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WinBackup
Reviewed by: Howard
Carson, send
e-mail
Published
by: LIUtilities, go to the web site
Requires: 400MHz
Intel or AMD compatible processor, 32MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM drive, Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP,
2MB free disk space
MSRP: US$29.95
WinBackup
is designed to make it easy to perform regular backups of
all or selected data on your computer. The software is built
around some of the latest data encryption techniques in order
to not only make reliable backups but keep them secure as
well. WinBackup also features one of the more intuitive user
interfaces in this class of software and seems to make even
some of the more advanced features more usable.
We chant
the backup mantra at Kickstartnews. Every week, we receive
an e-mail
from some poor soul whose hard drive
died in mid-sentence. The main 'plaint is always "can
I still get my files off the drive - there's 6 months worth
of work that I never backed up!!" Often, the valuable
data is lost forever (you should listen to the resulting
screaming and crying). Occasionally the data is salvageable
by one of the data recovery software tools currently available.
We always make the same statement:
".
. . in return for taking half an hour each week to execute
and supervise data backups or create drive images
or simply copy valuable files to removable media you could
have peace of mind knowing that your computer can be stolen
by thieves, wrecked by vandals, drenched in water, accidentally
knocked over, dropped, burned or vaporized by alien space
beams but your data will be safely tucked away."
So what distinguishes WinBackup from the other backup solutions
out there? First and foremost, making selections about what
to back up, how often to backup and where to backup to are
all obvious and easy. The interface is clean and well considered
- with none of the cryptic terms found in some other backup
utilities. Backups can be scheduled to run at convenient
times, data can be incrementally backed up (only the newest
files and old files which have changed because of editing),
and the backed up data can be written to another hard drive,
another partition, CD-R, DVD-R/+R, Zip, Jaz and so on. WinBackup
will also span data across multiple disks in case the data
is simply too large to be contained on one CD or DVD. We
encountered no problems doing a backup of 8GB of data to
several CD-R disks - when a disk was full, WinBackup waited
patiently until we put a fresh CD-R in the drive, then continued
the backup process.
Cons: Outlook data was not always backed up - a problem
for most backup utilities. You have to go into Windows Task
Manager and terminate the background process for Outlook
prior to starting a backup. The file verification process
failed while backing up a badly fragmented workstation hard
drive. As usual, we don't recommend backing up to CD-R if
you're using an older computer (pre Pentium II) or an older
CD-R drive without buffer underrun protection.
Pros: Powerful and secure. You can compress and encrypt
(128 or 256-bit) your backup data and password protect everything
against unauthorized access. Backups can be scheduled for
different times and the program runs very well in the background.
It backs up to CD-R or recordable DVD, utilizes compression
to save space and keeps detailed logs of what it does. We're
big fans of LIUtilities' products and WinBackup is another
winner in their lineup. Highly recommended.
Letters
to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public.
Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
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