Product Reviews

DataBarracks' BuddyBackup aims to take the labour out of file backup by archiving all your important files on your friends' computers automatically. They in turn can keep copies of their files on your computer. Files are encrypted and compressed, so your friends can't take a peek at your financial records, and they take up less space than the original versions. The integrity of this type of backup is dependent on whether your friends will be online when you need them, so you have to choose people you trust even if they can't see your files.

A user-defined backup allowance lets you keep control

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of how much disk space to use and how much space to allow your friends on your system. Multiple copies of each file can be saved on different computers and you can choose to exclude certain files or file types from the backup routine. This makes it easier to focus your online storage on essential files and keep more bulky file types such as photo, music and video files for a more suitable medium such as CD or DVD.

BuddyBackup requires little intervention after the initial setup. Once you have designated which files or folders to watch, it runs in the background, archiving and sending files automatically when any changes are made. This is great for comprehensive backup, but it does mean you can end up with multiple versions of the same file eating up your backup space. Once the client is installed on a clean computer, file retrieval is automatic with your username and password, assuming your friends are online.

BuddyBackup is not as sophisticated as LogMeIn Backup (reviewed in What's New, Shopper September 2006) and it has a few niggles, but it works fine. If you want to have more than three buddies or back up more than 5GB, get the full version; it's still a bargain.