best paid backup and recovery software

lol...... it's their super priority support

 

claykin,

We all have our own preferences for apps. I prefer the modularity of the TeraByte apps. One tool for one job. The IFW exe is only 1.5 MB. Just a bit too large to fit on a floppy so for automation you need scripts. TeraByte provide two backup scripts that are popular although I prefer to write my own. My favourite is restoring an OS image to my son's computer over the network without leaving my room. The image is stored on my computer. Sure, I could walk to his computer but it wouldn't be such a challenge.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-image-for-windows.htm#addon

(see Additional Items)

I love the way these apps can be customized but I'd expect most folks aren't interested and just want to manually create images. Infrequently.

By the way, you mentioned exposing your email credentials in a text file. What's so secret about an email address in a text file on your own computer? Just interested.

 

If you want to send email notifications you must include, in plain text in the script, your smtp server and any login credentials it may require. Most ISP's tie your SMTP auth to your login password so I just exposed my email password. Brilliant!

Best part is that this info is included in the log file emailed with every success/fail message. What if I want to send that success/fail message to a third party?

According to Dave @ Terabyte the only way to stop my credentials being visible is to disable logging all together in IFW. Seems like a lousy workaround.

 

I think I agree with you that most IFW users are the type that just want to create occasional images. However, I think many people shopping for an imaging app want to use it as a primary backup method to keep their drive partitions backed up in case of disk failure, etc...

I worked with the sample scripts and Dave @ Terabyte helped me out a bit. The end result was that I couldn't get passed choosing between no logging or exposing my SMTP server credentials or remote directory login credentials in plain text.

I still like IFW for what it can do in an efficient small package. Its just not all that useful to be deployed in my situations.

 

Thanks for the input. No one product will work for eveyone and in every scenario. I think most of us on here have - and use - more than one imaging app for a variety of reasons. Glad Dave helped you out, even if the end result wasn't positive.

 

Does that $90 fee for ShadowProtect cover lifetime updates? I see it says "1 year maintenance", but does that just mean tech support?

If it covers updating for life then it's an excellent investment, IMO. Imaging/backup is the only full proof solution against malware, other than reformatting your computer, which is a tedious process. I think it's one of two solutions without a doubt worth paying for, along with Sandboxie.

Right now I'm using EaseUS Todo Free. I couldn't tell you how it works, because I've never had to test the theory. In fact I've never used any such software, because ever since I learned about it and started taking security seriously, I haven't been infected. But that's why it's called a "backup plan". In the unlikely event that all this other wonderful free stuff fails, then it's a guaranteed solution to the problem.

 

claykin,

Maybe my setup is different but I don't need my password in the IFW script and IFW.log doesn't show a password. I wouldn't use it either if the password was in plain text. On the other hand, I wouldn't care if I didn't get an email notification as I check the backup folder anyway. Old habit.

 

Does your SMTP server require authentication?

Many do these days in an effort to fight spam relay.

 

No it doesn't. Well that explains my not needing a password.

Before TeraByte added email support I used Blat for a while but that required a visible password and I didn't like it.

 

I think Dave @ Terabyte recognized this is a serious security weakness. Maybe they'll fix it.

 

No, it doesn't. The way it works is that there are small updates, say from version 3.0.0 to version version 3.5.2 which were offered free, then with the major upgrade from 3.5.2 to 4.0.0 if it happened within the '1 year maintenance' one would get it free, otherwise I think one could upgrade by paying 40% of nominal price (from memory I'm not so sure).

I would expect free updates for version 4 and another major upgrade for version 5. In practice it is really not necessary to to upgrade from 3 to 4 once your current version works as expected, unless a new feature is required one can use it forever (I have 3.5.2 and 4.1.0, and 3.5.2 is faster on my computer than the upgrade).

 

Brian K

Now that I think about it again, I think the same issue with plain text passwords exists if using a script and you want to encrypt the image.

 

claykin,

I think you are correct.

I saw this in the IFW manual but it relates to networking.

 

Just wondering, any 3rd party backup program can integrate with Windows' Previous Versions (Shadow Copy)...?

Cheers.