Backup software for Windows

February 24, 2008 11:25 PM

What's good, easy-to-use, backup software for Windows?

I'm setting up some basic IT functionality for a local accountant: hosted mail, wireless network, backups -- it is this latter which concerns us here. His main machine is a Windows XP laptop which he takes home most nights, so I'm advising him to get a couple external USB hard disks to hook up to his docking stations, one at work and one at home, so he has offsite backups. But what software? He knows his way around his computer pretty well, but is not all that technical. So I'm looking for something automatic that doesn't need a lot of maintenance and is very easy to restore files from.

The software that comes with Maxtor OneTouch drives would be perfect if it didn't have those stupid restrictions on what folders it can back up. However, encryption is a definite necessity since he does deal with sensitive financial data. I use Acronis True Image myself but find it is somewhat complex and probably not the best choice for his level of expertise. Also, I use Retrospect on my Macs and definitely would not submit anyone non-technical to its UI. It's okay if it costs money but it should ideally not be too expensive. Ideas?

posted by kindall to computers & internet (15 comments total)

Backup4All is the most intuitive backup software I've used. It's not free, but does have a trial.
posted by null terminated at 11:30 PM on February 24, 2008

SyncBack SE. King of small backup apps, for novices and admins alike.
posted by Jairus at 11:31 PM on February 24, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Ntbackup program that comes with XP Pro should be adequate for this task.
posted by grouse at 11:47 PM on February 24, 2008

2nd SyncBack SE. I use it every day to back up my flash drive and documents and it works like a charm. Easy to set up too.
posted by katrielalex at 12:54 AM on February 25, 2008

Seconding Backup4All. Cheap, has responsive technical support, easy to drive, inbuilt DVD burner, backups can be made to Zip/Zip64 format files that can span multiple DVD's and that lots of other software products can read, can back up open files using Volume Shadow Copy Service. Personally I find it easier to use than SyncBack.

Zip files can be password protected, and this offers some degree of encryption, but it's not very strong. Better if you're backing up to external hard disks is to format them with NTFS, turn on NTFS encryption, and let Windows handle it. NTFS encryption is strong.

Make sure if you do it this way that you create a password reset disk for the Windows user account that the backups will be running from, since you will lose access to all encrypted data if you reset that user's password by administrative force without one.

I think it would also pay you to consider using Jungle Disk as your "external hard drive", and see if the backup stuff they supply suits your needs.
posted by flabdablet at 1:42 AM on February 25, 2008

I use xcopy.
posted by caddis at 5:49 AM on February 25, 2008

I use Acronis True Image. I think my version is 9, but it's up to 11. You back up either entire partitions or selected files to compressed, password protected (never used this feature) single files. You can usually mount these archive files later in-OS, navigate around via a tree view and restore files piece by piece. It's fire and forget in backup-mode. Start or schedule a backup. As long as the target device has enough space, the backup proceeds, pretty quickly, in the background, and also backs up "locked" files (i.e. files currently in use).

It also can generate a rescue disk, which is a dedicated LiveCD (bootable CD) that runs the software from the CD, so if you have a complete hard drive failure, you can still restore from backup via a USB drive. I'm pretty sure my version just generated an ISO I had to later burn to CD, though.

I have done full disk restores with no trouble with True Image, using the LiveCD rescue disk, as well as item-level restores, mounting the backup file in OS (Windows XP). It's quite satisfying.

The only thing I wish it did was full fidelity copies like SuperDuper for the Mac. With SuperDuper, you can actually boot from the backup drive to check it out (my sweetie has an Apple Powerbook and uses this with an external USB drive). Obviously you'd lose out on some of the security/compression there but it strikes me as being worth the cost.
posted by kalessin at 6:04 AM on February 25, 2008

Only problem with xcopy is plugging in various USB drives can change USB's x:\, and I reckon a neophyte screwing with command line scripts will create more problems that it'll solve.

I would also suggest the builtin NTbackup program (hooray free). It's fairly easy to use GUI and it does work. For added security, you can teach him to use truecrypt on the USB drive.
posted by jmd82 at 6:10 AM on February 25, 2008

I'd concur with Kalessin-- Acronis is by far the best backup solution I've ever used. I use the server edition at work, and recommend the home edition to anyone's computer that needs a backup solution.

Create a secure zone on a disk, set it to make differential backups (so you can recover files from X days ago, rather then just the last backup time) and let it do it's thing.

Simply great program.
posted by Static Vagabond at 6:36 AM on February 25, 2008

I bought Acronis TrueImage for Vista because I wanted to use it to back up the "system state". I never figured out how to make it do that; it always hung part way through the process. (I have the latest version, V11.)

Not recommended.
posted by Class Goat at 9:01 AM on February 25, 2008

3rding SyncBack SE. Very configurable, easy to use, reliable and free. I have mine configured to make nightly backups of My Documents and email to my external USB drive. Saved my ass a few months ago when my 3 month old hard drive died.
posted by geeky at 9:32 AM on February 25, 2008

Another vote for SyncBack SE. Been using it for a while, and the ease of use / complexity of options make it a winner. Once you have it set up; you don't need to worry about it (besides verifying your backups).

You can even have it set up to automatically sync when you plug in a USB Hard Drive. That option was really nice when I set it up for my relatively PC inexperienced inlaws to backup their pictures.
posted by aurigus at 10:11 AM on February 25, 2008

Another vote for Acronis True Image - very reliable for me on XP.
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 4:39 AM on February 26, 2008

Drive Image XML has a lot of the features of Acronis True Image (a great program as well) but lacks the cost. Get it free at runtime.org
posted by ijoyner at 10:38 AM on February 26, 2008

Thanks, I wasn't familiar with SyncBack or Backup4All, so I'll try those out and see which seems simpler for restoring files (which is what he'll be using it for 99% of the time). I do like SyncBack's ability to back up automatically when it sees a particular drive. As I said, I use True Image myself on my PCs, but I do not consider it all that user-friendly.
posted by kindall at 3:57 PM on February 27, 2008