BACKUP2004 PRO
http://www.backup2004.com

What does it do?

Backup2004Pro is a backup utility that supports unlimited ZIP file size and can backup any folder to any destination (network LAN or removable media.) It comes with its own CD burner driver, can span archive files over multiple media, can schedule any job, offers a graphical backup map, catalog, log files, and it can email the user when the job is done. It provides multiple ways to restore and provides a predefined backup site for ease of usage.

Does it do what it promises?

Reviewer 1. Yes, it backs up computer files automatically whenever changes of a predetermined type are made.

Reviewer 2. Yes. The developers seem to be largely focused on a specific market - Backup Software. This is a good strategy, because you get the idea that they are committed to providing a good product that deals with an important need, and that they are not dissipating their energies in many directions. They offer support forums and discussion groups, and provide a place in their Help Menu for reports of problems you may be having. They also are looking for feedback and ideas from their clients so this a program-in-progress..

Reviewer 3. Yes.

Reviewer 4. Yes it does, with an easy-to-use interface, once past startup wrinkles.


Was it easy to install?

Reviewer 1. It installed easily on Windows XP, but would not install on Windows 98, though the Company's Website says it will. I got an error message stating Backup2004Pro version 3.0.1.64 is not executable on your system. System requirements ME/NT/2000/XP.

Reviewer 2. Yes. The installation was from a CD. It went smoothly, allowing me to place it in my own "default" location without a hitch.

Reviewer 3. Yes, very easy, no problems although it did require a reboot.

Reviewer 4. Yes, very straightforward. However, I found setting up the initial back-up noticeably harder than expected. A "Getting Started", or some hand-holding or detailed example through the initial back-up would have been very helpful.


Good points.

Reviewer 1. Once set up, it was pretty simple to have backups performed, and it has good compression.

Reviewer 2. There are numerous programs on the market for managing your backups. It is a critical task, and one that many people tend to postpone. Any software that is complicated to get going with will put people off doing a prosaic but essential chore. BackUp Pro is easy to set up and run. A "Quick" Wizard is available if you want to get up and running quickly, and a more detailed one can be used if you want to define more parameters. Both are very accessible, even to real beginners.. In addition to the usual features, (What, Where, How) you can choose the "Predefined" set of folders. This includes Email and Contacts, My Documents and Registry and Windows settings. I did run this. Unfortunately the "Email and Contacts" assumes that you are using Outlook. Since I don't, I couldn't use it, so I ran only the last two "Predefined's". To my surprise, it took a very long time. When it finally finished, I found out that it had copied almost everything Windows manages. For example, it copied my desktop containing a large number of folders that I have there with various program files (e.g. downloads), and shortcuts to program folders. It happily backed up gobs of things that do not need to done at all. So I deleted that Backup set, and started over making more careful choices. Since you can choose to make incremental backups after your first "big" one, the following backups will only take a few minutes or so. Other neat options include splitting your backup into smaller bites that can be stored on multiple media, send to a network or upload to FTP. Files are "Zipped" using standard Zip format, so you can recover files with any "unzipper" program. Since CD's and DVD's require special drivers, Backup Pro comes with its own burner driver that allows you to have access to those drives in the most efficient way possible. A few items in the Help Menu are worthy of note. I particularly like the "Common Errors" section. It really deals with Windows issues, rather than problems of the program itself. For example, it explains how to use an old Windows 98 computer to backup data from your newer Win XP or 2000 computer system.

Reviewer 3. I liked the ability to send the backup to an FTP or HTTP server, very useful for individual machines to be backed up to tape or offline from a server. Emailing the log file was also very nice to check the results, and allowed for verification even when I wasn't home.

Reviewer 4. Excellent user interface,well-designed and easy to use once past the start-up birth pains. The "Info" button on the main screen was especially helpful. Very good documentation, although entirely in the form of Help screens. However, unlike most programs of this style, one could at least print out whole sections at a time for off line study, and the description was comprehensive.


Weak points.

Reviewer 1. It was just a bit tricky for me to learn and master. Learning how to specify the directories to save and the method of backup was a little difficult, but was soon mastered. There is actually little to gripe about.

Reviewer 2. I have few complaints about this program. The only thing I have seen that is not self-evident is the Upgrade process. You access this from the Help Menu. The process I like the best is one very commonly used: a message appears on the screen saying, "You have the latest version installed." If you don't get that message, you usually arrive at a place which says, "Download your upgrade HERE ", and the download and/or install proceeds. However, this upgrade process simply takes you to the Website, displays your current version number and the option to "Download the Evaluation" file. Is this therefore an upgrade, or is it simply an Evaluation copy? The other question I would pose concerns price. I hesitate when a "niche" programme like this one goes above US $40, because this becomes $55 in my land. This one is $65, which brings my price to almost $100. But it is also true that good backup programs are not cheap, on the basis, I suppose, that the value of one's lost time without a reliable backup program and process in place far exceeds my Spartan attitude. Apart from these hesitations, I am pleased with the program.

Reviewer 3. A wizard or tutorial would have helped me get up and running a little faster. I could not draf a file from the various file dist displays to restore it.

Reviewer 4. Backup2004's failure to support tape as a backup medium effectively relegates it to the casual-user market, and casual-users are seldom, if ever, competent to know enough of the details of the Windows system to appreciate which of their system files would be required to recover. Backup2004 ran noticeably slower than I expected: it took 2hours 16minutes to back up and verify 4.9 GB of data going between two separate hard disk drives. When doing a Back Up Evaluation, one could not access the main screen for the program, nor even minimize it, which hobbled one's ability to use the computer and my evaluation run of a 4GB back up took over 20 minutes. The compression ratios experienced using PKZIPDeflate64 -- 11% for 0.6GB of (My Documents + Registry); 33% for 4.9GB of (predominantly programs + Registry); and 9% for 4.4GB of a potpourri of (programs & data + Registry) were less than expected based on my experience with prior back up programs. There is no stated upgrade pricing policy for the frequent updates shown on its Website: for instance, would the upgrade from the Evaluation Version (3.0.1.64 dated 23Feb04) to the Current Version (3.2.1.19 dated 19Apr04) - a period of time during which six versions have been released -- be free or charge and how much? Nor is there any duration-of-support stated. No "differential" backup capability is supported, as far as I could tell ( defined as an initial "full" back up beyond which all incremental file changes are composited such that they could be applied all at once to the last "full" back up to recover the current level.


Other comments.

Reviewer 1. Once I got familiar with the program, it was a relatively simple matter to set it up to backup files I use and modify often. It can easily be set up for full or incremental backups.

Reviewer 2. This is a solidly designed program that carries out its intended objective easily and efficiently. The layout is standard Windows Explorer style. You can look inside any backed-up folder without having to extract or restore it. The incremental backups that run are added to the first full backup folders where they belong without disturbing any other unchanged files and folders. The log file created by each backup tells you in detail what has been done. Overall, I think that it deserves the accolades it has been given, and have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone looking for a reliable and professional backup program.

Reviewer 3. The software offered many different ways to view the backed-up data. I especially liked the backup map view. It would have been nice to include the ability to use the removable storage capabilities of 2000/XP/2003 as a destination. There seemed to be problems right-clicking while on the filelist of the archive file view; it took a double right-click to bring up a context menu.

Reviewer 4. Overall I'm left with a good impression of this program, primarily because of its good user Interface & documentation, which is somewhat surprising, considering how much it underachieved in the areas of speed and compression ratios. However, the latter are where the rubber meets the road, and they will sink it for any serious user, as will its failure to support tape. I don't understand the rationale behind having a maximum retention time of only one month. Use of the term "Archive File" instead of "Backup File" I found confusing. The term "archive" in the computing world traditionally has the connotation of a file that is put away for historical purposes and for a much longer duration than a back-up tape. In the Evaluation tile, "Compression rate" should be "Compression ratio". "Unique Archive File" terminology is also contorted, perhaps "Single" or "Repetitive"? "Writable CD" is cited as "CD-R" and "CD-RW"; is "CD+R" and "CD+RW" supported? Eudora was supported as a Predefined-Job in #1Backup on the Website; I believe Eudora support in Backup2000 would be a valuable plus for many users. I'm unfamiliar with "Bzip", which was "highly recommended" for multimedia files. What is it? Is it supported by PKZIP and/or WinZIP? and what expectations could one expect for it with respect to compression and performance degradation?


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1. Yes.

Reviewer 2. Yes

Reviewer 3. Yes.

Reviewer 4. No, except in niche situations. It's failure to support tape is a killer for me.

Backup2004 responded: Our upgrade policy's goal is to keep Backup2004 Pro alive, so we improve it permanently. As soon as a library used in this program isupdated by the author, we provide a new version so that the latest technologies are embedded. As soon as a minor bug is reported, we fix it and publish a new version. We include new functions regularly from users' or reviewers' suggestions). Our next version includes a wizard to build simplified backup set (for beginners) and a link to a flash Quick start demo (like the one includes in Backup2004 Voyager). For the next six months we plan to add an Audit function to check what isbacked up and what is forgotten and an Outlook agent to save the pst database even if Outlook is in use. The electronic version is absolutely free of charge for every registered user. Backup2004 can be used with Windows 98/ME since version 3.1.1.67. We do have a problem with some Windows 98/ME installations. A panel with a Windows XP aspect generated a well-known blue screen as soon as the program was launched. This has been fixed It is true that Backup2004 Pro does not support tape drives. The reason is simple : ZIP files can be built only on random access medium. As for differential backups,: in the Backup2004 Pro ancestor, Backup2001 Pro, we had a differential backup option, but users were confused with Incremental and Differential. So we have removed the option. Backup2004 Pro allows advanced users to build a differential backup since a differential backup is nothing but an Incremental backup with no file attributes reset (Keep archive flag in Backup Options).

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