11 May 2010

Software: Backup and restore

I was recently on the lookout for decent backup and restore software which is - ideally - FREE for both commercial and personal use and allows simple scheduled backup jobs. The final determining factor amongst the host of options was the user-friendly interface: this backup software was to be used by relative IT-peons, so it needed to be user-friendly and functional rather than flashy and complicated.

After sifting through a few of the more appealing candidates, I have settled on a backup solution that seems to fit the bill as far as basic requirements go: it's free for all use, it's very user-friendly, and it can perform scheduled backups. It is designed on the four principles of WHERE, WHAT, HOW, WHEN - WHERE do you want to store the backup (destination), WHAT do you want to backup (source), HOW do you want to run the backup (FULL backup or MIRROR backup), WHEN do you want to run the backup (schedule or manual).

Welcome to the latest entry into my essential and useful software list, FBackup v4.4!

You can go to the homepage here. It is relatively basic but it does the job it sets out to do and is a great tool for people that aren't that comfortable with computers. I was very impressed from the get-go and hopefully I didn't relax too much as I delved deeper into the program, but from my first run it looks very user-friendly, so even grandma can use it! I haven't classified this as an ESSENTIAL tool at the time of posting this, but perhaps will revisit this later on if I find it does the job well enough to become part of the furniture...

The other candidates are as follows (and for the record I didn't experiment with all of them, since FBackup v4.4 was the second package I tested and I liked it enough to keep using it - I'll have to review the rest of these when I get some time):


No comments: