Free Backup Solution

One of the darnest things about computers is that you can't really trust them. As advanced as technology today is, hardware failures still happen, sometimes taking with them important files and data with low chances of recovery. There is little you can do to work against this malevolent happening (and most times, there is absolutely nothing to prevent the disaster) but at least some preventing actions can be taken in order to ensure the retrieval of the lost data.

Backing up your most important files is a simple task that can be performed manually by simply copying the desired information to a safe location (external hard disks would be my first recommendation) or automatically, with the use of specialized software.

GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition could be one way to make copies of important data easily and without hassle. The application has a strong background to rely on as it is actually Neobyte Solution's Titan Backup, a good application for the matter at hand. But the difference is that GFI makes available the data backup answer free for home use. Other than that, everything is pretty much the same.

Once installed and launched, the application will take a second or two to load all of its components, but after this is done, a pretty looking interface with sections well defined awaits. The four divisions let you create a new backup and restore files, view all of your tasks, and synchronize data between two locations. You are given clues for all of them and the explanations are more than comprehensive.

Regardless of the section you choose, if you proceed with an action sooner or later, you'll hit a wizard that guides you through a successful job. This way, even a total noob will work his/her way successfully without too much hassle.

The backup jobs GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition has been designed for include files, folders, registry keys, emails, or user settings for different pieces of software, basically almost all one would need. As for flexibility, the app allows you to store the backup locally, in a LAN location, removable storage devices, send it to a remote location via FTP or burn it to a CD/DVD.

Each operation in GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition is saved as a task that can be run multiple times (manually or automatically, according to a schedule you set). For backing up data, a five-step wizard will walk you through the entire process, from choosing the data and where you want it to be stored, to defining the frequency of the task.

The starting screen lets you name the task, provide a brief description, enable email notification in case of errors, warnings or summaries, and pick the group you want to place it in. If creating different groups can be done straight from this window, providing the necessary details for email notifications is to be done from the Options screen of the application.

Moving onward to the source of the backup, you will find the possibility to save both files and folders, but emails (Windows Mail, Opera, Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Eudora and Microsoft Outlook are the clients supported for which you can save accounts, settings, etc.), registry keys and the settings for various other applications you may use.

For the last, there is a list of over 40 programs available covering different utilities (Total Commander, PuTTY, WinSCP, WinRAR, WinZip, etc.), web browsers, instant messengers, graphics and web design apps, text editors, audio and video players. Besides the fact that all of them are popular programs, so the chances for you to use them are greater, the beauty of this list consists in the fact that the software not present on the system is grayed out. To put it shortly, GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition detects the installed apps.

As mentioned above, the destination location of the resulting backup can be any path on the system (removable devices such as USB sticks and memory cards included), a LAN folder, or you can upload them to a remote location via FTP. The credentials for FTP uploading can be inputted from this window directly, but management of multiple locations can be properly done from the Options panel of the software. To ensure that all's right, GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition lets you test the connection first and then save it for future uploads.

Compression and Encryption step of the wizard deals with making the backup file as small as possible, as well as protect it against any unauthorized access. It uses ZIP compression, password protection and AES 256-bit encryption. As for the type of backup, GFI Backup supports both incremental (saves only the changed files) and differential (the backup does not include the files that are no longer present in the source) jobs. But it also features Stack Backup, which will create different versions of the file, with the possibility to automatically preserve only a user-defined number.

Completely automatizing a backup task is also possible with GFI Backup, as the flexible scheduler permits planning a task with a certain frequency or at a specific time. If the backup time is missed, you can enable rescheduling the task.

The final step before actually proceeding to creating the backup is the notification section. Here you can enable visual, audio and email sending notifications for errors (halts executions), warnings (does not stop execution) and summary (after task completion). There is also the possibility to enable the verification of the job or running different software before/after the task.

My Tasks window shows all the jobs you create (backup and synchronization) and permits adjusting the settings as you see fit. From this window, you can start a new backup/synchronization/restore job. Moreover, encrypted archives can be decrypted, erase RW CDs/DVDs, duplicate tasks, access the logs, or import tasks.

Restoration procedure may be a reverse backup operation, but the truth is that there are much less settings to deal with. It consists only in choosing whether you want to restore an entire backup or just individual files and folders from it. The advanced view in My Tasks screen permits browsing through all the folders of the selected task and choose the elements you want to yank out. Needless to say, the data can be placed either in the original location or any other place you want on the local hard disk.

Synchronizing two folders is not much different from backing up data. There are six steps of the wizard now, but only three of them are a bit unfamiliar. The first two are for the locations involved in the process where the second is almost exactly the same as the destination screen for backup. The details for the first location permit choosing whether to retain the folder structure or not (it all depends on the number of sub-folders involved).

Under Options, GFI Backup provides two comparison modes (by date only and by date and CRC), as well as the automatic actions to be taken for conflict resolution (prompt and wait for user input, prompt for 5 minutes or no prompt at all) and the default action for conflict window (copy the newest/oldest file or the one from first/second location).

GFI Backup is a complete solution for home use, to create backups of all your important documents, pictures, emails, settings and more. The easy-to-manage interface combined with the wizard to guide you through and the configuration options make it suited for beginners and advanced users alike, as you are given the chance to choose individual files or folders, as well as file types, registry keys and application settings.

The backups can be stored safely thanks to the proprietary format and, for better security, they can be encrypted using the AES 256-bit standard. Scheduling leads to automatic task running that can be checked with the use of the logs.

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