Backup Utilities

[dalel]

Recently there have been some discussions about backup utilities.

The latest 2002 Shareware awards were recently posted, and here are two backup apps that were mentioned, each priced at $30.

http://www.onlimemedia.com/products/smartbackup/

http://www.centered.com/ (Second Copy - This one has won the reader's choice award for several years in a row.)

The Shareware Awards page:

http://www.sic.org/2002nominees.asp

I am thinking of getting one of these. Does anyone have experience with either?

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[dalel]

Recently there have been some discussions about backup utilities.

The latest 2002 Shareware awards were recently posted, and here are two backup apps that were mentioned, each priced at $30.

http://www.onlimemedia.com/products/smartbackup/

http://www.centered.com/ (Second Copy - This one has won the reader's choice award for several years in a row.)

The Shareware Awards page:

http://www.sic.org/2002nominees.asp

I am thinking of getting one of these. Does anyone have experience with either?

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Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

[Klaus Nordby]

Dale, I don't have experience with these two, as I am very happy with my present solution, Powerquest DataKeeper. I've looked at their webs, and I'm sure they both do the job competently.

I STRONGLy recommend to everybody to having a continous-backup system running. Even XaraX messes up files now and then when saving them, crunching them down to 0Kb! This expecially happens when there are lots of bevels in a file, it seems. But then I blithely just copy my last auto-backup file and am right back to when I last saved (which I do every time I take a 10-second breather - and not just once every three hours, as some I could mention . . . ).

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara

[dalel]

Didn't you mention in an earlier post that Datakeeper was no longer available?

Seems like you mentioned that it used to come with another product, I think Drive Image.

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[bjwe]

for 2-3 years now and can say it does a good job for me. It is highly configurable and doesn't copy files as soon as they have been altered but rather runs a scheduler so different jobs can be run at different intervals - so for instance I schedule my document and image directories to be backed up incrementally every hour but I take a full (incremental) backup of my system disk just once a week. It also maintains historical (ie generational) copies of the backed up files as well so I can always get back to previous versions. Personally I like this because I am in control and don't take the performance hit of background processes constantly monitoring and backing up files in real time. I hope this doesn't sound like a sales pitch - its just a program I'm happy with and in fact now I couldn't work without it. I can't speak for the other programs you have mentioned there. Oh, and I always make sure my backup directories are on a different drive to the source files!

Brian

[jpresley]

Dale, I have used Second Copy for a couple of years. It is a simple program that sits on the taskbar. I have it backing up all of my data on a regular basis to a separate hd. Those files can in turn be backed up to a cdr. Second Copy can directly save to a cdr if you wish. Plenty of options are available for time to backup, types of files, and compression level. I would recommend you download the trial and give it a whirl. It has never crashed. It does need working room on your hd to compile and compress the files you choose.

jpresley

[Klaus Nordby]

Dale, that's right, but someone else found out that DK was still on sale somewhere.

I've never noticed any performance issues with DK - except when I've saved a 100Mb PSD file, and DK then copies that to the backup location. But I don't work with those biggies all the time, so it's no real issue - especially since I run 4 disks in one RAID-0 setup, and my disk i/o is blisteringly fast!

Get whatever of these apps which strike your fancy, but get one! The $30-40 are money you won't regret spending for the safety it provides.

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara

[dalel]

I am going to order Second Copy. It sounds like a stable program and just what I need. I have a second hard drive and several empty partitions all ready to use for backup data.

I burn a backup CD once a month, but I shudder to think what might happen if I lost all of my latest files.

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[traceyp]

Dale

I did some poking around sometime ago looking for DataKeeper when someone else (can't remember her name) asked about some way of doing a backup. It was me that found out from PowerQuest (the distributors) that DataKeeper has now been discontinued. However, some while later, quite by accident, I came across what seems to be a direct replacement from Iomega called Quik Sync 3. I downloaded a trial version and very quickly became sufficiently happy that it would do the job I wanted so ended up purchasing the program ($39.95).

Like Klaus, I have noticed absolutely no degradation in PC performance whilst it is doing its job. I don't know about DataKeeper but Quik Sync 3 monitors the source directories every 15 seconds and when it finds a file has been added or changed it copies the file to the specified destination drive and directory.

As with DataKeeper and Second Copy you can keep unlimited revisions of files and the default is five. However, I've changed that to two otherwise my specified hard drive will fill up very quickly.

I have found that Quik Sync 3 works fine. However, before finding the program, I did try Second Copy and although its better than nothing, I worried about the specified time for a backup since things can go wrong in that time and indeed have done so for me. Apart from this, when it does a copy it copies the whole directory structure that you have said to back up; Quik Sync 3 saves only the file that has either been added or changed; SmartBackup also claims to work in the same way as Quik Sync 3.

If you want to find out more, trial versions of Quik Sync 3 and Second Copy are available and, since it is shareware, almost certainly SmartCopy, the later sounding very much as though it does the same job in the same way as Quik Sync 3.

In the end the decision is yours, only you know what you want out of a program so only you will know what will satisfy your needs. I prefer the way that Quik Sync 3 works (and probably SmartBackup from the write-up on their web site) and would recommend looking at that way of working. Nevertheless, the decision is yours - and try the trial versions before making any purchase.

Hope this is helpful.
Tracey

P.S. Although Iomega claim to give you 30 days trial of Quik Sync 3, I finished up with just 10!!! Nevertheless, it was long enough for me to find out that I would be happy with it.

[dalel]

Thanks so much for the helpful information! Now I know a little better what to look for.

I will try the trial versions and see if I can get the functionality I need.

I found an LE version of Quik Sync on Iomega's site, and it is FREE, so I downloaded it and will try that first.

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[This message was edited by Dale Landry on July 27, 2002 at 21:12.]