Number 218 - July 2001

Four Backup Utilities
by Siles Bazerman, Orange County IBM PC UG, Jan 2001
Here's the scoop on hot new software utility releases!     I am an advocate of always having a good backup set available. Under Murphy's Law, if you have one you'll probably never need it, but on the one occasion when you don't have one you will definitely need to do a restore.     I have tried both to of PowerQuest's new releases, Partition Magic 6.0 and Drive Image 4.0. Both work as well as any of the past versions have. They drop back into DOS as necessary from Windows Me. The DOS they use, however, is PC DOS not MICROSOFT -DOS. Partition Magic also has additional functions that it never had which include the ability to call up ScanDisk.     They also both create boot disks for standalone operation and across networks. This feature can be very helpful in both setting up new systems and in cloning drives.     This month I want to take another look at backup programs. As those of you who have been the following this column know, I have a strong interest in good usable backup programs that will restore from a DOS boot. Under Windows Me, I have four programs that possibly will fill this bill. I am an advocate of always having a good backup set available. Under Murphy's Law, if you have one you'll probably never need it, but on the one occasion when you don't have one you will definitely need to do a restore. In the past, I have always used a tape backup system starting with Arcadia backup for DOS, then Seagate Backup Exec, and now in its latest form Veritas Backup Exec Desktop Pro. In fact, I purchased the upgrade in downloadable form just a couple of weeks ago. Along the way I have also tried Colorado Backup, Microsoft backup, and others.     The four programs are Veritas [Backup Exec Desktop Pro], [Power Quest] Drive Image, Norton Ghost 2001, and Adaptec Take Two. Only the Veritas program will work with my tape drive directly. They all will write to CDR or CD-RW without any intermediate steps. The reason I started to doing this test was my desire to eliminate the tape drive as my tapes were beginning to show the signs of age. Their [They're] expensive to replace as they are TR4 4gig native tapes. Also CD-RWs have gotten very cheap lately.     In my experience, and this applies only to my system with a 4x CD writer, it doesn't take much longer to backup to a CD them [than] to tape. However, tape has the advantage of completing a 5 gig backup unintended [unattended] while I sleep. The CDs have to be changed approximately every twenty minutes. Advantage tape.     When it comes to restoring an individual program or a file, tape runs sequentially. This means that a program will not be found until the entire previous recorded programs have been bypassed. This makes restoring a time-consuming process. A CD can randomly access programs and restoration is accomplished quickly. Advantage CD.	Take Two will not properly recognize my second hard drive properly, which I think has to do more with size than Windows Me. That eliminated it from consideration immediately. It may, however work for you, and is a good program if I had one drive. It does backup only entire drives or partitions, and can not restore from DOS.     Ghost is a backup program that will backup only full drives or partitions. It runs in DOS and uses its own boot disk. A reboot using this desk [disk] is mandatory. By using Ghost Explorer, individual files can be restored in Windows. You can also restore the entire partition from the DOS boot. This program was the more difficult to run of all of them, not being very intuitive. It does do an acceptable job of backup and restore though.     Drive Image will reboot itself into DOS mode from Windows and will return to Windows when it has finished. It backs up only full drives or partitions, and will restore these from a DOS boot using its recovery disks. You can restore individual files using Drive Image File Editor. This program does a very acceptable job of the backup and restore functions.     Backup Exec [Desktop Pro], for me, is the best program to [of] the four. As mentioned it will backup to tape, CD, or file. It runs in Windows, and can backup whole drives, partitions, individual files, changed files, or new files. It will restore in Windows or from its own rescue disks in DOS. I have used this feature many times to wipe my hard drive clean after running beta tests, and to restore the entire drive.     All the four programs do work, and all will span disks. They will need to work with floppies, but [do] you realize how many floppies are needed for 1 gig? Actually, we will probably see the total demise of floppy drives installed the [in] new computers in the not too distant future. Which one of these programs is more suitable for your use depends on the nature of your use, the time you want to devote to backups, and the equipment you already own.     No matter which program you choose, be sure to use it. A good backup program does no good if it's not used. My advice is to backup regularly and frequently, media is cheap compared to lost data costs. I backup about every 7 to 10 days, or prior to installing a beta program. I also backup prior to installing a program for testing.     All programs I recommend or discuss have been tried by me. You never hear about the ones that create problems or just don't work as advertised. They frequently create problems that are easier to solve by a format and restore, than by troubleshooting.     Siles Bazerman is Vice President of WINNERS computer group in Garden Grove, and member of ORCOPUG. You can write him at siles.bazerman@gte.net; or call, 714-897-2868 (after 9 a.m.).
Number 218 - July 2001