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1 October 2007 It's often said there's
only one certainty in computing and that is you will lose data. We've covered
the types of backup hardware available, but
we haven't covered the programs to do it with. There's a massive number of backup
programs out there. Getting the right program is essential because the easier
it is for you to backup, the more likely you are to do it.
You need a backup that
is reliable and easy to use. The better commercial ones have automated scheduling
where you tell it when to back up and off it goes. Some of the basic ones either
aren't easily scheduled or only work manually.
NTBackup is the basic Windows
XP back up tool. As the name implies it's been around since the days of Windows
NT. It's a very basic tool that works well and will backup your entire system,
including your email, address books and system settings if you have the space
on your external drive. If you follow the wizards you can set up the program
to run at designated times. The backup utility is built
into Windows NT, 2000 and XP Professional. If you are using Windows XP Home,
you have to install
it from the Windows CD-ROM. Sadly, backup programs in other versions of
Windows aren't compatible with this including, unbelieveably, Windows Vista. Windows Vista has a different
backup system which is sadly incompatible with the older backup programs. It
is only designed to backup the entire hard drive and doesn't have a great deal
of flexibility. We think the old NT Backup is better. Vista Home Basic and Home
Premium do not come with the backup program which is another reason to avoid
these products. We rant about there being too many versions of Vista
on the market at our Cranky
Tech blog. Acronis is the upstart
in the backup and data imaging industry and True
Image is their backup and imaging program. It's fairly simple to setup and
use. We would recommend using this with a very big external drive as the standard
settings will make a copy of your hard drive. We're not a great fan of
backup services. Relying on the Internet is risky and the amounts of data required
mean you will be constantly be exceeding monthly allowances. This means either
higher bills or slower Internet access. There's also a question
of recovery times, retreiving your entire system can be very slow over the Internet.
The fact many online backups are incremental, that is only files that have changed
since the last backup, means it takes a long time to restore an entire system.
You also have to be sure the right things are being backed up. The benefit of offsite
backup is that it is safely away from your computer so in the case of a fire,
flood or theft your data can be retreived Generally we only recommend offsite
backup to compliment other onsite strategies. Next week, we'll look at
how to protect your backups. Backup programs
Choosing a backup
program is as important as choosing the right backup hardware. Here's our rundown
of some of the options available.
Built in backup programs
NTBackup
Vista Backup
Free Backup programs
Because backup is so fundamental
to computing there's a lot of free backup tools available. It's worthwhile experimenting
with some to see if they work for you. A search on "backup" at Tucows
and Downloads.com
finds over a thousand different choices, a couple we like include;
Synchback SE
Synchback
SE is a nice little free utility which is good for backing up to external
drives. The interface is a bit clunky and scheduling is difficult. We recommend
it for power users.
Synctoy
Microsoft's
Synctoy is a great little backup utility. It's simple to setup but can't be
scheduled (we suspect there is a way, but it's too complex to explain). This is
also a very good tool for synchronising laptop computers with desktops for home
business users.
Silver Keeper
Backup for Mac users is a
pain. Apple chose not to include a backup as standard in OSX and steer users towards
the service as part of a .mac
subscription. Luckily the external storage manufacturer Lacie has their free
Silverkeeper software.
Commercial Backup programs
There's no shortage of backup
programs to that will do a good job in return for you shelling out a lot of money.
Many of them are extremely complex to use and we'd recommend getting hold of a
trial version to experiment with before buying it. You may also find a commercial
backup program has been included with your backup hardware.
Acronis True Image
Symantec Backup Exec
Backup Exec is probably the
widest used commercial backup program. Like all programs bought out by Symantec
it's become bloated and buggy but it still sets the standard. The pricing usually
only attracts professionals and larger businesses.
Offsite Backup
info@pcrescue.com.au
PC Rescue Pty Ltd, Suite 236, 4 Young Street Neutral Bay NSW 2089
ABN 36 082 635 765
ŠTechnology Publishing Australia, 2008