how many bad block the tape has and thus how much data actually fits on the tape. The default value of 96% of actually available space for data on the tape is only an estimate. If it turnes out that not all files that should be written to tape can be stored on it due to too many bad blocks, the backup will fail. In case this happens you should reduce the used tape capacity in the settings of Z-TapeBackup.

Tapes of the same native tape capacity have to be used for multi-spanning. A maximum of 20 tapes can be used.

 Single files cannot be split up. The largest file may not be larger than the capacity of one individual tape.

 Multi-Spanning is not possible when the tape backup is started by a schedule or when Z-DBackup/Z-TapeBackup are run as a service, because the tape exchange must be done manually.
 

Medium selection when using multispanning with tapeloaders
If you are setting up a multispanning backup for a tapeloader/autoloader you can select here, which medium in the tapeloader you want the multispanning backup to start with. After that, data is written to the tapes in their given order.
e.g. You select medium 3 as the start medium for your multispanning backup, then data will first be written to medium 3, then medium 4, then medium 5 and so up. (up to 10 tapes are used)

 When you're NOT using a tapeloader, but instead a regular one bay tape drive, the default setting "NO Z-TapeLoader" has to be selected.

 LTO Tape Backup

•Tape Backup

•Tape Target

•Tape Libraries / Autoloaders

•Add-On Modules

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