Personal Backup

There are two kinds of backups, full disk images or those that save folders. Personal backup takes care of the latter and makes the process much faster and easier than trying to do it manually.

A list of all the folders on the computer are shown on the right-hand side of the windows. Click on a folder and then on Add to Task to mark it for backup. Files of a certain type can be excluded from backups. This is a useful way of saving space in backups if you don't need to back up a ripped music collection. The existing CDs are a form of backup themselves.

Backups can be saved to another folder or to another computer on a network or the internet using FTP. It is possible to add placeholders for information such as date or time so later backups do not overwrite existing information. This could lead to the problem of running out of space on the target disk or computer but it is far better this way.

The files can be compressed as well as encrypted for storage and security. There is also the very important option to verify a backup; there is no security in having a backup if it is not an exact copy of the files on the computer.

Email confirmation of backups can be sent. This is helpful if the software is installed on a friend's computer, as the software can be set to make backups automatically, either at a particular time or when the computer is shut down (though backup on shut down isn't working on Vista at the moment).