Using the Default Settings:
The pre-configured settings in Zoolz will guarantee the minimum resource usage while keeping your data backed up frequently to your Zoolz account.
While we recommend keeping these settings as they are, in some cases you might prefer speed over resource usage, such as in your initial backup or when backing up large, yet important data. So, this article will discuss the options that Zoolz offers in terms of speed and what effects do they have on your backup flow.
Keep in Mind:
- Zoolz performs incremental backups, meaning that the initial backup will be the most time, bandwidth and resource consuming process, as any future backups will only upload the modifications and new additions to your selected data.
- Your upload speed and computer’s processing power are very important. They either help Zoolz work faster or hold it back from using its full potential.
- Your speed related settings (Throttling, MutliThreded Uploads, Turbo Mode, etc.. ) should take effect immediately, but if a process is already running, Zoolz might wait until that process is finished before using your new settings with the rest of the backup.
- Even in ideal conditions and configurations, the backup speed might differ by a small margin depending on the files being backed up.
Prerequisites:
To effectively optimize your backup speed, you’ll need to obtain some information about your computer and internet connection, the steps are fairly simple and as follows:
- Visit www.speedtest.net and run a speed test on your connection. This will tell you what Download/Upload speeds you are getting from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Please if you are not located in the US, before doing the test, go to the settings in the upper right corner of the Window and change the server you are testing to to any server in the US. - Right-click the
icon on your computer and click on Properties, this will show you the basic specifications of your computer, such as available RAM and the processor’s speed.
You’ll be needing the upload speed from your connection speed test, and the available RAM/CPU on your computer to have a reasonable expectation of how fast your backup can go.
What are the best settings for a faster backup?
Zoolz offers a variety of options to enhance your backup speed, as described below, each option will affect your backup speed significantly in many aspects:
- Enable MultiThreaded Uploads
How?
This option will let Zoolz upload multiple files at the same time, which is very effective when you need to get the backup done quickly, regardless of how much of your bandwidth or computer’s resources being used.
- Disable Bandwidth Throttling
How?
Bandwidth Throttling will allow you to limit how much Zoolz uses of your internet connection. This is intended to prevent Zoolz from using up your entire upload speed in case you wish to upload something else while Zoolz is backing up, so disabling it will allow Zoolz to use the full upload speed available on your connection.
- Switch to Turbo Mode
How?
By default, Zoolz runs in Smart Mode, which intelligently manages your system resources to prevent Zoolz from taking up much of your RAM or CPU usage to allow you to use the computer while the backup is running, without slowing down other processes that are running on your machine.
Switching to Turbo Mode will give Zoolz a higher priority usage of your system resources allowing it to use more of your computer’s power.
Note : While in Turbo mode, you will be able to use your computer for other tasks but you’ll notice a slight decrease in the computer’s performance while Turbo Mode is activated.
- Disable SSL ( Secure Socket Layer )
How?
SSL ( Secure Socket Layer ) is a protocol used by Zoolz to transfer your data to Zoolz’s servers as an added security measure to protect your files while on their way to the backup destination.
Disabling SSL will increase the backup speed as it will skip running through some verifications which are a part of the SSL protocol, these verifications are sent in a timely manner between Zoolz on your machine and Zoolz’s servers to secure the connection, keep in mind that this won’t compromise your security as Zoolz encrypts your files before leaving the machine.
- Schedule your backup wisely :
It is preferable that you set your backup schedule with the size of your data in mind, for having a schedule or an interval that separates the backup runs by a long time will increase the size of the backup being handled on each run.
Example:
Having 5 files selected to be backed up, each file is 200MB in size and each file gets modified on a day of the week . your backup interval is set to backup every Friday of the week.
Each file is modified/edited on a day of the week, that means you have 1000MB to upload on Friday, which is a bit much and will take a while to back up (depending on your connection).
Best Setup would be to have the backup run on an interval of 24Hours, this way, each day you upload 200MB instead of 1000MB being uploaded at once on Friday.
Note: This is a personal preference, knowing what your connection and computer are capable of (using the prerequisites mentioned earlier ) you can take your average backup size and decide what interval/schedule to use based on how much you can process and upload at once.
- Free Zoolz from restrictions :
In some cases, other applications on your machine might interfere with Zoolz and the backup process by either locking some files and not allowing access to them, or preventing the actual executables of Zoolz from running as intended by restricting Zoolz’s access and permissions.
To avoid such behavior on your computer, please find the below recommendations for the most common cases:
A) Exclude Zoolz from your Antivirus Software :
While Antiviruses are very useful software to prevent unwanted software from running on your machine and protecting your data, they tend to get aggressive when they find another software that is scanning your files, which what Zoolz does to check your selected data for modifications and to back those files up when required, so having the Antivirus interfere with Zoolz’s way of work will slow your backup significantly and, sometimes, halt it.
To exclude Zoolz from your Antivirus software, you’ll need to add an Exception/Exclusion for the following Locations/Files :
C:\Program Files\Genie9\
C:\Users\YourWindowsUserNameHere\AppData\Roaming\Genie9\
B) Try to use Zoolz only
Having other backup solutions running at the same time isn’t a recommended procedure, as this will cause conflict if Zoolz and the other backup software are both trying to access the same files or the same services on your computer, meaning that none of both will function properly .
If you insist on using another backup software with Zoolz, try not to select the same data in both applications, and make sure to not select the above mentioned directories in the other backup solution on your machine.
Note: If you wish to have an Offline/Local backup software along with Zoolz, you can try out our other backup products Genie Timeline or Genie Backup Manager, as they are optimized to co-exist with Zoolz on the same machine without causing any problems.
Final Notes:
- Zoolz uses the latest cloud technology available to offer a reliable, secure and very affordable cloud backup solution, with that in mind, we cannot guarantee that it will live up to everyone’s idea of a fast upload.
- Zoolz compares chunks of data server wide to detect duplicates and save you the upload time; It will only send de-duplication requests to the server if a chunk of data matches one that is already on the server, so detected duplicates will result in lowering the upload speed rate shown on your dashboard (since only dedupe requests are being sent, no actual file upload is occurring and it uploads the requests faster than it can be calculated).
Example:
This also applies to BigMIND