15-Minute Reviews :: Titan Backup v2.0.0.22

Today’s 15-Minute Review is on Titan Backup version 2.0.0.22 by NeoByte Solutions – An application to aid in the backing up of your data.

Titan Backup was previously reviewed at version 1.2.0.4

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Titan Backup is an easy-to-use solution, designed for secure backups of your important data. It can make automatic backups of your important files and documents, virtually on any type of storage media including CD/DVD-RW, removable devices, network drives and remote FTP servers. A well designed user interface and a flexible scheduler makes it easy to organize the automatic backups. ZIP compression allows you to save the disk space. Using 256-bit AES strong encryption will ensure full security of your confidential data.”

Quick Pros

• Wizard-style interface eases you into setup of backup tasks
• Inclusion/exclusion masks handy for shrinking backups
• Ability to backup registry, various email clients and common applications’ settings a plus
• Network, CD/DVD and FTP backups handy
• Built-in scheduler is decent
• Syncing functionality as well within this application
• Backup fairly quick as well
• No longer a 4GB file limit

Quick Cons

• Have to pre-build inclusion/exclusion masks
• FTP support does not offer secure transfer
• Could use an incremental system with the stack backups

Expansion

NeoByte has decided with this major version to stick with their setup that works, and make some significant improvements to their current system over previous versions – Most notably, the use of the ZIP64 engine to break the 4GB barrier. Visually, the application runs and acts just like version 1.2.0.4 – Simple, wizard-like layout with everything explained to you so you know what you are doing. Upon the first launch of the application, you are greeted by a launch window – Here, you can choose from setting up a backup task or a synchronization task; viewing your tasks or restoring from a previous backup. The backup task and synchronization task takes you through setting up your backup task altogether, including source (Which backup tasks can do more than just raw file backups), destination, options, scheduler and events. The task manager is also very intuitive, laying out all your tasks in a grid layout with a series of buttons around the table for manipulation of those tasks or adding new ones.

There are a lot of handy features to this application which makes this application quite powerful. While they require to be pre-built (In Options) before you create a task and still a bit awkward to link, there is the capability to include or exclude certain file types by mask; This is a great feature for a lot of different professions such as programmers, where you could leave specific files out of your backups (such as compile-time files) to save on backup space.

The capability to back up not only file-by-file basis, but also the settings and files pertaining to a good list of email clients and other applications is also good; This could grow further to support more applications, but it is a good start. With this, there is also the ability to backup part or all of the registry, covering most bases with the install. While this application does not replace a drive-mirror application, its ability to backup your drive can be a saving point.

Besides local backups, this application can backup to local network shares (Including password-protected shares), removable devices such as thumb drive, CD/DVDs and FTP. This is great for doing off-site or off-computer backups; This is critical – There is no point in backing up locally if you’re trying to thwart a drive crash issue. While FTP support is here, there is still no secure FTP support, meaning that your FTP password as well as your data is being transmitted without encryption; The best recommendation if you plan on using the FTP support, is to enable AES encryption, especially if you have any doubt about the security of your entire connection to the FTP site or a concern about data being intercepted.

As mentioned above, the compression system has been changed over to ZIP64 format, allowing for almost limitless zipfile size (As long as you’re backing up on a file system that supports the larger files). You still can split your files for placing on smaller media. Something also added is the zip compression slider. This allows you to dictate how much compression will be used on the archiving process – Boils down to a balance between speed and size. During testing, even on high the application was able to back up at a good speed, but during a larger backup, that slider could play a major role on time. Also updated is the capability to use incremental and differential backups with ZIP files of all styles, which means you are no longer punished for wanting to save backup time. The one feature that should be incorporated is the capability to still use stack backups (backup the items, leaving the old files on for versioning), and incremental backups. It would make most sense for stacking if you are only versioning changed files for space issues.

The scheduler is not the most powerful I’ve seen, but for most people it will do almost everything you’ll ever want. If you aren’t satisfied with the built-in scheduler, you do have the choice of using the ‘Create Desktop Shortcut’ (or simply running the backup task file found in your Titan Backup/Tasks folder) and then using a different scheduler to run the backup/sync task. This desktop shortcut could also be useful for a web developer too, though may not be as powerful as other tools.

As mentioned above, testing went well – The change in the zip engine has not changed performance of the application and is still a respectable speed for backing up. The ability to control your compression is very handy, especially if you’re doing larger and potentially time-consuming backups.

Final Verdict

This application is definitely making improvements in the right direction. With the 4GB limit removed on compressed files and the improvements brought with that, as well as the improvements to incremental and differential backups, makes this more of a serious contender to the backup community and places it quite high. There is still some improvements that can be made, including secure FTP and more options for backup types, but movement in the right direction is being made. If you are in need of a backup solution (or if you have a version from a previous review), I would strongly urge you to download this while it is free. As for paying $39.95 for this application, the improvements are just stellar and the fact that it is offering some large features for a small price. In reality, it comes down to finding out if your data is worth $39.95 – This application does a great job for its great price.

To see what has changed between 1.2 and 2.0, check out NeoByte’s listing here.

Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, March 06, 2008