The Best Backup Software

The Best Backup Software Faulty hard drive. File error. The virus hit. The notebook is dropped or stolen. And sometimes you just want to view a previous version of a file you are working on. If you want to keep, not lost, photos, music, videos, documents, letters, and e-mail, then you need a backup program. You have many options for this.

The backup program files and directories created local copies on local drives or media, disk imaging software to create a snapshot of the entire drive, and the online backup service automatically downloads your data to ensure store off-site. In fact, you may want to use a combination of these. Inthis roundup, we presented two local backup software selection backup files and folders, and utilitiesto create the disk image. As for the third option, read the Disaster-Proof your data with online backup.

The backup application files and folders gathered here protects only the files and folders that you specify, and usually give you the option to preserve one or more of the older version each time itoverflowed the newest files are updated. If you speak with the backup program to keep multiple versions of MyNovel.doc or MySecretDiary.txt, you will be able to take yesterday's version if youdecide you don't like the current version. With these programs, it is a good idea to backup your entire document, image, Music, and videos folder and all subfolders. On this, you can add any other foldersthat you find valuable.

A program to create a drive image, by contrast, make a full backup of your entire hard drive or of one or more partitions. This backup is a "picture" of the entire drive. When you want to restore a file anyimage file from a backup, you use the file recovery function in the program the drive image to pluckan old version of a file from the image and copy it to your hard drive. Since your image including file systems as well, if your system ever becomes unusable, you just run the program the drive fromemergency boot CD, and restore entire drives from an image that you stored on a removable disk ornetwork storage unit. If you need a new hard drive, you need only install the blank disks, then restoreyour entire system from the backup image to the new drive. Obviously, a drive image programrequires more space to backup, because even a compressed image takes up almost as much space asthe drive you over.

How the backup Apps

The backup program files and folders work best gently in the background, create a backup copy ofyour file or on a regular schedule or whenever a new version of a file is saved to disk. The application can back up all the files to a different folder on the same hard disk drive that contains the original fileor, for the more secure (in case your hard drive crashes), on a USB drive or a network location. Somecan save to CD or DVD or even to remote FTP sites. Some may automatically attempt to backup filesto ZIP archives, and some can save the encrypted backup to other users on your network will not be able to read your files.

All the program file and Folder Backup lets you select any folder or a set of folders as a backupsource. I particularly like the program but also for I choose to add the built-in backup strategy easy to backup my Windows desktop, or all Outlook Express or Windows Mail accounts and messages, or Internet Explorer my favorites. Genie Backup Manager Pro can merge the backup Windows Mailmessages into my existing mail archive. It also comes with plug-ins can backup and restore all yoursettings for popular application programs.

Below are links to the latest reviews in our space to backup files and directories. It is not a complete list of all the applications in space, but it does not represent the big players. As always, click on thelink to read the full review.