How to Check Backups

The quickest way to check the status of your backups is to look at the BuddyBackup icon in the Windows Notification Area (sometime called the "System Tray" or "systray"). This is the area of the Windows task bar which shows icons, usually at the very bottom right hand of the screen:

The BuddyBackup icon changes colour to indicate whether your files are backed up:

Red means at least one file needs backup

Green means all files are backed up

Checking backups in Windows Explorer

BuddyBackup works with Windows Explorer to show you how well files are backed up.

Windows Explorer is what you use any time you're browsing for files in Windows. For example, if you click the Windows Start button and choose Documents, what you'll see is the Windows Explorer.

BuddyBackup adds icons to your files to show how well they're backed up. These icons are only added to items chosen for backup. For example, here is how this appears in Windows 7:

The icons are colour coded:

The file/folder is not backed up yet

The file/folder is backed up to at least 1 buddy

The file/folder is backed up to 2 (or more) buddies

Note that the meaning of the "green-plus" icon () changes when you alter the Backup Safety setting. For example, if you change this so that 3 backup copies are made, then this icon will be shown when 3 copies of the file are backed up.