Product Reviews

The fact that the majority of the latest PCs and workstations are now being supplied with unfeasibly large storage devices makes data backup all the more important. A hard disk or system failure can easily wipe out a huge amount of data. Home workers in particular may not even be aware of the amount of data they have squirreled away and its value to them. Unfortunately, these same users will often avoid backing up their data, as many see it as complicated, tedious or expensive. Backup doesn't have to be any of these things and Backup MyPC shows just how easy it can be.

Designed specifically for single PCs or small peer-to-peer networks, Backup MyPC has a fine heritage, as it was originally Backup Exec for Desktops until Orlogix acquired it from Veritas last year. It comes with a wealth of Wizards to simplify backup and restore operations, and now includes some excellent disaster recovery tools. It supports a huge range of IDE and SCSI tape drives, but you're not limited to these alone, because Backup MyPC can also use the majority of removable storage devices including CD-R/RW, MO (magneto optical) and Iomega Jaz and Zip drives. A full list of supported devices is available on the Orlogix Web site.

Backup MyPC aims to make the whole data protection process as painless as possible, so you'll find installation only takes a few seconds, after which it immediately offers to create a full backup schedule. You can opt to run a backup of all files once a week, add daily jobs in between that only copy new and changed files, and decide on the time you want it to run. Once you've selected your backup device, the software manages the entire process.

Backup and restore jobs can be run on demand using a simple one-button option. For backup, just select the output device and the job will immediately start a copy of all files. Restoring files is actually a three-button exercise, as you pick your backup device and select the files you want returned to active duty. Backup MyPC maintains a full catalogue, so it knows precisely what's stored on each tape.

If you want to create your own jobs, you'll find the main interface is a tidy affair, with all available drives and directories listed in the left-hand pane

ADVERTISEMENT

for easy selection. This includes a Network view, so you can browse through the contents of other systems using network shares and add their data to the backup job. The main disadvantages of this feature are that backup performance will be determined by the speed of the network, and the Registry or System State of remote systems can't be secured. The pane opposite shows the contents of a selected device or directory, so you can pick out individual files. All backup devices are shown below, and you can choose from a wide range of options for controlling your backup jobs.

To save space, Backup MyPC can compress data as it's being written to the backup device and will automatically switch to hardware compression if it spots a device that supports this feature. Sensitive data can be protected by applying password protection to the backup set, specific file types can be excluded and you can customise the levels of job reporting details.

To test Backup MyPC, the software was installed on a dual Pentium II/400 system with 256Mb of RAM and running Windows 2000 Professional. The hard disk subsystem was controlled by an Adaptec Ultra2 SCSI chipset, and I used Tandberg Data SLR7 (see Reviews, issue 88, p229) and HP SureStore DAT40e tape drives, with both connected to a dedicated Adaptec 2940U2W Ultra2 SCSI PCI adaptor card.

Backing up a mixture of data types from the test system returned transfer rates of 137Mbytes/min and 146Mbytes/min for the SLR7 and DAT40e drives respectively. Restoring individual files from each device proved to be a simple affair, but overall performance during testing indicated that the tape drives were showing a drop in speed of around 20 per cent over what we know they're capable of from the tape drive group test (see enterprise, issue 90, p181).

Creating a disaster recovery set for the test system was a lengthy process, as six floppy disks are required for Windows 2000 Professional, along with the original installation CD-ROM, product key and designated backup device. To simulate a hard disk failure, we removed the original drive and replaced it with a fresh one. The recovery process is fully automated and, once the server had been booted from the first four floppies, a minimal Windows installation was followed by a restoration from the recovery tape. Suffice to say that the test system was returned to fully operational status within 90 minutes, using the SLR7 drive.

Backup MyPC shows clearly that backup doesn't have to be a chore, as it offers a simple interface and can easily automate the entire process. The disaster recovery tools could prove invaluable, and you can also pick from a wide range of supported devices to suit your budget. At £51, it represents good value. If you can't afford to lose your data, you can certainly afford this software.