What is a backup?
Installation Process
Uninstalling
Setting up a PC backup
Setting up a Cloud backup
Verify Backup
Restore Process
Features
It is important to establish what a backup is in an attempt to avoid data loss. A backup is having your important data in more than one physical location such as USB flash drive, another external drive, CD/DVDs, etc. If you use the Dashboard software then delete the data off your internal drive it is no longer in two locations meaning you do not have a backup.
If you are running out of space on your internal drive and need to move the data to the external you will want to make sure that you also move it to another location and you can use whatever media you want such as USB flash drive, another external drive, CD/DVDs, etc. It is less important the type and more important that it is in another location. This will help prevent you from losing data in the event of drive failure.
The following steps will help guide you through the installation process.
Note: The installation may require a reboot, please save and close all documents prior to the installation process.
- Attach your device
- Locate the Seagate Dashboard Installer
Located in the Public folder for a NAS
Located in the main folder on the Seagate Drive - Double-click the Seagate Dashboard Installer
Windows - exe
Mac - dmg - Follow the on screen prompts
Windows
Use Add and Remove/Programs and Features depending on the version of Windows.
Mac
- Click on the Apple Icon
- Click on System Preferences
- Locate Seagate Dashboard at the bottom of the window
- Double Click then select uninstall
The following will walk you through setting up a PC backup.
Note: This is a Windows only feature.
- Open Seagate Dashboard by double-clicking on the icon
- The Home screen will appear and click PC backup option
- You will be presented with two options
1. Protect Now
2. New Backup Plan
Note: Protect Now by default will backup all user data files on the primary drive continuously. New Backup Plan will allow you to configure your plan to backup only the data you need and run only at specific times. - If you select New Backup Plan you will then select the files you want to backup.
- You will then select the Seagate drive for you backup.
- You will be given a choice of how often the backup will run. The choices can be grouped in the following categories:
Snapshot - Backup plan will only run once. Every time a snapshot is performed it will do another full backup.
Continuously - Backup will constantly monitor files and folders that have been selected to backup. As changes happen, the software remembers those change and marks them to be backed up. The amount of changes will determine how quickly the data it is actually backed up with most being backed up between 30 minutes to 2 hours after the change is made.
Scheduled backups - Hourly, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly will all perform one full backup initially. After that, it will only backup the files that were changed since the last backup.
Monthly: Executes on a specific day and time each month.
Weekly: Executes on a specific day and time each week
Daily: Executes on a specific time each day
Note: The software is very sensitive to changes, even small modifications (whether by you or a program) will result in the data being backed up again. The software does not backup programs, system files, hidden folders/items. Some software like Outlook, Quicken, and Quickbooks allow you to backup/export data to the Seagate drive. In these instances you will want to follow those instructions.
Note: You will want to verify that you have enough space prior to running cloud backup. Cloud backup does not provide versioning and each backup will replace all data each time. Cloud backup is designed for User data only and not system files or application files.
- Open Seagate Dashboard by double-clicking the Dashboard icon?
- Select PC backup (Windows) or Backup to Cloud (Mac)
- Select New backup Plan (Windows) or Create New cloud backup (Mac)
- Select the files that you want to backup
- Sign in to the cloud of choice
- Select frequency then click Start backup
The following will walk you through locating your data so you can verify it was backed up.
There are two ways to verify the backup completed:
- Looking within the Seagate Dashboard software.
- Browsing the folder structure for the data
Looking in the software:
- Launch Seagate Dashboard
- Click PC Backup
You will see a line that states - Update then provides the date and time it completed
Browsing the folder structure for the data:
Seagate Dashboard stores your backed up data in the Seagate Dashboard 2.0 folder. There is a specific structure within that folder and the following will walk you through it.
Here is an example of the structure:
X:\Seagate Dashboard 2.0\computersname\username\Backup\xxxxxxxx-xxxx\0515_###_username
X: - The drive letter assigned to the Backup Plus drive.
Seagate Dashboard 2.0 - The main folder for Dashboard backups.
computername - The name of the computer that was backed up.
username - The name of the user that installed the Dashboard software and ran the backup.
xxxxxxxx-xxxx - The alphanumeric string assigned to an individual backup job. If you created more than one backup job, you will have several folders.
515_###_username - A time-stamped folder created for each version of the backup. Each backup will contain any new or modified files that were copied during a specific period. This can become fairly complex to navigate, which is why using the restore feature of the software is the recommended method of restoring files.
Restore Process
- Make sure that the drive is detected by your computer.
- Launch the Seagate Dashboard software by double-clicking the Seagate Dashboard icon.
- From the Home screen select Restore
- Select Search for backups
Note: This may take a while depending on the size of the backup but you will want to let it run until complete so all the backup dates will be available. - Next you will be asked to Select File - Select the date you wish to restore from and then select the data you are wanting to restore.
- Next you will be asked to select where you want to restore the data.
Note: The original location is only suggested if the computer has the same system and user name as the original backup. If either of those are different, you would want to restore the data to the desktop or alternate location, then copy the data to the new/correct location.
Features
The software has the following features for each drive seen by Seagate Dashboard.
- Video thumbnails - This feature will generate thumbnails for videos that do not currently have a thumbnail.
- LEDs - Allows you to control the drive lights.
- Drive test- Will make sure that the drive is functioning correctly.
- Power - Will allow the drive to go into power saving mode after being inactive.
Note: The Power feature is only available on the Windows version of Dashboard.
