BitShelter a is software that builds on Microsoft's VSS technology to keep a version history of your files, and make external backups of them.
Have you deleted a file by mistake ? Modified a document and wish to revert the changes ? Has one of your drive failed ? BitShelter has got you covered in all these cases !
ATTENTION: BitShelter is a Work In Progress, you may encounter bugs and not all features are available yet.
File Version History | Rewinding time |
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New rule: General | New rule: Schedule |
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List of defined Rules | New rule: Advanced |
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Snapshots: Keep a version history of your files
[WIP] Backups: Secure your data on other drives, or off-site
If you know a work-around for these limitations, please let me know here or by email
Operation | Result | Location | Size | Speed |
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Snapshot | This is similar to Ctrl+Z for files. Every time a snapshot is created, the system memorizes the content of your files. You can browse, view and restore them to earlier versions. You can continue your work without interference during the process1 | Same drive as data | As much as the difference between each consecutive snapshot | Almost instantaneous |
Backup | This is similar to Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V: Backups create a copy of your files. They can be stored locally or remotely. You can optionaly archive them with compression (e.g. zip, tar.gz), and encrypt them. Because Backups operate on Snapshots, you can continue your work without interference during the process1. See best practices for recommendations | Local drive, Network drive, Removable device, ... | At most as much as the data, less if compressed | Minutes to hours depending on size, disk speed, compression, encryption |
Cloud sync | While BitShelter knows nothing about Cloud Storage, you can use backups to create copies of your work in Sync folders of popular providers. They will in turn be sent to your space on the Cloud | In the cloud | As much as backups, only counting toward your Cloud Storage space | Minutes to hours, depending on size, upload speed |
1: When a snapshot is created, existing data aren't copied. Instead, an index of where the data exist is built and new data written to free space. This is extremely fast, and allow to operate on snapshots concurrently with the "live data". For more information, see Copy-on-write
Make sure to follow the instructions about System Protection and Raise limit, see Installation and Usage
BitShelter cannot Auto-Update itself yet. To upgrade to a newer version, please uninstall the existing application, and run the installer for the new version.
All your settings, snapshots and logs will be preversed.
Rule of thumb: The 3-2-1 Backup Rule and its visual guide
For your Local disks:
Here are three introduction guides to Data Safety:
I have come across a number of older (2010-2014) posts about issues with VSS, below is an account of them.
According to my own experience, after using BitShelter for over a month as of the time of this writing (2018-05-05, Windows 10, Version 1709), I have never experienced any of them ; despite several trials to reproduce these issues, in different environments.
Snapshot corruption: restored files are damaged
The Service is configured to run at startup, so BitShelter will still be active even if the Agent is stopped. If you wish you automatically run BitShelter Agent when your computer starts:
Please make sure the BitShelter Service is running
Connection failed | BitShelter Service |
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Todo
BitShelter is built on the work of people who pledged their time to the Open Source community.
I would like to emphasize on the importance of their contribution, and extend my gratitude especially to (but not limited to):
All required licenses can be found at the root of this project repository. If however you found that I omitted to include the terms of the license for one of your work, by all mean please let me know so that I may correct this.