Never seen a genie like this before? Top Windows Tutorials reviews Genie Timeline version 2

Last updated September 8th, 2010

The market for Windows backup software is a very competitive one. No sooner had we reviewed Genie Timeline version 1 in our file backup software review, than Genie themselves contacted us to let us know that their new improved Genie Timeline 2 was now available. It seemed only fair that we take a look at Genie Timeline 2 and compare it to Oops Backup. Timeline 2 is a vastly improved product, but will it be able to eclipse its rival this time around?

After a quick and painless installation process, Genie Timeline was installed on our test machine, a Quad Core workstation running a clean installation of Windows 7. When Genie Timeline starts, a professional looking interface appears allowing the user to select exactly which types of file to protect in their backup. The software supports several categories, including music, e-mail, iTunes files and even operating system files (but more on that later). It's also possible to manually specify files and folders on your computer to include in the backup.

For my first wish...Genie Timeline includes a wide range of plugins to make backup easier

After choosing the relevant folders and attaching and choosing a backup disk or network location, it's time to start backing up. Just as in our last article, we benchmarked Genie Timeline against Oops Backup. The first test we ran was on a modest 1 gigabyte of data in the users documents folder. The table below shows how long this operation took:-

Genie Timeline will automatically slow down the backup if you use your PC during the process, in order to keep your system responsive. For the benchmark we forced it into the faster "turbo" mode. While Timeline took longer than Oops, the speed improvement over the first version is obvious. It is also worth remembering that Genie Timeline uses compression on its backups in order to save space. Oops Backup does not appear to compress backups at all. Like Oops backup, Genie Timeline also includes technology that ensures only the changed parts of files are stored to maximise on disk space. As of build 2.1.6.321, compression can easily be disabled to maximise backup speed. However, compression (and encryption) can only be configured when setting up the initial backup, they cannot be disabled or enabled later without starting a new backup.

Backup programs are of no use if they cannot efficiently and accurately recover data from a backup set. For our next test, we took a file hash (fingerprint) of each file in the documents folder before deleting them all. We then restored them using our backup packages. The table below shows how long this operation took:-

Again, Oops manages to trump Genie Timeline for speed, but again we should point out that Genie Timeline is using compression. When recovered, all files passed their CRC check, meaning that, beyond reasonable doubt, the files recovered were identical to the ones that were originally backed up.

In Genie Timeline there are two ways to recover files from your backup, Timline mode and Advanced mode. Timeline mode works like Windows Explorer, but with an adjustable timeline at the top of the window. This can be dragged to different points in time to explore the contents of your folders in the past. Frustratingly, you cannot see at a glance the dates and times of the points on the timeline. Another curious feature of the Timeline mode is that it is impossible to recover more than one file at once. Select two or more files to recover, for example, and the option to recover them is simply ghosted out. Recovering folders is also not possible from Timeline view. Oops Backup suffers from a similar problem, allowing the user to recover either individual files or a whole folder at once, but bizarrely not allowing for the user to select several files from a folder.

By using the Advanced restore mode in Genie, you can specify exactly which files and folders to recover. This is more flexible than Oops Backup and could be a real time saver in some instances.

While both packages are easy to use, we still can't help wishing that more could be done with the restoration modules on both packages. Tools like the excellent Winmerge can compare the contents of files and folders, showing the user exactly which files have changed. A facility to compare two backup points and highlight which files had been added, removed or changed between two dates would be extremely useful. Hopefully this kind of feature will appear in future versions of the programs.

Sometimes our backup stopped at 99%, we're not sure why

When disaster strikes

Programs like Genie Timeline and Oops Backup are normally focused on protecting users data, rather than the operating system. With Timeline 2, Genie have included a disaster recovery module that protects the entire operating system, including the master boot record. To use this part of the program, disaster recovery mode must be enabled. Doing this adds to the size of the backup considerably, as the contents of the Windows system directory and the program files folders are added to the backup. With this option enabled, it is possible to create a bootable USB device or CD-ROM (third party CD recording software may be needed) and then boot from this CD and restore operating system files from within the Timeline backup.

We tested this mode on our Windows 7 machine and although the operation took over two hours we were successfully able to roll back Windows to the state it was in the previous day. Windows booted just fine afterwards. If this tool could be expanded so that it was possible to compare the state of your machine at two different points in time, it could become a very powerful tool for IT pro's. As it stands the disaster recovery mode is still a worthwhile addition that adds value to the package.

For our next round of testing, we moved to the venerable Windows XP operating system. This time, we selected a wide range of files from a few kilobytes to 4 gigabytes in size. The total size of the data was 11.9GB. Again, we tested each backup program in turn and recorded the times:-

Another slower speed for Genie Timeline, but the resulting backup folder was 10.3GB in size. Compare that to Oops backup which needed 11.9GB on the backup drive.

Finally, we restored the files from the backup. Again, a CRC (fingerprint) check was done on the files before and after the restoration.

We're sorry to say Genie Timeline slipped up in this test, failing to restore our largest, 4 gigabyte file from the backup. Even after multiple tries, Timeline refused to recover this file. Important - Genie Software have contacted us to let us know that the bug regarding large files not being correctly backed up is now fixed. We downloaded the latest version of Genie Timeline and tested it with the same file as before. We are happy to report that the bug does appear to be fixed, our 4GB file backed up, restored and verified correctly with no problems or errors.

Features at a glance

For quick reference, here is a table showing the major features of each package at a glance:-

Feature	Genie Timeline	Oops Backup
Block level backup	Yes	Yes
Compression	Yes	No
Disaster Recovery	Yes	No
Encryption	Yes (AES - Pro version only)	No
Plugins	Yes (many)	No

Conclusion (updated on 8th September 2010 due to new Genie Timeline 2 version)

Genie Timeline 2 is a vastly improved product. Genie software have clearly worked hard to improve the products speed and the addition of disaster recovery into the package does add to its value. Although the compression and encryption options make for a slower back up, many users will welcome these features and they can be disabled if not needed. In light of the new build which fixes the bugs we found and makes compression optional, we can now wholeheartedly recommend Genie Timeline. In fact, we would have to conclude that it steals the crown for best Windows time machine backup package. Congratulations to the developers at Genie Software on continually polishing their product until it gave us all the functionality we could wish for and more!

Genie Timeline is available in three versions. The professional version, as reviewed here, costs $59.95. The home version lacks the encryption option and several other advanced options for managing backups but is available at a reduced price of $39.95. There is also a completely free version with basic backup functionality available too. For more information or to purchase a copy, visit this link.

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