Backup Software Review

I recently went on the search for backup software, and it was not a pretty sight.  I ended up making a list of what was important to me. 

This was my wish list:

• will copy hidden files – I have no idea where these are or what they do, but I know they are needed and want them copied, too.
• will do a mirror backup/copy – For my file backup, I really want to be able to take that external hard drive backup and plug it in anywhere at anytime and be back in business with all my files. I also want to be able to update just the files that have changed…including any deletions I made from the primary hard drive.  I want all changes reflected on my backup copy.  I also want something that will quickly backup just last changes I made.
• system backup – I’m not really savvy here and really just want to be able to take a new hard drive and be able to restore my system to it.
• outlook backup
• bookmarks backup
• ftp capabilities (in a perfect world with enough server space, it would be nice to have off-site backup capabilites)
• not compresses option (I worry about compressing images, so I wanted the option to not compress)
• open or locked files (just in case I need to be working while it is backing up, I want it to be able to rise to the occassion.)
• verify backup – I want to know it backed up with good copies
• won’t lock up after x number of files (not sure what this meant, but I sure didn’t want mine locking up…I knew enough to know the words “locking up” were not good.)

I narrowed my search down to 3 programs.

Acronis

Genie

PC Backup Pro

I have to admit that was quite overwhelming.

Acronis

Acronis I did not do a lot of research on because, honestly, I felt it was a bit over my head.  When it talked about backing up your system and began talking about partitions, my eyes just glazed over.  I do wish some of these places would realize that most of us are not computer geeks. So that kind of eliminated them from the beginning.  I will say, though, that other users much more qualified than myself obviously thought this was the best system backup program out there.  Many used this just for this purpose and purchased another software program for their file backups.

Genie

Genie had a lot of potential, but it became ludicrous the more I talked with tech support.  It went something like this:

Me:  (several wasted CDs later) It won’t let me make a boot disk.

Genie:  We need to see the screen.

Me: (wasting yet another disk) Here it is.

Genie: It seems the sonic engine for the CD/DVD burning is conflicting with the firmware you have. GBM v9, which is scheduled to be released in Q3 of this year will have a completely different a burning engine. I have arranged that you receive a free upgrade once it is released, and have went ahead and put you in my calendar to follow up with you.

Me:  Ok.  I can deal with that.

Me.  I can’t complete my mirror backup.

Genie: It should work fine.

Me:  It doesn’t.

Genie: Show us.

Genie:  Please also make sure you have the latest OFB build 4.1.0 from PreferencesàOFB

You may download it from the link below: http://www.genie-soft.com/download/download.html

Me: (twenty-some hours later) Here it is.

Genie:  After investigating the log file it does show that this is a memory management issue due to the fact that you’re trying to backup a huge amount of file count.  Please try splitting the job and let know what happens.

Please also try the following:

From GBMs tools menu -> global preferences -> General -> temporary files folder -> please make sure to use a specific location which is an internal drive formatted using NTFS file format with the most free space.

Try the split backup jobs under this option and tell us what happens.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions; we are here to help.

Me:  The only problem with this is that target drive will no longer be an exact mirror as the directories are setup on my source drive.  Each backup creates its own folder, so I will end up having my “mirror backup” divinded into several directories with having to navigate several folders down.  That would be extremely cumbersome and difficult to navigate.  This is not an adequate solution to the problem.

The fact that it only gets to less than 200GB before it gets the error makes the mirror feature not very useable as a “mirror” backup at all.

Example if what a mirror backup should look like:
my-backup
GRename
MF
actual backup files begin here

So if this method just runs backups separately, my target drive will look like this:
my-backup
GRename
MF
actual backup files begin here (for 1st backup)
my-backup
GRename
MF
actual backup files begin here (for 2nd backup via post job command)
my-backup
GRename
MF
actual backup files begin here (for 3rd backup via post job command)

Is there another way to work around this so that my source hard drive will be an exact mirror on my target drive with the directories and folders being setup in the exact same way?

Genie: Unfortunately, if splitting the backup is the only way to solve the memory management issue, there will be no way to have the exact mirror of the drive and the same folder structure; but when restoring you will be able to restore your data to the exact folder structure they were.

You can use this option as a workaround until we release GBM v9.0 which has the solution for all of this problems.

Genie:  I’m confused. One it is really hard to buy a product on a future update…which I will have to pay additional for, plus I downloaded the special open file backup program (which I was told to do by tech support), which I am just seeing is apparently not included in this program?????? What is up with that? You are advertising it as being able to copy open files but then telling me I need to download this…which costs extra?????? Are you guys serious? This is getting ridiculous.

My Genie experience:  As you can see I corresponded with them and worked on these various issues over a couple of weeks.  By the end, I was really quite frustrated.  They did seem to be offering a free upgrade…once the magical v.9 was released, but I really did not understand the additional Open File Backup Program that I needed to buy when it was advertised as being able to do that.
PC Backup Pro

This program has major potential, but I will be honest.  I do feel they dropped the ball on their copy backup.  I backed up my hard drive and was feeling pretty good that 10 hours later I was safe should something happen to my primary hard drive.  However, this is where I had problems, I ran the job again with settings to override only older files, and the program still took forever.  I really do not want to take 10 hours every day when I am only backing up files that have changed.

Their customer support did not seem professional.  I did get a relatively quick response (couple of hours) on a weekday night, but “ctrl alt del” is not my idea of a solution to end a print job.  I e-mailed them back Saturday only to be met with a “mailbox is full” error message.

This software honestly does confuse me.  It seems to have a mind of its own.  I would attempt to run one backup, and something completely different would be running, and don’t even get me started on trying to stop it once it has started.  You can press stop until the cows come home, and it keeps going.  The only way to actually stop this program is to Ctrl-Alt-Del and figure out the file names in applications.  Totally ridiculous if you ask me.

That being said, I did purchase this program and will use it to backup my C drive.  That is all I want or have enough knowledge to operate…something that will just backup my c drive (hidden files and all).  Also, I really do not get the reason behind partitioning the C drive.  I’m not sure if it is to keep me from accidentally deleting something or what.  This program just seemed to back up a hard drive which is all I wanted to do.

General notes:

Could not find anyone that did not offer phone support without paying an additional charge.

Summary:

I purchased PC Backup Pro (for system backup) and am still up in the air with what to do for a file backup program.  Honestly, I think it is ridiculous how complicated it is.  It seems everyone just wants to sell you their program but have really not put enough thought into making it work. I will keep you guys posted should Genie step up to the plate and make this work the way it is supposed to or should I find something else.  Trust me, if I find something that works the way it is supposed to, I will be shouting it from the rooftop.