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Reduce Backup Frustrations with Backup Plus
by Bob Gowan
We've all heard it - time and time again: "The question is
not if your hard drive will fail; it's when it will
fail". But what do we do about it? We may think about for
awhile, even do a full backup of our system, once or twice.
But do we keep it up, routinely, consistently? If you're
anything like me, you've always found backups a real chore.
I certainly hadn't taken it very seriously until the first
(and so far, only - knock on wood) time a hard drive crashed
on one of my computers. Fortunately for me, I had done one
of my infrequent backups not long before, and I was in the
habit of e-mailing some the most important things to another
site, so I didn't lose much. But it was a badly needed
"wake-up call". For starters, I replaced my archaic,
undersized and dreadfully slow tape backup system with a 1
GB removable disk (SyQuest SPARQ) system. As with similar
systems (such as Iomega's Zip or Jaz, that I've also used),
the SPARQ comes with the standard software utilities for
backup and restore and for scheduling backups. This was, of
course, a considerable improvement - more capacity and
faster than the old tape system, and although the software
was easier to use and more versatile than Windows Backup, I
was still less than satisfied. I looked into other more
versatile software but they were out of my price range.
Then I saw a review of Backup Plus, from Avantrix Inc.,
which was listed as WUGNET's Pick of the Week in February
2000. I discovered that this product has received similar
awards from almost all of the most popular shareware sites.
According to a more recent WUGNET reviewer, "Creating Backup
Sets with Backup Plus is very easy. In fact, you'll be up
and running in absolutely no time, as the program's
interface is very intuitive." (Chris Spera; WUGNET; see
http://www.wugnet.com/csreviews/software/backupplus/)
If this was true, this Canadian product could be my solution to
the backup dilemma. So I contacted Avantrix and offered to
review the product. They responded promptly and provided
both a review copy, and a copy for the club to raffle (more
about that later), both on CD and with copies of a printed
manual. The product is also available via download from
Avantrix's website.
The 77-page manual is well-arranged, easy to read, and seems
complete. It is well-illustrated, with numerous screen
captures, and many useful tips that stand out clearly in the
text. System requirements, and what the software does, and
doesn't do, are laid out in the first chapter. The second
chapter provides concise descriptions of each of the menu
options. There's not much detail provided here, but it does
not seem needed. The next three chapters are the most
lengthy, covering in detail the important steps of creating
backup sets, determining backup settings, and performing the
backup operations. For each step, all available features and
choices are explained. The manual doesn't just tell "what"
to do, it also explains "why" or "why not" make each
selection. The sixth chapter, covering restore operations,
is relatively short, but provides adequate detail and
examples. The following chapter, which explains the task
manager for scheduling timed backups and tracking backups,
and the various steps and choices for each, is also one of
the longer chapters. The final chapter, entitled
"miscellaneous" contains the type of information often
placed in appendices: FAQs and other common questions, Error
Codes and company contacts. There is also a short index.
Backup Plus works with Win9x, Win NT4+, Win2K and WinME, and
takes about 8 MB of disk space when installed. There were no
installation instructions in my package, nor does the CD
include a "readme" file. However, the installation program
starts from autorun, and is straightforward and quick. With
a few clicks and a system re-boot, you're ready to back up
your hard drive to floppy disks or super disks, other hard
drives or networked drives, most removable disk drives,
including Zip, Jaz, Orb, SPARQ and magnetic optical (MO)
drives, as well as CDR and CDRW drives. Backup Plus backups
can be set up to span multiple disks, including CDs,
provided a CD packet-writing software like DirectCD
(Adaptec) is used. Backup Plus does not write to any type of
tape device, and because of current zip compression
limitations, has a 4 GB archive size limit.
The main screen layout is clean and intuitive. A backup
wizard is available to create basic backups in just three
steps. In doing this, Backup Plus creates a text file,
called a backup plus set (bps) file that contains all the
information needed to create the backup. Thus, this file
can also be used in a command line instruction or desktop
icon to launch the program and create the backup. Any number
of sets can be created and saved for repeated use. More
complex sets can be created from the toolbar buttons, or
menu items. Numerous archive settings, including full or
incremental backups and several data compression settings
are available and easily located and set. Individual
files, folders or wildcards can be included in, or excluded
from, any particular set. Backups can be timed for periods
as short as one hour and as long as 30 days. Each backup set
can have its own unique schedule and destination. There's
also a toolbar button to access the most commonly used
"favourites".
I tested Backup Plus on several desktop machines with Win95
and Win 98 and a laptop (all under Celeron 500) with SPARQ,
JAZ, ZIP and floppy drives and other hard drives. In all
cases it performed for me just as the developer claimed, in
fact, flawlessly, and was surprisingly fast. Unfortunately,
I did not have an opportunity to test the backup to CD
media, or with other versions of Windows (NT, 2K, ME). It
will take a little time to set up all of my backup sets, but
once established, backup will be routine. As a result, I am
convinced that this product will be the answer to my backup
problem.
Backup Plus is a product of Avantrix Inc. of Edmonton,
Alberta (see http://www.avantrix.com).
It lists for $39.95, but the company advises that user group discounts
are available. Further details will be available at the
November meeting.
Bottom Line:
Backup Plus
Proprietary Software ($39.95 for downloaded version)
Avantrix Inc.
http://www.avantrix.com
Originally published: November, 2000
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