Product Reviews

Most of us forget about backing up our PC until the moment it crashes or a virus strikes. When everything appears lost, we remember - but by then it's too late. Will a copy of Orlogix Backup MyPC change all this?

Backup software can be rather dull, serious and utilitarian. Happily, Backup MyPC looks approachable and simple. You're presented with a list of options such as Backup Wizard, Restore Wizard and Automatic Data Protection. Even if you're very new to PCs, plain English controls such as these will be immediately understandable.

When we started a backup project the software won itself brownie points by recognising our test machine's built in DVD-RW drive and preparing itself to work with it.

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Unfortunately, the software didn't detect or work with our USB 2 external hard disk.

The next task is deciding what you'd like to create - just a backup of some important files and folders or of your complete system. Selecting just files or folders is an easy job which entails ticking a box.

For a complete backup of our Windows setup, we liked the Disaster Recovery Preparation option. This creates a set of CDs or DVDs and floppies from which you can restore your entire system if it crashes and everything is lost. Don't think this is a quick way of pirating Windows XP. During the backup process you'll need to enter your Windows XP product key and insert the operating system's original CD too.

Finally, for the really lazy, Backup MyPC has a one-touch backup option. Just click it from program's folder in the Start menu and a complete system backup will begin. Easy.

If we could have one wish, we'd add warnings telling the user how many CDs or DVDs their backup would require.

To illustrate the point a full backup of our test machine (around 6GB) would take two DVDs or about nine CDs. Knowing this in advance would make managing and planning big backups easier.

Orlogix Backup MyPC costs just over £20. It's very simple to use and makes backing up a doddle.