Labs

BullGuard Backup 8.0 is one of only two products in this test that can back up either to a local disk or online. You can buy it as a standalone product, or as part of BullGuard's suite of security and anti-virus software.

A setup wizard makes it easy to select documents, music and pictures for backup, and there's support for common email clients. The advanced mode lets you build one or more custom backup sets and select the

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files and folders they contain. Each can be associated with a local or online backup drive, but not both. You can also back up to optical media.

BullGuard can back up your data on demand, according to a schedule or while your PC is idle. It displays the files yet to be uploaded, along with a per-file and overall progress bar, but there's no ETA. Backups were a little slow, and the software backed up modified files in their entirety, rather than just the changed portion, resulting in a 78MB differential backup.

We had first-hand experience of BullGuard's 24-hour support after a minor glitch during our tests. Using the built-in remote desktop feature, BullGuard's support staff were able to diagnose and fix the problem. It's an excellent feature, particularly if you're new to backups.

Although there's no throttle and the restore won't return files to their original location, BullGuard Backup 8.0 is well designed and easy to use. It's good value, too, making it our Best Buy for less technical users.