# Perform a USB Backup

You can back up to USB memory devices. It is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure that the memory device can accommodate the size of the backup as backing up a large number of recordings to such a device may fail if there is inadequate storage.

## Before You Begin

- Ensure that the USB memory device can accommodate the size of the backup.

- Before the USB device can be used for backup it must be formatted with a file system. Any USB storage device that is formatted as FAT32 (DOS) or ext3 (Linux), or NTFS (Windows and Linux) is compatible.

- The file size limit for USB backups is set by the destination file system: 4 GB for a FAT32, 2 TB for NTFS, and 16 GB to 16 TB for ext3 (depending on file system block size). The current MSL ext3 block size is 4096 bytes which allows file sizes of 2TB.

To perform the backup

1. Insert the USB device (in the master node for systems with multiple nodes).

2. In Text Console, select S (System maintenance), L (NPM Backup), and U (USB Backup).

3. Select A (USB Drive Path) and then select the USB device to use.

4. Configure the following USB backup settings:

   - (D) Backup Path = [enter the path to the location where the backed up data is to be stored]

   - (M) Backup Messages (Y/N) = [enter Y to backup mailbox messages or N to skip]

   - (N) Backup Names and Greetings (Y/N) = [enter Y to backup names and greeting or N to skip]

   - (F) Backup Fax Coverpages (Y/N) = [enter Y to backup Fax coverpages or N to skip]

   - Select B (Perform Backup). The device configuration is always backed up.

5. Return to the Main Menu and quit Text console.

Parent topic: Backup and Restore