If you have not already done so, we recommend you read the general overview of backing up data and recovery, Backup and Recovery Options.

This utility is used as an alternate to the internal Back Up Database command. It is used to create an external backup command that copies everything in the FF&EZ data set to a location of your choice. The utility itself only needs to be used once (unless the location of your data set or backup location changes).  After that, you run the command icon on the Desktop when you exit FF&EZ and it copies any updated or new files to the same location. This backup option is especially appropriate when the target is a cloud drive folder or a removable USB "stick" drive that you can take to a different location.

This backup is superior to the "internal" FF&EZ backup because 1) it contains every file in your data set, even old installers and 2) it is used after you exit FF&EZ and is not susceptible to the way some Windows installations do not release files that FF&EZ has closed until FF&EZ itself has been closed.

Item 2 above is a problem on some Windows systems, but is not random: Either Windows consistently releases the files when FF&EZ closes them or it consistently causes a conflict that results in some "zero-byte" files (files with a "Size" of zero) in the backup zip file. If the latter happens, FF&EZ must be closed first, which prevents the use of its internal backup command.

To create an external backup command:

1. From FF&EZ's opening screen, select Utilities.
2. Select the Create External Data Set Backup Command utility.
3. When the screen shown above appears, simply select the folder in which you want the resulting command to create the "FF&EZ-Full-Backup" folder. In the example above, the user has selected the "Documents" folder as the target. "FF&EZ-Full-Backup" will be created under "Documents." We recommend you select a target that is not physically part of the current PC or server. So detachable USB drives or cloud drives are the best choice, especially cloud drives with write-protected "personal vaults."
4. Although the backup command will also pause if an error occurs, you have the option to have it pause when the backup is complete. If you plan to schedule the backup with the Windows "Task Scheduler," leave this option unchecked.
5. When you click the Create button, FF&EZ will create the backup command on your Windows Desktop. Note: This does not back up your data. See the next steps.

To create a backup of your current data:

1. Exit from FF&EZ. If you are using a multi-user version, be sure other users have also closed FF&EZ (however, this is just a precaution to prevent partially saved changes from other users—the backup command will still work).
2. Optional: Open your cloud drive "vault." If you are backing up to a cloud drive (recommended) and have set up a write-protected "vault" to protect against malware or ransomware, be sure to open it prior to performing the next steps.
3. Locate the Backup command icon on the Desktop. It will look like this (or similar:

4. Double-click the icon to run the backup. You will see a  text window open that will display the progress of the backup. The first time you run this command, it may take several minutes or more (depending on how many images you have and the speed of your system).

If the target location is a cloud drive, the first time you run this backup will likely cause a very high amount of internet access activity.

5. From this point on, you only need to run the command using this icon (not the FF&EZ utility used above). The next time you run it, only newer files will be copied and the backup may only take a few seconds.

Important: You can move or copy the "batch" file to a different location on the same computer and it will still work. However, if the location of the FF&EZ data set (the source) changes or if the target location changes, you will need to run the FF&EZ utility again to create an updated version of the backup command. This will be created exactly as before on the Desktop.

As long as this backup is created on an external device, a network location or a cloud drive, you are protected from a catastophic failure of your PC or server. If the entire contents of this backup are copied to a new system, you can run the most recent installer in the "Workstation" folder (part of the backup) and use the backup data set as the new "active" FF&EZ database. 

In contrast to backups, we don't recommend directly placing your "live" data set within a local OneDrive, Dropbox or similar cloud service. It tends to cause slow response as the disk drive "churns" with constant updates to the cloud server. If the cloud drive is set to only download recently used files, FF&EZ will slow to a crawl as the cloud drive downloads data files and images only when needed. This makes sense for single files like word processor documents or spreadsheets, but can be excruciating for a database. Also, FF&EZ data sets can be theoretically opened on another computer that shares the cloud folder. Do not do this unless you are sure that 1) the main FF&EZ system has been exited, 2) the primary PC has synched all files to the cloud disk and 3) the other computer has fully synced its files to the updated ones in the cloud. Failing to do so can create multiple "conflicted" versions of your data tables!