backup

Boring tabs and an altogether clutter interface are what you'll be greeted with when you use this backup tool. After we got our hands on it, we found it second best to other cheaper, and even a few free, backup programs.

GRBackPro uses tabs to organize its features. But within each tab, we found numerous buttons that lacked any flow. It was hard to know what to do first or where to go next. We tried to create a new job, which we were able to name, and select a destination folder. Once we clicked the Backup button, the … Read more

Automating backups for your most important files and folders doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming thanks to this comprehensive program. We found it once of the best backup programs we've seen.

Automatic Backup Pro uses a step-by-step guide that walks you through the process of backing up your files. As soon as we clicked the Add Profile button, we were asked to select a profile type for backup (files and folders, My Documents, Outlook Express, etc.), select a destination folder, and finally, configure the scheduling. We were able to completely customize our own backup schedule, choosing to … Read more

For all the bells and whistles you get with this backup program, we were shocked to find that it's free. Cobian Backup not only looks good, but it proved to be a very reliable and easy to use backup tool.

The user interface is straightforward, and the colorful command buttons are extremely intuitive. Creating a new backup task was easy, despite all of the configuration options. Basically, all we had to do was create a name, decide what files and folders to include, and create a schedule for the backup. We opted to save important files to our USB, … Read more

Don't be fooled by this simple backup program's simple appearance. It successfully backed up our files and folders and managed to throw in a few extras.

DFIncBackup Home has a very intuitive and straightforward user interface. The helpful wizard will especially appeal to users who are new to backup programs. Experienced users will appreciate the scheduling and password-protection features. The Edit menu was a little cluttered, but we were able to edit all of the backup configurations we had set while using the wizard with little effort. The Configurations menu let us check for free disk space on … Read more

Back-In-Time is a helper app for Time Machine that gives you more detailed access into--and more options for manipulating--backed-up data.

While Time Machine has an elegant built-in interface, it can be limiting for users who want more control and flexibility. Back-In-Time offers an interface similar to Time Machine's, but in an easy-to-browse, two-pane view that lets you access data from multiple Macs, get Quick Look previews (including comprehensive version history, date, and size info), and even drag and drop to recover individual files and folders. You can also compare two versions of the same file, with a graphical view … Read more

Instead of backing up to an internal or external device, this program backs up important files and folders to an online storage facility. But thanks to a trial limitation and a painfully long backup process, we were left unimpressed by its performance.

Allmydata requires that you create an account to access your backed up files online. The user interface is plain, but pretty self-explanatory. A tree menu lets you check off the folders you wish to include in the backup process. For our tests, we selected to back up our Documents files. Using the Status tab we were able to … Read more

Thanks to this free program's simple approach to backing up files, novice users will find it to be an exceptional tool for protecting their files.

Once activated, AutoVer can be accessed from a taskbar icon. Its user interface has very straightforward commands for adding and deleting files you want to watch and backup when needed. Adding new files was as easy as creating and naming a new file, adding the folder you want to backup, and then choosing the backup location. Our selected folder was immediately created and saved to our location of choice. More advanced settings let you … Read more

Seagate's new Replica drives are designed to do one thing and do it simply: back up your entire Windows PC. They literally make a replica of your system, operating system and all.

The Replica comes in two configurations. The entry-level $130 Replica (250GB) is geared to single PC backup, while the $200 version (500GB) comes with a dock and is capable of backing up multiple PCs.

We have the multi-PC model in our labs now and we're putting it through its paces. There isn't much to test because all the Replica does is make a copy of … Read more

TimeMachineEditor is a free, simple application that lets you change the default setting for your Mac's Time Machine hourly backups.

TimeMachineEditor lets you set a new hourly interval, or even specify multiple calendar intervals for hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly backups--whether you want daily backups at 2 a.m., weekly backups at a certain time every weekend, or any other possible combination. You can also set Time Machine to automatically back up when disks are mounted or when the computer wakes from sleep.

Time Machine's default setting may be adequate for most users, but for certain situations--for example, … Read more