Installation/Removal

Where is FlashReliance installed and how to run the program?
FlashReliance is installed, by default, in the directory "\Program Files\FlashReliance". During installation, a command shortcut is installed on the desktop as the FlashReliance icon. Double click the icon to run the program.

How to remove the FlashReliance icon from the system tray on the desktop?
In order for FlashReliance to run scheduled backup, the recommended setting is to run the program at Windows startup and locate itself in the system tray. To remove the icon so that FlashReliance does not run automatically at startup, go to the General page of the FlashReliance Settings window and uncheck the "Run FlashReliance at machine startup" option.

How to remove FlashReliance?
Go to the Control Panel and run "Add or Remove Programs". Look for and select the FlashReliance entry; then, click the "Change/Remove" button.

I could not get the installation to run.
Ensure you start the installation by running the "Setup.exe" on the CD. If you obtain the software by downloading from Internet, you must first unzip the download and run "Setup.exe". If you download the lighter version (4.3MB) of the installation, unzip the download and run the "Setup.msi" file. More information about the different installation package could be found here.

Do I need to uninstall the trial software before installing the full license copy?
No, once the serial and activation code are accepted, the software will continue to function with all previous settings preserved (now as full licensed version).

Trial Period

What happens after the trial version of the software expires?
The trial software will cease its functions but it will continue to provide options for you to purchase a full license or activate the software with a full license. Once the full license is accepted, the software will continue to work.

The trial shows a prompt when I start the software, is there a way to turn it off?
Sorry for the inconveniency, our software distribution setup requires this reminder to be shown during the trial period. This prompt also serves the purpose of letting a user to purchase and activate the full license. We hope you enjoy the trial software and purchase the full version.

If I acquire the full license during or after the trial, will I lose my settings and custom files?
No, your settings and files will be preserved. Just follow the instruction given by the trial software when it starts running. The same software will become a fully licensed version once the authorized serial number and activiation code have been sent to you and entered.

Trial and Purchase

How to purchase the full license software?
There are two way to purchase the software:
1. You can purchase FlashReliance on our purchase page. At the end of the purchase transaction, serial number/activation code and a download url will be provided for you to download and install the software. We recommend you to download the full function 15-days trial to explore our product fully before buying. It is our policy not to accept refund request once an activation code is issued (this is because the serial # and activation code are uncoverable once released).
2. If you have already download the trial, just follow the on-screen instrucation at the software startup screen to purchase the software.

How to purchase the full license software? I only have the trial version.
When you run the trial software, the beginning screens provide you the option to purchase a full license to activate the software as the full licenced copy. Simply follow the instructions on the screen.

Is it safe to follow the screen on the trial to purchase the software since it needs to access the Internet?
Yes, it is absolutely safe to purchase the sofeware following the trial screen and access the Internet. Our distributor handles one of the largest on-line transactions and associated with CNET; and they provide similar purchasing experience over millions of transactions. All transactions are encrypted and secure.

Download

Where to download the trial software or download the purchased software?
You could either download from our site or CNET's download.com.

The download file is quite big. Why is that?
Our software targets, supports and has been tested to work with all Windows versions starting from (and including) Windows 98. It also runs on the Microsoft .NET technology. Therefore, some supporting files are needed to be included in the installation and download; it is likely the software will only take about 4MB of disk space on most systems.

General

Where is FlashReliance located on the Windows desktop when it is running? It seems to be hidden under certain situations.
FlashReliance could be running as a normal or mini-view window. When minimized, FlashReliance locates itself in the system tray. If FlashReliance is hidden or covered by other applications, double click the FlashReliance icon on the desktop or in the system tray will bring the program to the foreground of the screen.

What is the right way to exit FlashReliance? Why it seems to remain running even after exiting the program?
Like most of the system level programs, FlashReliance is designed to run in the background without much user intervention. When clicking the system control box (the 'X' box on the upper right corner of a window), FlashReliance will minimize to the system tray and continue to run (and countdown to scheduled backup, if any). To completely exit FlashReliance, do one of the followings:

• On the FlashReliance Main Window, select File > Exit FlashReliance.
• With FlashReliance icon in the system tray, right click on it and select Exit FlashReliance.
• Right click on the mini-view window and select Exit.

What is manual backup?
With an active profile in place, select the Backup Now button on the Main Window; this will launch a manual backup.

What is scheduled backup?
In the active profile, one or more date and time could be specified at which the FlashReliance will launch the backup.

Every time I exit FlashReliance, it asks me to confirm the exiting. How to prevent this dialog from appearing?
This dialog is shown (as a reminder) due to the running of a count down of a scheduled backup. To stop this dialog from showing, go to the General page of the FlashReliance Settings window and uncheck the "Warn user at exiting if active schedule is in effect" option.

Why the software appears to be disabled at starting since some controls are not colored?
The reason could be either there is no active profile defined or the option of "Load and run schedule at program starts" is unchecked (see General Settings in the Settings Window).

Does FlashReliance erase any original files?
No, none of the FlashReliance operations delete any original user files. This is one of the FlashReliance principle design consideration. However, in the Restore Tab's File Explorer, you could explicitly delete directory and file; this feature is provided primary to create directory so that you could restore files there. The default of this feature is turned off (see Settings Window). In History Tab, you could select to delete previous backups; but these are backup copies and not the originals.

The scheduled backup does not start at the exact time.
Any scheduled backup starts at the time specified by the schedule in the active profile. In addition, the program needs to allow time for internal and file system checking as well as showing a dialog window for warning and option for user to abort the backup. All these take about additional of 10-20 seconds.

Where are my backup files stored?
The backup storage device to be used is specified in the active profile or overridden in the Main Window at the time of backup. In the backup device, all backup are saved under the directory "\_fr". Under this directory, individual backups are saved with the subdirectory names comprised of the backup date, time and option code. These directory names are also recorded under the Folder column in the History Tab.

What is History file?
FlashReliance stores all its operational and backup records in the file called History.xml. This file is needed for use with Restore and Recovery features. By default, an identical copy of this file is also saved in the backup device so that FlashReliance could resume normal running and recover data even if user's primary storage is lost.

What are the storage devices suitable for use with backup? What about internal and portable storage devices?
Any storage devices recognized by your system are compatible with FlashReliance. FlashReliance will work with all system recognized portable devices and able to detect them being connected to and disconnected from the system.

What hardware is recommended to use with FlashReliance and what if speed and convenience are major factors?
FlashReliance is designed to work with the fastest to the slowest devices that are compatible with your PC hardware. Extra efforts have been spent to work with portable devices seamlessly. In any case, FlashReliance runs as fast as your hardware could support; so it make sense to use the fastest hardware that is suitable on your system. Portable devices with fast data transfer speed provide a very convenient way to store backup files. For all the hardware speed at a glance, refer to the following table:

Profile

What is a profile?
A profile is simply a file that describes what to do in a backup. It contains the location of the files, intended backup device, backup type (full or incremental backup) and backup options. It is like a task list of a backup.

What is an active profile?
An active profile is a profile that has been identified as "active" - telling FlashReliance to use this profile to backup. You could create as many profiles as you like but only one profile could be active at any one time. To make a profile active, use the Make Profile Active button.

How many profiles do I need?
Usually, if you only have one set of files (or directories) that you want to backup, you only need one or very few profiles. This is true even if you want to backup at different time since you could specify more than one starting date/time in a profile. If you have more than one set of files to backup or you have different combination of option settings, you will need to create different profile files.

Where are the profile files located?
FlashReliance profiles are saved in the FlashReliance subdirectory called "PROFILE". The complete default path is "\Program Files\FlashReliance\PROFILE".

What is the best way to delete some of the profile files?
It is best to use FlashReliance to handle the deletion. On the Profile Window, select Edit > Delete Profiles... to bring up the Delete Profile window. Then, follow the instruction to delete profile files.

In Profile Window, the program appears halted after making a large file selection.
With large file selection, once clicking the Add buttons to add files, the program might take a moment to compile the file list. This is because the program needs to locate and query each file and a larger file selection will take longer time to accomplish the task. This file compilation process has been optimized to require roughly about 2-15 seconds for 10,000 files depending on machine speed and internal memory cache. When selecting large number of files, try to split up the selection into smaller individual selections.

Restore

How do I restore files to a different computer (files are NOT compressed or encrypted)?
If FlashReliance is installed on the computer to be restored to, use FlashReliance to restore desired files as you would normally do on the same system. If the files in the backup are not compressed or encrypted and you want to restore to a different system, note the backup directory used (by referring to the History Tab) and simple copy the desired files/directories from the backup device to the target PC.

How do I restore files to a different computer (files are compressed or encrypted)?
If the files in the backup are either compressed or encrypted, you need to use FlashReliance to restore these files (licensing restrictions apply). Connect the backup device to the other computer that you want to backup files to be restored to; and use the Recovery feature to restore files. See Recovery for detailed instructions.

If another FlashReliance user sends me files to restore, what should be sent to me?
Please ask the sender to sent the complete directory structure (for example: "E:\_fr\2005011221430010052") intact and the history file ("E:\_fr\History\history.xml") from the sender's backup device.

Encryption

Why my encrypted backup failed to restore?
Ensure the correct encryption key and IV values are entered. The key and IV are saved in profile or saved by user depending on the encryption settings at the time of backup. Refer to Encryption feature for detail usage explanation.

Only some of the encrypted failed are restored; but they are not the originals.
As shown in the message prompt at the end of the restore operation, if there is any files failed in the restore, either the encryption key and/or IV value is not entered correctly. During restore, it is possible for files to finish the decryption process without any error using an incorrect key/IV; but the content will not be restored correctly. Ensure that you have the exact same key and/or IV that used in the backup and try the restore again.

What are the differences between custom key (that I provide) or the key generated by the Gen Key command button?
The custom key will be easier for most users to remember and manage; this is also our recommended option. However, the Gen Key command will generate a much more secure key for added security.

I want to use the Gen Key feature, but the random keys are not usable.
Every byte (for a total of 16) that the Gen Key produce represents the widest possible range of a character which might belong to one of the many unprintable characters. These unprintable characters are shown as unrecognizable blocks or signs in the text field. You might need to click the Gen Key button repeatedly in order to obtain a random key whose content is completely printable.

Help

Is there a help file and where is it located?
The FlashReliance help file is "FlashReliance.chm" and is installed in the same directory as FlashReliance ("\Program Files\FlashReliance" by default). Help file could be launched by double clicking it or within the program - press F1 key to display context sensitive help or select one of the help items from the Help menu.

The program states that the help file is missing.
When FlashReliance could not locate its help file, it will show a message regarding the help file is missing. The help file "FlashReliance.chm" should be located in the same directory as FlashReliance. If it is misplaced, copy the help file to the FlashReliance directory. If the help file cannot be located, use the Windows' search feature (Start > Search > For Files or Folders...) to look for the help file. If the file cannot be located, you could re-install FlashReliance. See Installation section above for more details.

Other help files missing.
FlashReliance uses various different help files in a number of its windows. If there are missing, misplaced or deleted, FlashReliance will display such information. If these files cannot be located, you could re-install FlashReliance. See Installation section above for more details.

Help file does not run or other errors with running it.
Due to security concern, help files/chm files could run into situations that they are prevented from starting or resulting in abnormal behavior. First, check if there is similar problem with other chm files and verify if it is a system wide problem. Then, on the Windows Explorer, right click on the "FlashReliance.chm" and select Properties. In the Properties dialog, select Unblock.

File Name and Language Support

Does FlashReliance work on Windows systems other than the English version of the Windows?
Yes, FlashReliance runs on all Windows systems (starting with Windows 98) and supports localized filenames including double bytes like Chinese and Kenji.

I have trouble restoring file to older Windows systems.
If restoring files to Windows 95, Windows 98, Window ME and NT from a backup that was previously performed on a Windows 2000 or later systems, the restore feature might not work properly due to filename incompatibility. This is due to the earlier Windows systems do not support Unicode (a language displaying system that supports all languages). So, it is a system limitation; users should restore to a newer system instead.

Closing FlashReliance

I could not close FlashReliance while a backup is running?
FlashReliance is programmed to continue its backup until it completes. The principle is to secure the backup data and reject closing or machine shutdown that could be unintentionally sent by other programs. See next faq on how to close FlashReliance under this situation.

How to exit FlashReliance while it is performing a backup?
FlashReliance only responds to user request to stop a backup at the console while there is a backup in progress. This limitation ensures that potentially critical data is completely saved and the backup can only be aborted by the user manually. To abort backup in progress, select the Abort button and answer "Yes" to abort at the conformation dialog.

FlashReliance Reported Error or Aborted Abnormally

FlashReliance crashes during file compiling while a user is surfing the Internet.
This is because the files that FlashReliance is looking for to be included in the profile (or backup) has been moved or erased by the system. This only happens when a user specifies temporary files and directories (called cache) that are reserved to use by the system. If it is necessary to include or backup cached files, do not use the applications (such as Internet browsers) that might remove the cached files.

FlashReliance reported error while adding files to backup list.
This is usually caused by files to be included are locked and cannot be accessed by the current user. With later Windows systems, even a user with "Administrative access right" might not have access to some files - this could happen when another user explicitly instructs the Windows system not to share files. When these access right issues surface, FlashReliance will report accessing error and abort the current operation. Do not include unauthorized files in the backup list will eliminate these access errors.

Performance Related Questions

The system seems to slow down when accessing the floppy drive?
Floppy drive and other older devices are generally slower by design. If these devices are rarely used, it might be beneficial to disconnect them. Refer to your machine's owner manual on how to disconnect devices.

I have a slow storage device, will it work with FlashReliance? And how can I speed things up?
FlashReliance will work with any devices recognized by your PC. FlashReliance has been optimized to run as fast as any connected device's transfer speed. If your storage device is an older design and there is no plan to upgrade to higher speed hardware, try to use compression to reduce the I/O time and specify incremental backup to avoid saving files that have not been changed since the last backup.

Why is the backup speed is slower than the transfer speed that I observe when I copy files to the same backup device?
For a relatively short backup list, FlashReliance backup speed is comparable to the speed of copying files on a Windows system. Since FlashReliance needs to process one file at a time, ensure file integrity and record the backup status of each file, it incurs random read/write and other overheads. Depending on the size of a backup file list, these overheads might become large and result in slower performance.

The estimated time to completion ("Est time") did not correctly reflect the time required for my backup.
Est time is provided as an informational estimation of time required for a backup. It is difficult to calculate a precise time needed for a backup due to various parameters such as speed of the hardware, backup option, file count, disk fragmentation, etc. - all of which are used in the estimated time calculation. Even the same class of device such as the USB enabled flash memory varies greatly from 10 MBit/s to over 480MBit /s (see next Faq for more).

How does file size affect the performance?
File size is the most significant factor affecting the time that it takes to complete a backup. In our benchmarking test, a backup of 160MB containing 10 files took about 25 seconds. A backup of the same size with 7000 files took about 10 times as long. This effect is similar when you copy files using the Windows File Explorer. The value of the estimated time to completion ("Est time") on the Main Window has factored in a number of variables including the file count and size. However, it might not be able to provide the most accurate information under all conditions.

How is the compression option affect the performance?
Appling the compression option might actually increase the backup speed on most computers (around 5 to 20% or more). This is because the total backup content is reduced due to compression; and this saving offsets the processing time needed to compress the files.

How is the encryption option affect the performance?
Most PC would experience a reduction of about 30-60% of performance using the encryption option. This is due to the heavy load on the CPU with the encryption calculation while the backup content size (unlike the compression option) remains the same. System with a faster processor will be less affected. The level of performance reduction should be acceptable to most users especially when considering FlashReliance uses one of the most advanced encryption logic with 128-bit strength.

Why is the backups becomes slower in time?
This is usually due to your storage devices (either or both the source and backup devices) are highly fragmented. Free up storage space as much as possible and run a thorough defragmentation program on the affected devices (refer to more information in Disk Defragmentation).

While using FlashReliance, it always slows down by accessing the floppy drive (or other devices). Is there a way to speed things up?
When using FlashReliance functions that need to access storage devices, FlashReliance will perform a complete scanning of all the connected peripheral devices. FlashReliance does this scanning as a safety measure since it detects any devices as they are plugged into/unplugged from the system. It is relatively safe to turn off this scanning especially a user does not add or remove portable devices frequently. To turn off the device scanning, go to the Device page of the FlashReliance Settings window and uncheck the "Scan devices whenever file system is queried" option.

When running backup, the whole system seems to be running slow.
FlashReliance takes heavy load on the CPU and consumes large bandwidth to the backup devices. When there is a large backup with either compression or encryption option enabled, a great deal of system resources are required. The backup operation has three resource usage settings. Both the normal (default) and low settings have very little or virtually no impact on user interface (these two settings are recommended as they are designed not to present noticeable interruption to the user). Check the Option Tab of the Profile Window to ensure the backup priory is not set to high.

When screen refreshing seems to be slow when there is a large number of items selected.
Ensure you have the latest patches and updates for your version of Windows and graphic card. If the problem persists, you might need to install .NET Framework Service Pack 1.1 from Microsoft.

Software Patches

A number of patches to enhance the performance of your system.
- Install the latest Windows service pack for your system.
- Install latest driver for your graphic card.
- Install Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack. It is possible (but unlikely) that a prior patch (Microsoft hotfix) prevents you to install the .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack. If this happens, you need to uninstall the prior hotfix, install .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack and then reinstall the prior hotfix.
- Although defragmenting of your hard disk is not a software patch, it will greatly enhance your system performance. See the section below.

Disk Defragmentation

Defragmenting your hard disk could greatly improve your system performance and backup time. Simply run the defragmentation software that comes with your Windows system periodically. You could also program FlashReliance to defragment your hard disk after a backup: In FlashReliance Scheduling Tab, enter the program name of the defragmentation program in the "Launch" textbox in the "After Backup" option.

FlashReliance also comes with a sample application launcher that allows user to run their preferred software. This is in addition to the "Launch" command of the "After Backup" option. This sample launcher is called "frcmd.bat" located in the same directory as the FlashReliance and contains a command line to run Windows defragmentation program. You could modify "frcmd.bat" to contain other instructions to run any applications of your choice or perform other computing tasks. Without modification, enter "frcmd.bat" in the "Launch" textbox of the "After Backup" option (Scheduling Tab) will let you to run disk defragmentation after a backup.