Help

Need help?

1. Take a good look at the FAQ below, perhaps the answer to your question is on this page.
2. Make sure you've got the newest version of the Vaulten program installed.
3. Do you have all the latest Microsoft updates? Check at Windows Update.
4. Still lost? Click here to go to our dedicated support section, where you may use the knowledgebase or contact our support team.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

About Vaulten and Data Loss

1. What is Vaulten?
   Vaulten is a software that offers subscription-based online backup based on IBM software and hardware, that can protect you from losing your important files.
2. How can I lose my documents?
   There are many ways in which one can lose data. The vast majority of data losses occur due to hardware failure or human error; there are also innumerable examples of software failure and destructive virus attacks. In addition, data lose can also occur by theft or physical damage due to fires or floods. These forms of damage are difficult to protect against; however, it is possible to ensure that you always have a copy of your data in reserve. The easiest and most secure way of doing this is with an automatic online backup.
3. Why should I protect my data with Vaulten?
   Today, computers have gone from being an advanced typewriter to an intelligent multimedia center. You have probably already compiled an extensive library of your favorite music on your computer. Most likely, you have also saved a whole lot of priceless family photos from the most precious moments of your life. The computer is a smart storage medium, in that pictures don't fade, and the records never get scratched. But the digital age also presents new challenges that you need to address. Digital data are not physical objects that take up space on a shelf. Vaulten, together with IBM, offers you protection, so you don't lose your digital valuables. We make sure you never have to fear having your vacation photos disappear or losing your music library, documents etc.
4. How can I get protection?
   It is easy to get protected with Vaulten. Download Vaulten Online Backup from our website, and install it directly onto your computer. Avoid the hassle of installing CDs, reading technical manuals or shipping. Then you select a subscription that meets your needs, and your data and documents are automatically secured every minute.
5. What is Vaulten Online Backup?
   Vaulten Online Backup is a program that secures your documents. When you have downloaded the program and installed it on your computer, you select which documents you wish to secure with the user-friendly menu. Vaulten Online Backup continually saves new versions of documents, and the program is updated automatically on a regular basis.
6. How does the backup software work?
   Our backup software makes sure that the data you wish to backup is continually sent to our hosting center that is powered by IBM. The software also enables you to retrieve your data at any time. We store all of your data in a secure format, which cannot be read until you retrieve it to your own computer. We use encryption throughout the transfer process, ensuring that nobody can view your files at any time.
7. Am I protected all the time?
   Yes. Once you have downloaded our program and purchased a subscription, we protect you round the clock. We also update Vaulten Online Backup regularly, so you always have the latest version of the program installed.
8. What happens if my entire server or PC breaks down, and what is System recovery?
   If a malfunction should occur and your computer or server breaks down, you will need to recover your files as they were prior to the breakdown. You must first replace any defective hardware and reinstall your operating system, as well as your backup program from our website once again. With a few simple clicks you will have access to your backup. In our storage management catalogs, there are indexes of all of the files you have backed up. The system displays the date and time of when the files were uploaded. By looking through this catalog via the user menu, you can easily find the files you wish to restore or you can choose to restore all of the files as they were before you lost them.
9. How do I pay for protection with Vaulten?
   Vaulten collaborates with PayPal for accepting credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal transfers,s which is the Internet's most secure online payment service. At Vaulten, you only pay for protection when you need it. It's easy and inexpensive.
10. Can I cancel Vaulten Online Backup?
    If you no longer wish to be protected by Vaulten Online Backup, you can simply choose not to renew your backup subscription. We notify you by email when your subscription is about to expire. You can easily uninstall the program from the user menu with one click of a button. If you have opted for Auto Renewal while billing, please write to billing@vaulten.com to cancel your account.
11. What operating systems can I run Vaulten Online Backup on?
    Our program is tailored and optimized for use on Windows operating systems (Windows XP and Windows Vista). We currently have no OS X or Linux versions of the program.
12. Can there be problems with my firewall?
    We send your files over the same port that your Internet browser uses to retrieve pages and using the same protocol. If you can browse internet on your computer then your firewall should have no problem functioning with Vaulten Online Backup.
13. What is an important file?
    You define what files are important to you. This could be
    - Digital photos of you, your family, friends, pets, etc.
    - Reports, contracts, business papers, your next best seller or other documents in word or other office file formats.
    - Music or videos you have purchased or perhaps made yourself.
    - Whatever type of files you treasure, Vaulten Online Backup can help secure forever.

The Backup Client

1. What is the latest version of Vaulten?
   Vaulten is currently available in version 1.2.0. To check if you have this version, open the Vaulten client and look at the bottom of the screen. The version number will be listed here on all pages of the client. If you do not have the latest version, click here to download the latest version and follow the instructions to install. When prompted, select “Existing User?” and login with your user name and password. Updates are always free for all users.
2. What should I choose – ‘New’ or ‘Existing’ User?
   When the backup client starts up the first time after installation, it gives you two options for entering, as:
   New User: If this is your first time using the backup client, and thus have not registered an account already, you should click the ‘New User’ button. This will lead you to a file selection and account creation page. Once you complete these two steps the Vaulten Online Backup client will start to backup your files*
   Existing user: If you already have an account and want to restore your files, or reinstall the Vaulten Online Backup client, click the ‘Existing User’ button. This will lead you to a login window where you can enter your username and password. You will then have the option to restore your files or setup Vaulten to backup from the machine you are now working on.
   * ‘your files’ mean the files you have selected on the file selection window.
3. How can I select my important files?
   On the Vaulten Online Backup client you can select files via a number of pre-defined options, as shown on the screenshot. The options are defined in one of two ways:
   1. By Folder If you always save your important files in, for example, the “My documents” folder on your computer, you can set Vaulten Online Backup to backup the folder “My Documents”.
   2. By file type If you want to secure a specific file type, for example, all your pictures, and these files are spread over multiple folders on your computer, Vaulten Online Backup can look for given files types like .bmp, .gif, .jpg (common picture files formats) on your entire hard drive. Should you have pictures in a format which Vaulten does not cover by default, simply add it and Vaulten will backup any files in that particular format as well.
4. What happens when I close down the Vaulten client window?
   Vaulten Online Backup will continue to run even when you close down its window. It will show only as an icon in your system tray on the windows bar. To open the window again, simply double-click the icon or right-click to get a menu where you can select “Open Vaulten Online Backup”. This menu also offers you options to pause the Vaulten Online Backup and to resume when needed.
5. Can I pause the backup process?
   Yes you can. Simply right-click the Vaulten icon in the system tray (on the lower-right side of your screen) and a menu will appear which, among other things, allows you to pause the backup for 30 min, 2 hours or 24 hours. When the backup is at paused state, you can resume the backup by selecting ‘Resume’ on the same right click menu on your tray icon. If you do nothing after pausing the backup, the backup will automatically resume after the pause period runs out.
6. Can I delete files from the backup server?
   Yes, go to the ‘Restore’ section and navigate the file tree to find the folder or file you want to delete. Check of the checkboxes left of the folder or file name. Once you have checked of all the folders or files you want to delete, click the ‘Delete files’ button at the bottom of the window. Deleting a folder or file means that you no longer have it backed up. The client will ask you to confirm, via a small popup window. If you select ‘Yes’ the files will be deleted permanently.
7. Can I backup more than one version of the same file?
   Yes you can. The Vaulten Online Backup client is able to backup and keep several versions of the same file. Say you have backed up a word document, and after the backup you are working on it and decide to delete a section of the document and save the changes without changing the name of the document. Later you find that the changes you made were wrong and want to go back to how the document was earlier. As you have saved the changes to the document and closed it, word will not allow you to use the ‘undo’ feature, as word deletes the records of what has been changed every time you save the document and close it. However in the Vaulten Online Backup client, you can select how many versions of each file you want to keep on your secure backup (by default it is set to 5). This way you are able to go back and get earlier version of files. The versions are listed under each file as sub-section, so simply click on the file name to expand the sub-sections and select the given version you want to restore.
8. How do I restore my documents on another computer?
   If you need to restore your documents to another computer, download Vaulten from www.vaulten.com/download. After installing Vaulten and restarting your computer, you will be prompted with a screen asking if you would like to create a new account or are an existing user. Login as an existing user and you will see a restore screen. Click the button at the bottom of the screen that says ‘Restore files from other machines in account’. You will then have access to your files and can select to restore some or all of your files and documents to this computer.
9. How do I restore past versions of my documents?
   To restore past versions, click on the plus sign next to the file you wish to restore. Here you will see all of the versions that had previously been saved. Select the file you wish to restore.
10. Why does the ‘Storage usage’ bar show 0.00 GB, when I have backed up files?
    The Storage usage bar on the overview screen is there to indicate how much storage in Gigabytes you are using on your secure backup. To focus resources on vital processes like backup and restore, the input for the storage usage bar is not being maintained live, but in intervals. This means that in some rare cases you might see inconsistency between how much you have backed up and how much the Storage usage bar is showing. The important thing here is that this does not impact billing in case you exceed the limit you have paid for and are unable to see that on the storage usage bar. Should you notice that you have exceeded your limit, Vaulten will not close your account but will inform you of the situation with suggestion on what actions you can take (either delete files on your backup or upgrade to a plan with more space).
11. What is the 'Send log' button for?
    The 'Send log' button that you see under 'Event Log' sends a detailed log of the performance of the software to our team. This is used for diagnostic purposes, when needed.

General Tips

1. Can I improve performance in the backup of my email files?
   Microsoft and other email application providers suggest that your email file should never exceed 500 MB, as this will dramatically decrease performance of your email application. Thus you should use the archive feature to archive old mails and only have the latest in your Inbox. Doing this will also improve the performance of backup of your emails, because scanning a small file for changes requires less resources than a large file. Thus keeping your email file at a reasonable size (less than 500 MB) will help improve performance as this file is scanned for changes every time you receive a new email.

Subscription

1. Where do I enter my subscription license key?
   To enter and activate your Vaulten subscription license, open the Vaulten program by double-clicking on the small Vaulten tray icon (at the bottom right-hand side of your screen). Once Vaulten client has opened, click ‘Settings’ in the left menu at the bottom. Here you will see 5 boxes where you can enter your license key with 5 characters in each box. Enter your license key by copying and pasting the entire key into the first box and click ‘Activate’.
2. How do I activate my Vaulten subscription license key?
   To activate your Vaulten subscription license, use the key that has been sent to you via email upon purchase. Open your Vaulten client and click ‘Settings’. You can either manually enter your license key or copy & paste it into the fields shown. To copy and paste your license key, copy the entire 25 character key that was sent to you in your email upon purchase, and put your cursor in the first box. Then press CTRL + V and your license key should be pasted across all of the boxes. If there is a red line under one of the fields, an invalid character was added that will cause your license key to be rejected. If not, click ‘Activate’ and your Vaulten subscription license will be activated. Should you have any further questions while activating this license key, please contact us by e-mailing support@vaulten.com or filling out the support form on the right side of this page and we will respond to you within 24 hours of your request.
3. I need more storage space. How can I upgrade my Vaulten subscription license?
   If you need more storage space and/or would like to upgrade to another package size, please do the following. Open your Vaulten client by clicking on the tray icon at the bottom corner of your screen. Once Vaulten client has opened, click the ‘Settings’ button in the lower left-hand corner of your Vaulten client. There you will find a button that says ‘Upgrade Account’. Click this button and you will be taken to the Vaulten online store, where you can select the product and plan of your choice. Once you have upgraded to the new plan, enter the new license key and your subscription will be updated. The remaining time on your previous subscription will be prorated depending on the amount purchased in your new plan.
4. What happens if I use more space than I’m allowed?
   Should you exceed the amount of space in your subscription plan, you will get a pop-up letting you know that you have gone over the allotted space. In this popup you will have the option to upgrade to another package or delete files from the backup to create more space.
5. How do I renew my Vaulten subscription license?
   To renew Vaulten subscription, purchase a new subscription by clicking here: www.vaulten.com/buy. This will take you to the secure Vaulten online store where you can select the subscription plan of your choice. We advice you to select the Auto Renewal option while billing, to ensure the subscription is automatically renewed and always active.

Installation

1. Why do I have to accept the Vaulten's Terms Of Use?
   Our Terms Of Use is an agreement between you and Stral LLC (brand owner of Vaulten), explaining how you are allowed to use the Vaulten Online Backup, and the terms for how we, Vaulten, will ensure your digital valuables are kept safe.
2. Why do I have to restart after the installation?
   For security reasons the Vaulten client will only be initiated after a restart of the computer because that ensures that all vital components are loaded correctly and are ready to secure your important files.

Firewall

1. Should I allow “BackupService” to access the internet?
   When you start the Vaulten Client it starts a process called “BackupService.exe” which needs to access the internet to send the files you want backed up to the secure hosted servers, and to restore them again. Your Firewall might catch this process and ask if you wish to allow it to access the internet. You can safely allow this.

Technical requirements

1. Can I run the Vaulten client on a 64 bit operating System?
   Currently the Vaulten client is designed for standard 32 bit operation systems Windows XP and Vista (both home and pro). Vaulten is working closely with IBM developers to develop Vaulten for 64-bit computers. We will place a notice on this site once this is available.