15-Minute Reviews :: Backup Expert v1.1.0.103 (Quick)
Hello all and welcome to today’s 15-Minute Review! Today’s review is on Backup Expert version 1.1.0.103 by AQUATRA, Inc. – An application to aid you in backing up your data.
Software Description
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Stop taking chances with your important data. Back up your documents and settings easily and securely with Backup Expert and protect yourself against accidental data loss and hardware failures.
Backup Expert replaces a whole lot of separate tools. You’ll never have to hunt searching where your email accounts are stored, you won’t need a separate data compression tool, and you won’t need stand-alone CD/DVD burning software to make your backups.”
Quick Pros
- Easy-to-use wizard for setting up backup tasks
- Built-in burning functionality as well as LAN and FTP backup
- Compression, encryption and incremental backups (And all work together)
- File splitting to work with media and OS limitations
- Capability to make a shortcut to desktop to trigger backup functionality
- Memory usage shrinks to under 2MB while in task tray
- Application does have inclusion/exclusion rules
Quick Cons
- No secure FTP support
- No differential backup functionality
- Windows would not allow me to see files inside of Zip or decompress
- Does concern me so many companies are selling someone else’s code
Quick Expansion
I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail with this title due to the fact that this is a clone of Document Backup which I previously reviewed. ( Click here to read previous review ). I can not find any specific difference between this title and Document Backup besides the graphic on the wizard pages and the About page. The in-application icons and application icon are even the same. If you look here you can see the similarities.
From my previous review, I did mention at first there was no inclusion/exclusion rules, and someone corrected me saying there was inclusion/exclusion rules (See Jay’s Post ) and he is correct; They can be found on the Backup set tab of the wizard, under File-specific settings… button. They provide the ability for multiple Inclusion only and Exclude masks, as well as the ability to enable/disable the inclusion of read-only, hidden and system files as well.
I did have an issue with today’s backup testing however. When I attempted to open the zipfile of my test backup in Windows Explorer, the zipfile came up empty, not showing anything in it at all. When I attempted to right-click and choose ‘Extract All…’, Windows gives me a Windows Security Warning: Windows has blocked access to these files to help protect your computer.’, which I have not yet seen before. I pulled out jZip to try to open the file, and it did, showing me the backup. However, when I tried to remove the files, I got an error that it could not extract to the path. I reviewed the path, and the path contained the drive letter as well, which isn’t well supported in many applications. Finally, I could extract the files in the jZip using Extract button and specifying the specific path (Which bypasses using the built-in path) and finally could extract. I don’t think the drive letter should be included, and could likely be the reason Windows Explorer tosses a fuss as well. I do not believe I had the same issue with Document Backup, so I’m not sure where the issue arose.
While in some cases, the reselling/licensing of code may be a great way to extend business; However, in the case of an application such as this one in which a bug could corrupt a backup, it makes me uneasy. There’s a lot of questions that pop in my head that make me concerned about the quality of the product.
Final Verdict
While I did recommend Document Backup, I am leery to recommend this title, even though it appears identical to Document Backup. The reason being that the zipfile may be awkward to extract, and really shouldn’t. If you’re restoring from a backup, the last thing you want to do is to go digging, seeing which application will extract your backup and which method works. I am concerned with this tool (a somewhat critical application) being tied in somehow to being resold, rebranded, being the parent to the other application or otherwise as well.
Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, October 09, 2007
