Setting up a bucket for offsite backups with Binary Lane requires an existing Amazon S3 account. If you don't yet have an Amazon S3 account you can sign up here.


Backups from Binary Lane are compressed using qpress which can be downloaded here. The backups are a byte-for-byte copy of the drive (Windows) or ext3 partition (Linux).

After decompressing the backup with qpress, you must use software such as OSFMount for Windows drives as well as Ext2Fsd for Linux partitions. more info..


To allow Binary Lane to upload a copies of your backup to your S3 account, we require a new bucket with a bucket policy applied. To set this up please take the following actions:

  1. Log into the AWS S3 management console.

  2. Click on the "Create Bucket" button


  3. Enter a unique bucket name and ensure you have selected "Sydney" in the region box. Click create.



  4. In the bucket list, right click on your new bucket and select "Properties".


  5. On the right you should see the properties for the bucket. Check the name to ensure you are editing the correct bucket. Expand the "Permissions" section and click "Add bucket policy".


  6. Use our policy template below to create the required policy for your bucket. This allows Binary Lane to add, delete and list backups in the bucket. You will need to replace the [[bucketname]] parts with your bucket name.
  7. { "Version": "2008-10-17", "Id": "backuppolicy.binarylane.com.au", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "allowbackups", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "CanonicalUser": "a56b711c5acdeb80d7f113fe028cb65ab9eff594de5a8b87741413cd18363017" }, "Action": ["s3:PutObject","s3:DeleteObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::[[bucketname]]/*" }, { "Sid": "allowlisting", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "CanonicalUser": "a56b711c5acdeb80d7f113fe028cb65ab9eff594de5a8b87741413cd18363017" }, "Action": "s3:ListBucket", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::[[bucketname]]" } ] }

  8. Paste the generated policy into the text area and click on save. (*If the save button is still disabled, add a space to the end of the policy to force it to be enabled)



  9. If you haven't already done so. Set the bucket name for your Binary Lane offsite backup to be the name you gave your new bucket.



AWS bucket settings can take some time to have effect. Binary Lane will send you an email in a couple of hours if it still can't access your bucket.


Accessing the files in your backup

To use Windows to access the files from within your backup, you will first need to download the following free tools:

  • OSFMount - attaches a backup to a drive letter.
  • qpress - decompress the backup file.
  • For a linux vps: Ext2Fsd - read linux filesystem from windows.

If you are restoring a Linux backup then please follow the following steps otherwise jump straight to step 1.

For Linux backups you will need to have installed Ext2Fsd to allow windows to understand the Linux filesystem format.

  • Download and launch the Ext2Fsd installer.
  • On the "Select Additional Tasks" step of the installer, check "Make Ext2Fsd automatically started when system boots"
  • On the last step of the installer uncheck "Start Ext2 Volume Manager.." since we will be using a different tool for that process.
  • Reboot your computer and then follow the steps below to access your backup files.


1. Create a backup folder

Create a folder on your system in which to work from

2. Download your backup from S3

Log into the AWS S3 management console locate the backup you wish to download from your bucket. Right click on the backup and select "Download". Follow the instructions to download the backup.

3. Move or copy your backup and qpress into the backup folder you created

To make the next steps easier, it is best to have qpress.exe and the downloaded backup saved in the backup folder you created.



4. Open a cmd.exe window in your backup folder


You can open a cmd window by right clicking while holding down the shift key, in an empty space within the folder and selecting "open command window here" (make sure no files are highlighted).


5. Create a restored folder by typing "mkdir restored" and pressing enter


This is the folder in which we will place the decompressed backup.



6. Extract the backup into the restored folder.


Type "qpress64.exe -dv <backupfilename.qp> .\restored" without the quotes and press enter. Ensure you have replaced the <backupfilename.qp> with the name of your backup file (see above image).

Hint: Pressing the tab key while typing your backup file name will try and guess the filename for you, if it gets it wrong just keep pressing tab until it gets it right.

When the extraction is complete, close the command window or type "exit" and press enter.

7. Install OSFMount

Download and launch the OSFMount installer. You shouldn't need to change any options.

If gives an error about computer type, download the other installer from the website (ie 64bit installer if you downloaded the 32bit installer earlier).



8. Run the OSFMount tool


Find OSFMount in your start menu and run it. You should get the following screen:


Click "Mount new..."


9. Select the decompressed backup file


Click on the "..." next to the image file text box. In the file browser shown, find your decompressed backup which should be inside a "restored" folder.



9a. Select the partition if prompted


A windows backup will ask for a partition. Highlight the "Partition" and click "OK"



10. Choose a drive letter


Select a drive letter to assign to your backup. Leave the rest of the options as shown and click "OK"



11. Your backup is now Mounted. Double Click on the drive to open it in explorer.


Ensure your backup is showing up in the list with the drive letter you chose. You can double click on the drive letter to open an explorer window to access your files.