Frequently Asked Questions

What is Guardian Angel?

Guardian Angel is a secure, flexible and affordable way to protect the documents, photos and music files stored on your home computer or other devices. You simply install Guardian Angel on your computer, set it up, and never worry about data loss again. Your information is safe from natural disaster, computer failure or theft.

Guardian Angel Online Backup…

Is simple to set up

Performs backups automatically in the background

Encrypts all files on your computer before transfer

Performs incremental backups

Backs up only blocks that have changed

Backs up open/locked files

What platforms does Guardian Angel Home support?

The Guardian Angel Home module currently supports Windows Vista, XP, and 2000, preferably with NTFS.

Most Windows Vista and XP users will be using NTFS, unless you upgraded from a previous version of Windows. If you are running Windows with a FAT32 file system, Guardian Angel will be unable to back up any files that are opened or locked when the backup is run. Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server are only supported with Guardian Angel Business, the professional version.

I have a small business. Can I back up my server for $4.95 per month?

Guardian Angel Home is for home, non-commercial use only. If you are running a small or home-based business, please download the business version.

Note that aside from the terms of service, there are some important differences between Guardian Angel Home and Guardian Angel Business. Refer to our comparison chart for more details.

Is Guardian Angel secure?

Absolutely. When you use Guardian Angel, your files are encrypted on your computer using 448-bit Blowfish encryption and then transferred to the Guardian Angel servers using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. You have the option of using a Guardian Angel key or your own private key to encrypt your data. Note that if you use your own private key, you must be very careful about not losing it because if you do, we won't be able to help. It's impossible for us to decrypt your data when you use your own key. Most users opt to use the Guardian Angel key, but the choice is yours.

I'm worried about privacy. How does Guardian Angel respect my privacy?

Guardian Angel is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. We do not read your data or share it with ANYONE.

Any suggestions on what I should back up?

We recommend that you back up data that is difficult to replace, like photos, email, contacts, financial records, and office documents.

How do I restore my data?

Restoring data is easy. Simply click the restore tab from the Guardian Angel client, select the date you would to restore from and select your data. You can either restore you data to it's original location or another location. This is useful if you are doing a test restore.

How often can I restore my data?

You can restore data as many times as you need to.

What is backup, according to Guardian Angel?

You can think of it in the same way you think of a backup copy of a paper document—that is, if you lose the working copy of the paper document, you go find the backup copy. In other words, the primary copy of your files or data will be maintained as the working copy on your machine.

If you delete the working copy on your machine and then run a backup, Guardian Angel will assume that you no longer need a backup copy, since you got rid of the working copy, and will mark the file to be removed from our system in 30 days. (We keep it on file for 30 days, just in case you change your mind.) After 30 days, you cannot get these files back.

If you want Guardian Angel to keep the files after they are deleted from your computer, this is referred to as an archiving service and is currently not offered.

Are there any size limits or other constraints to the types of files I can back up?

You can back up pretty much any type or size of file. However, a few operating-system specific files can't be backed up, like the page file or prefetch files on Windows.

Can I share my backed-up data with another user?

No. Guardian Angel is not a file sharing service—it's a backup service. While you can technically give your name and password to someone to access your backups, we strongly advise you not to share your password.

How many files can I back up?

Lots. Like tens of thousands. Guardian Angel is getting better all the time, and we've had reports of success up to 200,000 files. But note that Guardian Angel will start to slow down when you try and back up hundreds of thousands of files, so don't go thinking you can back up massive source code repositories or something, because you won't be happy with the performance.

I have LOTS of data. How long will it take to back up?

For a typical system on a typical broadband line, Guardian Angel backs up data at about 2-4 GB per day. But if left undisturbed on a fast connection, you can back up over 9 GB in a single day.

You may experience faster or slower speeds depending on your connection. You may want to check your favorite bandwidth meter test to measure your broadband connection.

Will it take that long next time?

Guardian Angel does what are called differential backups, which means that it only backs up portions of your files that have changed since the last time they were backed up. This saves lots of time, bandwidth, and storage space. After your initial backup, subsequent backups are relatively quick, and chances are that you won't even notice them.

What if my internet connection disconnects while Guardian Angel is backing up? Or what if I shut off my computer in the middle of the backup?

That's not a problem. Guardian Angel will just continue where it left off next time you are online.

How do I cancel my Guardian Angel account?

Uninstall the application from your desktop, and contact The Kotter Group. Your account will be cancelled. All of your information will be completely deleted from Guardian Angel’ databases within 24 hours.

Will Guardian Angel back up my entire disk drive? What about my applications and system files?

Guardian Angel was made to back up your most important files (email, contacts, photos, financial's, etc.), but not your system and application files, which are easy to restore via your original CDs.

Technically, you can back up your applications and system files, but we don't advise this. This is done for what's called a "bare metal restore," which is not what Guardian Angel was designed for. Typically, if your computer dies, you get new hardware, and attempting to just image your new computer with your old disk image via Guardian Angel (or any other backup application for that matter) is a tricky endeavor.

How does Guardian Angel keep my data from being lost?

We utilize a proprietary protection mechanism based lots of hard math) to ensure that your data is safe, even in the event of multiple hardware failures.

Does Guardian Angel support network drives? What about external drives?

Any drive you can see, Guardian Angel can backup.