How to choose the right Windows backup software to suit your budget and requirements

In this article we will be investigating Windows backup software. In our previous two articles, we discussed what files you need to backup and where to back them up to. Now, we'll take a look at how you can start backing your files up. As with selecting backup media, there are dozens of choices and choosing the correct one depends largely on your needs and budget. Let's explore a few of the advantages and disadvantages of some of the options.

Copy the files yourself, using Windows Explorer

Yes, there is plenty of Windows backup software around that can help you backup your files and folders and backup software even comes bundled with Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, if you have only a small amount of important files, this option may be worth considering. Basically, if you take this approach to backup, you simply copy your important files by hand, using Windows explorer, to another location, such as a second hard drive or a recordable CD/DVD. This is the least secure of all the options but sadly is the route most users take, if they bother to make backup copies at all.

Disadvantages:- Relies on the user to remember to periodically copy the data. The user must remember which copy of the data is the most recent and this can quickly become difficult to manage for modest sized file collections. Human error can easily result in a file being omitted or incorrectly backed up.

Use an automatic file synchronization tool

This is a similar approach to using a third-party backup tool but this option may be more desirable for some users. Installing a tool like this can automatically synchronise files in one location with files stored in another. Perhaps you regularly take your work to school or the office on a USB stick drive. Using a utility like this, you can automatically synchronise your work between your home computer, your USB stick and your network area at school or the office.

Free applications like Toucan can automatically synchronise and encrypt your data.

Advantages:- Backup is handled automatically after initial configuration, making this a good solution for those on the move. Many good quality free file synchronization tools exist.

Disadvantages:- May not be an adequate solution for large amounts of data. Some of the more advanced file synchronization tools have a steep learning curve. May require software to be installed on computer(s) at your place of work, which may be in violation of your workplaces IT policy (it is worth discussing this with your IT department, however).

Use the Windows backup software provided with Windows XP or Vista

Both Windows Vista and Windows XP ship with backup utilities of their own. Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions even include a whole drive backup utility. The backup utilities provide a reasonable range of options and being included with the operating system, require no additional investment to use.

Windows backup software comes bundled free with Vista and XP, but it might not be up to the job.

Advantages:- Enables automatic backup of files, folders and even whole drives ( Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions only). Suitable for large amounts of data. Requires no additional investment if you already own a copy of the operating system.

Disadvantages:- The Windows backup software bundled with Windows does not have all the advanced options available in third party backup software packages. Both the XP and Vista backup utilities have been poorly received by critics.

Use third-party Windows backup software

There are many third party backup packages available for Windows and the highly competitive nature of the business means that the features they include are very powerful. Three of the best applications we have tested ourselves are Acronis True Image, Genie-Soft Genie Backup Manager Pro and Nero BackItUp. We'll take a brief look at those products shorty.

Commercial backup software like Nero's excellent BackItUp provide the best overall backup performance, but at a price.

Advantages:- The most comprehensive backup solutions available. These packages contain advanced features to protect your system and your data that are not available anywhere else.

Disadvantages:- The best third party Windows backup software packages are not free. Some advanced features can be difficult to use.

Now we'll take a brief look at three of the best third party backup packages.

Acronis True Image 11

Acronis True Image 11 home edition has just been released. The software includes an impressive array of features including "try and decide", which can roll back changes to your PC much more effectively than the system restore functionality in Windows. We also liked the addition of a suite of PC privacy tools including a file shredder and disk wiper, along with the standard backup encryption options. Acronis True Image also has by far the most powerful whole-drive backup utility and even allows you to access a drive backup as if it was an actual drive attached to your computer.

Acronis True Image is one of the best Windows backup software packages available anywhere.

We were a little disappointed that there was no option to backup to tape drives. Although this product is clearly aimed at home users who rarely have access to tape backup devices, it's feature set is powerful enough for it to be useful for small businesses (tape backup is available in Acronis corporate products). Other than that minor omission it is difficult to fault this excellent backup solution. True Image costs 49.95 Euros, $49.99 US Dollars or £39.95 GBP. For more information visit the Acronis home page.

Genie Backup Manager

Genie-Soft's excellent Backup Manager lacks the powerful disk imaging features of True Image. However, the package includes an excellent plug-in system that allows the software to easily backup settings and other information from popular Windows programs, saving you time and effort if you have to reinstall them for any reason. We were also impressed by the excellent video help tutorials (you're putting us out of a job guys!) and the software's support for a wide range of backup media. This includes tape drives and an on-line backup service that the company runs themselves. All backups can also be protected with strong backup encryption.

Genie Backup Manager can cater for a wide variety of backup jobs and supports more types of media than the other packages we tested.

Although the software lacks the powerful disk imaging/whole-drive backup features of True Image, if you don't need to make an exact copy of your hard drive for any reason (and most people do not) Genie Backup Manager may be the better choice for you. This is especially true if you are considering on-line or tape backup solutions. Genie Backup Manager costs 39.95 Euros, for more information visit the Genie-Soft homepage.

Nero BackItUp

Nero BackItUp 3 is part of the Nero 8 Ultra Edition suite of applications. This includes all sorts of powerful applications to make the most of your CD or DVD recorder. This full featured Windows backup software package is excellent value for money and BackItUp 3 would be a worthwhile purchase on its own. Although BackItUp is built around Nero's excellent CD/DVD recording software, it is more than capable of backing up to hard drives too (tape drives and on-line backups are not directly supported). The software can back up whole disks or just your important files or folders. As with the other two packages, it is also possible to create an emergency boot CD so that windows can be restored from a backup should your operating system fail to boot. Backup encryption is also included as standard.

Nero BackItUp 3 has the best support for CD, DVD or Blu-ray based backups.

While BackItUp can make an image of a whole hard disk, it lacks the advanced whole-drive backup options of True Image. It also lacks the ability to backup directly to tape or on-line as Genie Backup Manager boasts. It can however, backup directly to Blu-ray recordable disks (where compatible hardware is installed). BackItUp even boasts a feature that supposedly detects when a re-recordable DVD or Blu-ray disk is about to wear out. If you are looking for the best suite of applications for your CD or DVD burner, look no further than the Nero 8 Ultra Edition and Nero BackItUp's powerful backup features can easily safeguard your data. Nero BackItUp is available only as part of the Nero 8 suite and this costs $79.99 US Dollars or 59.99 Euros. For more information, visit the Nero Homepage.

That is all for our introductory guide to Windows backup software and it is also the last part of our Windows backup guide. We hope this guide has been useful to you and has inspired you to take action if you were one of the many users who never got around to backing up their data. Over the coming months we will be preparing tutorials for our favourite Windows backup software packages and helping you to implement your backup strategy.

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