Defining a drive-based backup

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
A drive-based backup takes a snapshot of your entire hard drive, capturing every bit of information that is stored on it for later retrieval. All of your files, folders, desktop settings, programs, and your operating system are captured into a recovery point. You can then use that recovery point to restore individual files or folders, or your entire computer.
For optimum protection, you should define a drive-based backup and run it on a regular basis.
By default, scheduled independent recovery point file names and recovery point set file names are appended with 001.v2i, 002.v2i, and so forth. Incremental recovery point file names within a set are appended with \_i001.iv2i, \_i002.iv2i, and so forth. For example, if your base recovery point is called CathyReadF001.v2i, the first incremental recovery point is called CathyReadF001_i001.iv2i.
Arctera System Recovery 24 backups are stored in the backup destination as recovery points. These recovery points can be used to restore the system back to the point-in-time when the image was created.
Note: Arctera recommends that you use AES encryption when you define a backup to prevent unauthorized access to the files.
The following files are intentionally excluded from drive-based backups:
  • hiberfil.sys
  • pagefile.sys
These files contain temporary data that can take up a large amount of disk space. They are not needed, and there is no negative effect to your computer system after a complete system recovery.
These file names do appear in recovery points, but they are placeholders. They contain no data.
To define a drive-based backup
  1. On the Tasks menu, click Run or Manage Backups.
  2. In the Run or Manage Backups window, click Define New.
If you have not yet defined a backup, the Easy Setup dialog box appears instead.
  1. Click Back up my computer, and then clickNext.
  2. In the Drives panel, select one or more drives to back up, and then click Next.
    Show Hidden Drives Lets you see any hidden drives on your hard disk. The drives are displayed in the drive selection table.
    Drive selection table Lets you select one or more drives to include in the backup.
    Note: Arctera System Recovery 24 is able to display the drives from a GPT disk even if one of the GPT headers is corrupted or if there is a disk signature collision.
  3. If the Related Drives panel appears, set the appropriate option, and then click Next. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
    Note: When you back up the system drive of a UEFI-based computer, you must back up all the related drives. TheRelated Drivespanel lists the EFI System Partition and Windows Recovery Environment Partition (Windows 2012) that are critical to successfully restore a UEFI-based computer.
    Add all related drives (recommended) Lets you select and include all related drives in the backup definition.
    Edit the list of selected drives Lets you select or clear the related drives that you want or do not want to include in the backup definition.
    Do not add related drives Lets you deselect (not include) all related drives in the backup definition.
  4. On the Recovery point type panel, select the recovery point type that you want the backup to create, and then click Next.
    Recovery point set (recommended) Schedules a base recovery point with additional recovery points that contain only the incremental changes that were made to your computer since the previous recovery point.
    Incremental recovery points are created faster than the base recovery point. They also use less storage space than an independent recovery point.
    Note: You can only have one recovery point set defined for each drive. TheRecovery point setoption is not available if you have already assigned a selected drive to an existing backup and specifiedRecovery point setas the recovery point type. This option also is unavailable if you select an unmounted drive that cannot be part of a recovery point set.
    Independent recovery point Creates a complete, independent copy of the drives that you select. This backup type typically requires more storage space, especially if you run the backup multiple times.
  5. On the Backup Destination panel, select the appropriate options.
    Folder Indicates the location where you want to store the recovery points.
    You can browse or enter a Microsoft OneDrive location as the primary destination.
    See About support of OneDrive for Business .
    You can specify a hidden drive as a location where you want to store the recovery points in the following format:
    DiskNo-PartitionNo\
    For example, If 2 is the disk number and 3 is the partition number, you must specify 2-3\ as the location.
    If Arctera System Recovery detects that this location does not have enough available space, it alerts you. You should choose another location that has more space.
    Show only hidden drives Select this check box and click Browse to only see a list of the hidden drives.
    You can select a hidden drive as a location where you want to store the recovery points.
    The hidden drives are displayed in the following format:
    DiskNo-PartitionNo\
    For example, a hidden drive is displayed as: 2-3\. Where 2 is the disk number and 3 is the partition number.
    Note: By default, this check box is not selected.
    For more information on converting a drive to a hidden drive and vice versa, refer to the following technote:
    https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100045005
    Browse Lets you browse to locate a backup destination that you want to use.
    Browse for OpenStorage Destination Lets you browse to select a cloud storage destination that you want to use for backups.
    See OpenStorage destination options for backups .
    Destination Details Displays the type of destination path. If you add a network path it also displays the user name.
    Recovery points are not automatically encrypted.
    Arctera recommends that you create permissions for the backup destination to prevent unauthorized access to any data contained in the
    recovery points.
    For more information, refer to the following link:
    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732880(v=ws.11).aspx
    Note: Arctera recommends that you use AES encryption when defining a backup to prevent unauthorized access to any data contained in the recovery points.
    Edit Lets you enter the user name and password for access to the network that is specified in the Folder field. This option is available only if you selected a backup destination that is on a network and if you want to save the recovery point on a network share
    See Rules for network credentials .
    Customize recovery point file names Lets you rename the recovery point.
    Default file names include the name of the computer followed by the drive letter.
    You can also save recovery points to a unique subfolder.
    Enable USB Disk Rotation. Backup files to any USB disk inserted at this location Select this check box to enable the USB disk rotation feature for USB disks.
    See USB disk rotation .
    Add Lets you add up to two Offsite Copy destinations.
    Offsite Copy automatically copies your latest recovery points each time a backup completes to either a portable storage device, such as an external drive, or to a remote server either through a local area network connection or to a remote FTP server.
    See How Offsite Copy works .
You cannot use an encrypted folder as your backup destination. You can choose to encrypt your backup data to prevent another user from accessing it.
  1. (Optional) If you want to make copies of your recovery points to store at a remote location for added backup protection, click Add, select the appropriate options, and then clickOK.
    Enable Offsite Copy Turns on the Offsite Copy feature.
    Prompt me to start a copy when I attach an external Offsite Copy destination drive Indicates that you want to have recovery points automatically copied to external Offsite Copy destination drives whenever you plug one in to your computer.
    Folder, Network Path, FTP address, or OpenStorage destination Lets you specify the destination path of the offsite copy.
    See Providing the OpenStorage destination path .
    You can also specify the destination path of a hidden drive to store the recovery points.
    To specify a hidden drive, enter the location in the following format:
    DiskNo-PartitionNo\
    For example, if the hidden drive location is on Disk 2 and Partition 3, you must enter 2-3\. Where 2 is the disk number and 3 is the partition number.
    For more information on converting a drive to a hidden drive and vice versa, refer to the following technote:
    https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100045005
    Browse Lets you browse to locate an offsite copy destination that you want to use.
    Destination Details Displays the type of destination path. If you add a network path, an ftp path, or an OpenStorage destination, it also displays the user name.
    Edit Lets you edit the user name or password of a specified network path, an ftp path, or an OpenStorage destination.
    Add an additional Offsite Copy destination Lets you add a second destination, and then specify the path to that destination.
  2. (Optional) If you specify an OpenStorage destination (Amazon S3 or Microsoft Azure storage) as the Offsite destination, click OK.
On the OpenStorage Destinationdialog box select the appropriate options, and then clickOK.
Note: Although cloud storage is a part of OpenStorage, Arctera System Recovery 24 refers to cloud storage as OpenStorage.
See OpenStorage destination options for backups.
See Using Amazon S3 storage as your Offsite Copy destination.
See Using Microsoft Azure as your offsite copy destination.
See Using S3-Compatible or Arctera Access as your offsite copy destination.
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the Options panel, set the recovery point options you want, and then click Next.
Recovery point options
Name Indicates a name for your backup.
Note: This option does not appear if you create a recovery point using theBack Up My Computerfeature in Arctera System Recovery Disk.
Compression Lets you set one of the following compression levels for the recovery point\:
- None
- Standard
- Medium
- High
The results can vary depending on the types of files that are saved in the drive.
Verify recovery point after creation Tests whether a recovery point or set of files is valid or corrupt.
Limit the number of recovery point sets saved for this backup Limits the number of recovery point that can be saved for this backup. You can limit the number of recovery points to reduce the risk of filling up the hard drive with recovery points. Each new recovery point replaces the oldest set on your backup destination drive.
The backup destination must contain enough free space for the number of recovery points the job is set to retain, plus one. For example, if the maximum number of recovery points to retain is set to 3, the required space in the backup destination should be able to hold 4 recovery point sets. Arctera System Recovery 24 removes the oldest recovery point set only after the successful completion of the current backup. This ensures that the number of recovery points meets the recovery point retention setting.
Note: This option does not appear if you create a recovery point using theBack Up My Computerfeature in a Arctera System Recovery Disk.
Include system and temporary files Includes an indexing support for operating system and temporary files when a recovery point is created on the client computer.
Note: This option does not appear if you create a recovery point using theBack Up My Computerfeature in Arctera System Recovery Disk.
Advanced Lets you add security options to the recovery point.
Command Files Lets you use command files (.exe, .cmd, .bat) during a backup.
See Running command files during a backup .
Description Indicates a description for the recovery point. The description can be anything that helps you further identify the recovery point's contents.
Advanced options for drive-based backups
Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving Splits the recovery point into smaller files and specifies the maximum size (in MB) for each file.
This option is selected by default when you specify a Microsoft OneDrive location as your primary destination. A recovery point that is larger than 10 GB is automatically split into smaller files of less than 10 GB. You can split the size of the recovery point into smaller recovery points.
Disable SmartSector™ Copying Copies that are used and unused hard-disk sectors. This option increases process time and usually results in a larger recovery point.
SmartSector technology speeds up the copying process by copying only the hard-disk sectors that contain data. However, in some cases, you might want to copy all sectors in their original layout, whether or not they contain data.
Ignore bad sectors during copy Runs a backup even if there are bad sectors on the hard disk. Although most drives do not have bad sectors, the potential for problems increases during the lifetime of the hard disk.
Perform full VSS backup Lets you perform a full backup on the VSS storage and send a request for VSS to review its own transaction log. This option is used for Microsoft Exchange Server only.
Exchange VSS determines what transactions are already committed to the database and then truncates those transactions. Among other things, truncated transaction logs help keep the file size manageable and limits the amount of hard drive space that the file uses.
If you do not select this option, backups still occur on the VSS storage. However, VSS does not automatically truncate the transaction logs following a backup.
Note: This option does not appear if you create a recovery point using theBack Up My Computerwizard feature in Arctera System Recovery Disk.
Command files options
Command files folder Lets you specify the location of command files. You can also specify a location on a per-job basis, as well as specify a location that can be shared among several computers. If you specify a network location, you are prompted for network credentials.
Note: All command files must exist in the specified folder.
Browse Lets you browse to locate a folder for any command files that you want to use.
User name Lets you specify the user name to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
Password Lets you specify the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
Run before snapshot creation Indicates that you can run a command file after a backup has started and before a recovery point is created. You can run a command during this stage to prepare for the recovery point creation process. For example, you can close any open applications that are using the drive.
Note: If you use this option, be sure that the command file has an error recovery mechanism that is built into it. If the computer has one or more services that must be stopped at this stage, and the command file does not contain any form of error recovery, one or more of the stopped services may not be restarted. For example, stopping a non-VSS aware database or a resource-intensive application. An error in the command file can cause the recovery point creation process to stop immediately. No other command files can run. SeeHow to use Arctera System Recovery.
Run after snapshot creation Indicates that you can run a command file after a snapshot is created. Running a command during this stage is a safe point to allow services to resume on the drive while continuing the recovery point creation.
Because the snapshot takes only a few seconds to create, the database is in the backup state momentarily. A minimal number of log files are created.
Run after recovery point creation Indicates that you can run a command file after the recovery point file is created. You can run a command during this stage to act on the recovery point itself. For example, you can copy it to an offline location.
Timeout (applies to each stage) Lets you specify the amount of time (in seconds) that a command file is allowed to run.
  1. On the Security Options panel, set a password, select a level of encryption for the drive-based backup, and then click Next.
    Use password Sets a password and enables AES encryption on the recovery point when it is created.
    This check box is selected by default.
    Password Lets you specify a password for the backup. Passwords can include standard characters. Passwords cannot include extended characters, or symbols. (Use characters with an ASCII value of 128 or lower.)
    You must type this password before you restore a backup or view the contents of the recovery point.
    Confirm password Lets you retype the password for
    confirmation.
    AES encryption Encrypts recovery point data to add another level of protection to your recovery points.
    If
    you upgrade from a previous version to Arctera System Recovery 24, for older backup jobs where only
    password protection is defined, you need to edit the jobs to select the AES
    encryption level. If you do not edit the older backup jobs, they continue to run
    without AES Encryption. Arctera recommends that you edit the job and select AES
    encryption level.
    Note: If theUse Passwordcheck box is selected, you must define AES encryption.
    Choose from the following encryption levels:
    - Standard 128-bit (8+ character password)
    - Medium 192-bit (16+ character password)
    - High 256-bit (32+ character password)
  2. On the Backup Time panel, select the appropriate options to specify the time and frequency of the backup, and then click Next.
    Note: Ensure that the time for running a base backup and an incremental backup is not the same.
Backup Time options for a recovery point set
Schedule Runs the backup automatically according to a specified start time and the selected days of the week.
Default Lets you use the default backup time schedule.
Advanced Sets advanced scheduling options, such as setting up event triggers that start the backup in response to specific events.
Run more than once per day Sets the time between backups and the number of times to back up.
Start a new recovery point set (base) Starts a new recovery point set (base) weekly, monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly.
Custom (Optional) Indicates how frequently a new recovery point set should be started.
For example, if you select Monthly , a new base recovery point is created the first time the backup runs during each new month.
Select event triggers Lets you select events that automatically create a recovery point.
Details Shows you information about the backup time option you have selected or specified.
Backup Time options for an independent recovery point
No Schedule Runs the backup only when you run it yourself, manually.
Weekly Runs the backup at the time and on the days of the week that you specify.
When you select this option, the Select the days of the week to protect dialog box appears.
Monthly Runs the backup at the time and on the days of the month that you specify.
When you select this option, the Select the days of the month to protect dialog box appears.
Only run once Runs the backup one time on the date and at the time you specify.
When you select this option, the Create a single recovery point dialog box appears.
Details Indicates information about the backup time option you have selected or specified.
Change Schedule - Drive Backup options
Schedule Lets you select the days and a start time for
when the backup should run.
Run more than once per day Indicates that you can run the backup more than
once a day to protect data that you edit or
change frequently.
Time between backups Specifies the maximum time that should occur
between backups.
Number of times Specifies the number of times per day that the
backup should run.
Automatically optimize Lets you select how often optimization should
occur to help manage the disk space that is
used by your backup destination.
Start a new recovery point set Indicates how frequently a new recovery point
set should be started
Custom Lets you customize the start time, and the days
of the week or month to run the backup.
Event Triggers - General Lets you select the type of events that
automatically starts a backup.
  1. (Optional) If you want to run the new backup immediately, click Run backup now.
This option is not available if you configured an independent recovery point with the option to run it only once.
  1. Review the options you have selected, then click Finish.
When the backup destination is a network location, all backup images in the destination folder are appended with a .tmp extension during the backup. If the backup is successful, the images are automatically renamed with a .v2i extension. If a network connection to the destination fails, the backup is unsuccessful. The corrupt images with the .tmp extension are retained. These files are not tracked by Arctera System Recovery 24 and can be deleted safely.
More Information
Compression levels for recovery points