last update: JAN 26, 2018
Pictures for this online manual are coming soon.
To install, click on the download button either on the main page (https://fantasydriversoftware.com) or the main OFM page (https://www.fantasydriversoftware.com/OFM/download.htm). Caution! On the main page the download will be a full install. If you already have a version of OFM installed proceed to the OFM page and when it asks for an install type please select "Update Only".
NOTE: This software is still not common with Chrome and most anti-virus programs, please either add an exception or briefly disable anti-virus for the download to complete. MD5 Hashes of the installer and updater are present on the main OFM page.
After downloading, double click on the install icon to launch the installation wizard.
For best results make sure you install OFM on a drive that is a separate physical drive from the drive you wish to backup files from.
For instance, if you wish to back up files from "C" drive then OFM should be installed on another drive other than "C".
A second option is after the initial installation, click on "Tools" then "Properties" then move the "Default Backup Directory" to another drive or NAS folder.
Reasoning behind this practice is to protect your backups from complete drive failure.
After downloading the .zip file, for best results, navigate to the location in which you want to store your backups and proceed to extract the .zip file there.
After extracting the .zip file, click on the Oops File Manager folder. Locate the OFMapp.exe file, right click to show the context menu.
On the context menu select "Send To" and then select "Desktop (create shortcut)"; which is shown for Windows 7 and Windows 10 Operating Systems.
Once the shortcut is created, double-click it to get started.
When you first launch OFM the first panel you come to is the single file backup selection. Here you can look for a file with "Browse" and then click "Ok" to select that file, then lastly click "Monitor File" for OFM to backup the file and add it to its monitoring process.
IF you have not yet set up a schedule to check for changes OFM will ask you to set it up after backing up your first file.
For best results, we strongly recommend setting up a schedule and setting it for 30 mins or less.
The best way to backup multiple file is through the "Monitor a Folder" selection under "Start".
After clicking "Monitor a Folder", You have two options: "Recursive" and "Monitor New Files and Deletions". The recursive option will find files within any and all sub folders within the folder of your choice. The "Monitor New Files and Deletions" option will automatically backup new files within the folder of your choice and if any files are deleted it will keep all backups related to the deleted file. You can select both options for optimal efficiency.
After choosing which options to apply, click "Browse" to look for the folder you wish to monitor. Click "Ok" to select that folder.
After selecting a folder, the list box below will fill up with the files that OFM has found. It will tell you the number of files found along with the path of each file. Each file has a check box next to it. You can uncheck certain files from being backed up; however, if you have selected to "Monitor New Files and Deletions", all files must be checked or uncheck the "Monitor New Files and Deletions" option.
Click "Monitor Folder" to complete the process.
To view the files that are currently backed up and being monitored, click on "View" on the tool bar, then click "View Monitored Files".
If you have a lot of files (usually over several hundred) you might be presented with a black bar around the loading window. This is normal. Windows may ask for you to terminate the process, however please wait until loading of the files are done.
In this panel you are able to search ("Filter") sort on any of the column headings, select 1 or many files to delete, and select a file to view the various backups that were preformed.
To delete a file(s) from OFM, select a single file by a clicking on the related row - highlighting the file; to select multiple files, hold down shift or control (Ctrl) then select the other files you wish to delete. With the files selected, right click on a highlighted file then click on "Stop Monitoring File(s)". You will be prompted with a new panel asking if you are sure and to tell you that all associated backups for this file will be deleted. Click "OK" to continue to delete the file(s).
If you wish to see the backups that were preformed on a file, click on the row related to the file you wish to view backups for, then right click on the highlighted row.
Click on "View Backups".
This will take you to a new panel that will show you, in a date time format, the backups that OFM has for that file.
To go back to the file list click on "Back To Monitored Files".
There are two ways to get to the Recall panel.
1) Through "View Monitored Files"
2) From "Start", then "Recall A File / View Backups". This way follows most of the steps below; however,
you must manually search through the file drop down list before recalling a backup.
The preferred method, for those who have a lot of files, is to go through "View Monitored Files". This can be found on the tool bar by clicking "View".
Once in "View Monitored Files" panel you can search or manually look for the file you wish to recall.
When you have found the file, click it to highlight that row then right click the highlighted row. Now click on "View Backups".
In the Recall panel under the "File Backups" group you are presented, in date time format, the different versions of the file.
Click, the date and time, to select which version of the file you wish to recall then click on "Recall Backup" to restore that version of the file. OFM will then place that version in the original folder of file. If the folder doesn't exist then it will be placed in the documents folder.
When recalling a file, that file's name will have a suffix of "(Recalled_on_[date]_[time])" to be easily identified.
To delete a particular backup of a file, while still in the Recall panel, right click the desired backup and then click "Delete Backup". You will be prompted and warned that this will delete this specific backup record.
OFM keeps logs of backing up activities and errors.
To view the logs, click on "View Logs" on the tool bar. The Logs can also be viewed by clicking "View" in the tool bar, then "View Logs" and lastly the logs can be reached by clicking "Tools" in the tool bar, then click "View Logs".
The Log panel has several features.
If you have enabled "Log Errors" in the "Properties" of OFM then you can select "Errors Only" to view just the errors that have occurred.
"Update Files Only", displays the files that have been reviewed as new and recently backed up.
"Refresh" queries the OFM DB again to get the latest log information.
"Clear Log", erases all log entries.
Setting a master password enables encryption for future backups to use. Any backup made before a master password was set will remain unencrypted.
To set a master password click on "Tools" on the tool bar, then click on "Set Master Password".
You will be prompted with a warning message and info about the encryption process.
Once you have encrypted OFM you can not reverse the process!
When you click "Yes", after reviewing the message you will be prompted to enter in a password. Please make sure it is a password you can remember, If you forget your password you will be unable to restore any file that is encrypted. We are unable to recover your password due to the encryption that is in place.
While Google Drive is the main premise, this method can also be used for SkyDrive, or Dropbox and possibly other alternatives.
Before you begin make sure you have Google Drive desktop application installed.
To connect to Google Drive, click "Tools" on the tool bar then click on "Connect to Google Drive".
A popup window will appear. Now use the "Browse" button to locate the Google Drive folder located on your PC. The Google Drive folder might be in several places, the most common place is "[system drive]:\users\[your user name]\Google Drive"
Once you have selected the Google Drive folder, or subfolder within it, then you can now set a quota. By default the quota is 15 MB but can be as high as you wish, this is in place to limit the amount of redundant backups that are copied to Google Drive.
Encrypted backups will not be encrypted when sent to Google Drive.
When the quota is reached it will not stop, it will keep the most up to date versions, cycling within the quota limit.
To stop sending files to Google Drive, reopen the window ("Tools" --> "Connect To Google Drive"), then click on "End Connection". This will not delete any files that have been copied, instead it will forget the folder and settings for Google Drive.
New for version 1.4, you can import an existing OFM database.
To import an OFM database, click on "Tools" in the tool bar then click on "Import Database".
You will be prompted with a warning and info about importing the database. Click "OK" to continue.
Navigate to the OFM database you wish to import. OFM databases are in the .sdf format. The name must be "OFMdb" to work properly.
Note: if you just preformed a export, make sure its in zip format, within the zip formatted file is the backed up OFM database you can import this file and it is suggest to move all the zipped .ofmbk files to the "ofmbkup" folder within the application folder.
After importing you must restart the application.
New in version 1.4, you can export the entire database along with the associated backups. There are to formats to choose from, Zip and Folder. Zip format means OFM will zip all the backups plus the database and build an index text file to help will deciphering the OFM naming scheme. In folder format, OFM recreates and restores all the backed up files in the folder structure they where originally in.
In both formats, encrypted files will remain encrypted.
To use the zip format, click on "Tools" in the tool bar, then mouse over "Export Database" then click on "To Zip File".
You will be prompted with information about the export. Click "OK" to continue. OFM will then proceed with the task. This task may take a long time if there are a large sum of backups within OFM. Please wait for the process to finish.
In rare cases, OFM may run out of memory. If this happens please check that you are using the 64-bit version. If so, please refer to the folder format. Large number of backups = more memory needed to make a complete single Zip file.
To use the folder format, click on "Tools" in the tool bar, then mouse over "Export Database" then click on "To Folder".
You will be prompted with information about the export. Click "OK" to continue.
Next, you will have to select the destination in which you want OFM to replicate its database. After making a selection, click OK to continue.
This process will take a longer time than making a Zip file, however, will retain less resources.
For both options please wait for the tasks to finish. Automated processes within OFM are disabled while any of these tasks are being completed. You might permanently disable automated processes if any of these tasks are ended abruptly.
To view the OFM application properties, click on "Tools" on the tool bar, then click on "Properties".
This is the folder that houses all the backups for OFM. This folder can be moved to any location even a location on the network.
Note: If moving it to a network location make sure the location is readily available at all times.
This amount of time to keep the backups is based on the last modified date of the original file. I.E. if the file has a last modified date of November 9, 2017 and the setting for this is save for 30 days then if there are no new updates for this file after 30 days, then this file is deleted.
This is another method of saving drive space, however, for highest efficiency this is set to 0 by default, which means to keep forever.
This sets the length of time to keep logs. Because of automated processes logs can quickly pile up. It is recommended to keep logs for no more than 7 days.
This determines the overall backup size quota for OFM, which is the total amount of drive space being used by all the backed up files. We recommended setting this to around 10% of the total drive space the backup directory is installed on. However, the maximum for now is 1 TB.
After quota is reached OFM will continue to function but will begin to delete older backups to make room for new ones and stay within the "Backup Size" property.
This property activates logging errors as they happen. However, logging errors will also increase the log size and increase DB usage, which in turn, decreases performance. This is unchecked by default.
You can manually report an error with OFM.
To start, click on "About" on the tool bar then click on "Report An Error".
A new window will pop up. Here you can see the collected information about your system. You can enter in the error you received or noticed during your usage. You can also leave an email address but it is not necessary.
We have noticed that for some versions of Windows the RAM value is incorrectly displayed.
Click on "Send" to process the report.