Very Easy Backup Program

I was looking for an easy backup program for many of my clients who use either flash drives or external drives to backup their pictures or Documents. I have a client who is a doctor and is in the middle of changing his medical software. the software is easy to understand but what he has to backup is a bit difficult. In Program files/ginkco he has to back up the whole program files. I thought this was a bit off so I called the company and they confirmed the same. The problem like most folders- ie My documents is when there is a change you either have to delete the folder, or make another folder and call it for example- "Program files 2" or something like that because a manual backup doesn't update the change itself- the user has to do it and it is a royal pain in the butt. They recommended Second Copy (http://www.secondcopy.com)
So I downloaded the software to see how it works since they let you trial it for a month,

Well I was real impressed. I put it through tests you would not believe. and it will also backup across a network- I tested that too. and it can do incremental updated files like a breeze and even a dummy can figure it out. What it does is you make a profile for each Main Folder you want- like a "My Pictures" Profile and/or a "My document"
profile. You have the choice if your external hd is connected to do a daily, hourly, weekly or manual backup. I do a daily network backup to another computer and I do a manual update for an external HD. You can set as many profiles as needed and each profile is set separately from each other. I liked the program so well I actually bought it for myself. It sells for $29.95 and it is well worth it and as long as you use it for your own personal use you can put it on up to 3 computers.

after talking to the owner of the company he is giving me the opportunity to raffle off the program at my seminars. I only do this for programs I use myself and again I was so impressed by this one.

Try it out- it installs like a breeze. Once it installs set it up as a custom setup which gives you more flexibility
you can see some shots here too on how to use it
take the tour
http://www.secondcopy.com/secondcopy/tour/index.html

the only thing I ask is if you decide to purchase it if where it says "where did you hear about this program"
I would appreciate if you put R&D Internet Associates. At least he will know how appreciative I am of him. I do not make a cent from him- just so you know.

robin

robin

 

Many people here in the forums are very familiar with secondcopy, I've been using it for 2 years and has never let me down. Very reliable software.

 

also what i like about it- is that you do not have to have the program to restore the data because all it does is make an exact copy of your folders and the great thing about it is when you make a change to a document or add a picture, etc it knows the change and only adds the new change. This way you do not have to "install the program again" then put the backup on.

I do not like programs like this because you never know if it is going to work and it makes one file and if it doesn't go back right you are totally screwed. Oh and btw it works on both Vista and XP

robin

 

Have u tried drive snapshot or IFW

 

no only because i do not like clone or snaphot programs only because you could be the one (and believe me I have seen this with my own computers and clients) that it just doesn't go back correctly.- then what?

The most important part of your computer are your documents and data. If your computer dies and you have not backed them up you are lost.

You can always put back programs as long as you have the license or registration numbers and even if you did not you can always email the company and they can send it to you.

The free ones you can always download again.

As an IT person It has taken me maybe 6hours in total to put everything back on including service paks and security updates and driver updates

If your computer is less than 3yrs old you could probably call the company where you purchased it and they will walk you through putting back the OS, or you can call someone like me to put it all back for you.

The only disaster and you have to be pretty dumb if you did not get it when you purchased your computer is not to have a copy of the OS. If you do not have it- then you are basically screwed and will have to go out and purchase one.

Yes it is a bit time consuming but it is better than doing a clone of your computer, trying to put it back and it winds up failing or worse goes back and you find you are now getting blue screened all over because something did not install correctly.

Or worse- you had a virus or trojan on the system prior to cloning it and guess what? you now have it back once you put the clone back.

robin

 

Quite frankly, I completely understand your position; data is paramount, OS and programs can always be reinstalled, and images/restores can fail for any number of reasons. Well, I should have written that I **almost** understand.....

What I mean is that I simply cannot figure out why you wouldn't employ BOTH strategies (i.e., using a program like SecondCopy and imaging software). Sure, the restore can fail in which case you'd be forced to reinstall **but**, if the s/w works as intended, you've saved yourself (by your estimation) SIX HOURS of reinstalling. For example, I use ShadowProtect, full restores take roughly 5 minutes, and I have yet to have one fail, for any reason.

OTOH, I suppose if you have clients who will pay for your time (seriously, this is in no way mean-spirited or facetious), then time becomes less of an issue.

 

THere are many ultra reliable backup softwares available , whose failure rate is very very low.Yes u may keep second copy as the final alternative.Isnt the lack of compression really troublesome for you?

 

A problem with SecondCopy and all other 'real-time' backup programs is that they do not backup registry entries which are associated with an app. Just as an example, Internet Explorer's internet accounts and options are stored in the registry, so any such backup programs can not properly backup IE. But they are ok for backing up data, docs and multimedia files.

 

Hi Folks,

It is true that there is not "one size fits all". Some folks in corporate and enterprise and company notebook environments really need an image and/or cloning program. They describe what goes on in their company and clearly dozens of hours may be saved.

Similarly folks in test environments. (Often the Wilders-style techies will be in this group, and their testing is very helpful.) With their super-sandboxed virtual-box imaged puter, they may reinstall an image a day to keep the doc away !

Thus the image programs especially tend to be become techie favorites, and then recommended to those for whom their utility is dubious.

Remember, imaging can be virtually worthless in one of the most-common reinstall scenarios, home puter malware and infection. How far back to go ? When was the system fully, definitely clean ? Are you sure ? Really, really sure ? If you are so sure, how did you get into such difficulties . Maybe some of those false positives weren't so false.

Or they will have to go back to an early image state (shortly after OS install) -- to be safe -- and then you must augment it with a straight data backup, as from Second Copy, Backup4All, Genie, etc. So any gain was marginal and the procedure was two-stepped. And you may have lost some of the advantages of a clean OS reinstall.

The image programs can also be virtually worthless in the destroyed, lost, stolen or simply "updated computer hardware - new puter" scenarios. Since unless they are "Universal Restore" or "Adaptive Restore" or something similar, the images are hardware dependent. And how universal is universal ? Will you find out the difficulties later ?

One of my pet peeves with image program reviews is that the various restore difficulty scenarios are only lightly discussed. And yet in the forums we often read about the person for whom the image did not work. So what good is an image program if you end up with junque ? The worst security is a false sense of security.

Also the fallback "file-by-file" necessary utility backup alternative (in an image program), if it exists, is given a one-sentence description. If I use an image program as a primary backup I want to know clearly if I can use that image program the "other way" without much difficulty. I would like to test it and see if it has a Total Commander style dual-pane interface for restoring individual files and folders. If not, I want the image program to be only a secondary time-saver alternative, potential to use, but auxiliary to my file-by-file data backup. (I'm still a little flabbergasted that something as basic as System Restore can flummox an image save-restore, so you are so supposed to remember to have it off. Maybe a good idea anyway, but an example of what you are up against.)

So I tend to agree with Robin for the home and small business environment. You may have a crash or reinstall need every couple of years per puter ... in that context a fresh reinstall may often be the best way to go, even if you do have various images available. Use the difficulty to your own advantage to make the system almost "like new". Round up your serial #'s (one of the most important backups is whereever you PIM that stuff), now you will have the latest releases of the freeware programs, do not load a lot of problematic stuff, decide anew which is the best program in each category, and then have a system that runs clean and lean -- saving you hours in the months ahead. A good preparation is trying to have programs save important data and configs in your easy-find-folder structure rather than the normal XP method of burying here and there deep under Documents & Settings and Program Files. It is so cute when primary data files are put underneath hidden folders.

This puter I am writing on had an XP reinstall recently -- it was having an unusual boot problem, a loop-de-doop, and I did a final full file save using Free Commander (!) to the USB external disk with USDB4 if I remember. And now the puter is like new. (Yes, that was not a "custom-tailored" data save, simply the full directory structure, in a more perfect world I would have had daily custom-saves.) I was helped by the fact that Dell did a pretty good job in giving me XP CDs. With some systems (I think my PowerSpec goes this way) you are supposed to do the XP-CD burning. And there are generic utilities for that purpose. Granted there are often some driver issues, even with the best OS CDs, so backing up drivers to your custom-save area might save you time and hassle later.

Shalom,
Steven Avery