There is one thing that most Linux backup tools have in common and that is their underlying technologies. In most cases one of the tools that make the GUI backup tools possible is the venerable rsync. Rsync is an incredibly fast and lightweight file copy tool that can not only copy files to and from a local machine, it can also copy over a network connection – which makes rsync an ideal candidate for user-generated backup scripts or cron jobs.

In this tutorial you will learn how easy it is to use rysnc to not only back up specified directories to an external usb drive, but also to backup over a network connection via ssh.

Command structure

The structure of the rsync command is:

rsync [OPTIONS] SOURCE DESTINATION

Where SOURCE is the location of the directory to be backed up and DESTINATION is where the backup will be placed.

Now the structure of the command changes when you are employing a network facility such as ssh. At that point the command structure would look like:

rsync [OPTIONS] ssh SOURCE user@destination:/directory

Where user is the user name on the remote machine, destination would be either an IP address or domain, and /directory is the explicit path to the directory you want to back up to.

Usage

For the first example we are going to backup the directory /home/jlwallen/Documents to the directory /media/disk/BACKUPS. This destination is a directory located on an external USB drive obviously mounted to /media/disk. The command for this backup will be:

rsync -avh /home/jlwallen/Documents /media/disk/BACKUPS

This is where we run into our first “gotcha”. What happens with the above command is that any subdirectory in /home/jlwallen/Documents will be created on /media/disk/BACKUPS. So if you want to create a similar directory structure on the destination you should first create a parent directory similar to that of the source. So before you run the rsync command issue this command:

mkdir /media/disk/BACKUPS/Documents

The new rsync command would be:

rsync -avh /home/jlwallen/Documents /media/disk/BACKUPS/Documents

The options used in the above command are:

• a: Archive mode
• v: Verbose mode
• h: Output in human readable format.

Now let’s backup the same source to a remote location with the help of secure shell. It will help your cause to first make sure you can log into the remove machine via ssh. Once you have that working you are ready to backup. Using our same example we are going to backup to user jlwallen at the IP address 192.168.1.10 to the directory /home/jlwallen/BACKUPS/Documents. To do this the command would look like:

rsync -avhe ssh /home/jlwallen/Documents jlwallen@192.168.1.10:/home/jlwallen/BACKUPS/Documents

The added option is e which allows you to specify the remote shell to use.

You will be prompted for the remote users’ password and then the coping will begin. But what if you don’t want to have to use a password? If you are wanting to set up automated, remote backups you will have to allow this process to happen without entering a password. To do this you have to create an SSH key without a password. Here are the steps for this:

create an ssh key on the source machine with the command:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

Press enter when prompted for a password.

Once the key is created copy that key to the destination key with the following command:

ssh-copy-id -i .ssh/id_dsa.pub username@destination

Where username is the user on the remote machine and destination is the IP or domain of the remote machine.

Now rsync copying can be done without having to enter a password.

Final thoughts

The nice thing about this setup is you can now use rsync to create a cron job for backup automation. Rsync is an incredibly flexible and reliable means for backing up your directories and files. It should be since it is the foundation that so many other backup tools were based on.

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Backerupper not only does a good job of simple backups, it also adds an icon to the GNOME notification area for quick access. And with Backerupper offers enough features to satisfy the users who demand ease of use, as well as those who want a feature-rich tool.

Features

Speaking of features, Backerupper has them:

• Simple configuration.
• Simple installation.
• Profiles.
• Restore.
• Automated backups.
• Limit amount of backup copies stored.
• Quick access from notification area.
• Portable (run Backerupper from your thumb drive).

Now let’s get into the thick of things and install Backerupper.

Installation

Installing Backerupper is simple. You will not find this tool in your repositories so you’re going to have to download it from the

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/backerupper/backerupper/Backerupper-0.24/backerupper-0.24-32.tar.gz

The above command will download the latest (as of this writing) version of Backerupper. Now you need to unpack the tar file with the command (issued from within the directory you downloaded the file):

tar xvzf backerupper-0.24-32.tar.gz

This will create a new directory called backerupper-0.24-32. Change into that directory with the command cd backerupper-0.24-32 and you will find five files and one directory. If you want to install Backerupper issue the following command:

sudo ./install.sh

If you are not on a sudo-based distribution you will want to su to the root user and then issue the command ./install.sh. The install.sh file will copy the file backer to /usr/bin and will create the directory /usr/share/backerupper and then copy the doc directory to the newly created directory.

Once installed all you have to do is issue the command backer as a standard user.

Now if you want to have a portable Backerupper you can  just copy the backer file to your mounted thumb drive. When you run the backer command from your thumb drive you will get a warning that the online help system can not be found and the help system has been disabled. You will see this every time you run the command.

Usage

Figure 1

Now let’s see how Backerupper is used. When you issue the command backer the main window will appear (see Figure 1). As you can see there are no profiles created by default. In order to create a profile you need to click the New button. When you click this button a window will appear (see Figure 2) asking for the details of this profile. The details should be fairly obvious. You can create a profile for every backup you want to create. This window is also where you set up the

Figure 2

automation of the backup. You can also configure a destination directory as the default backup destination.

By default Backerupper will set your backup to happen every day. You might want to change this depending upon the frequency you require for your backup.

After you have created your profile that profile will appear in the Profiles drop down on the main page (see Figure 3).

Even though you have a backup setup for a specific time, you can automatically run that backup by selecting the profile you want to use from the drop down and then clicking the Backup Now button.

It should be pretty obvious that, in order for a backup to occur, Backerupper must be running. If you are one that logs out of your desktop, or shuts off your laptop, you have to remember to start up Backerupper. I would suggest adding Backerupper to your list of startup applications. To do this go to the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu and select Startup Applications. From this new window, click the Add button and fill out the necessary information. Once you have that done, Backerupper will start upon login and your backups will happen.

Restore

Figure 3

The restore process is very simple. Click on the Restore tab in the Backerupper main window (see Figure 3) and follow these steps:

1. Select the profile you want to restore.
2. If you have more than one archive of this directory click the Select Archive button and select which archive you want to restore.
3. Click the Restore button.

That’s it.

Final thoughts

Backerupper is one of the easiest (and fastest) desktop backup solutions I have found. And its portability makes it an even better solution for flexible Linux desktop backup.

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Flyback is based on rsync and creates successive backup directories mirroring the files you set up to back up. In order to save space, Flyback hardlinks any unchanged files to previous backups. With Flyback you can backup to either a networked drive (so long as it is mapped), a usb drive, a thumb drive, or a directory within the file system. One thing you want to certainly avoid is backing up to a directory that is also being backed up. In other words, if you are backing up /home/jlwallen you would not want to back up to /home/jlwallen/BACKUP. Instead you would want to back up to something like /BACKUP. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s first learn to install and use Flyback.

Installation

Installing Flyback is fairly simple. You will not find Flyback in any of your repositories, nor can you add repositories so that Fly can be installed with apt-get or any GUI tool. You can, however, install all of the dependencies with apt-get. To do this open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install python python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-sqlite python-gconf rsync

You might find that apt-get will return that everything is already up to date. If so, you’re ready to go. If not, let the installation process happen and then you’ll be ready to go.

After you have issued the above command you can then download the Flyback file with the command:

wget http://flyback.googlecode.com/files/flyback_0.4.0.tar.gz

Now unpack the tar file (from within the directory the file was downloaded) with the command:

tar xvzf flyback_0.4.0.tar gz

which will create a new directory flyback. The next step is to change into the newly created directory and start up the application.

Starting and using Flyback

In order to start the application you will issue the command (from within the flyback directory):

python flyback.py

Figure 1

When the main window opens (see Figure 1) it might seem like a number of directories and/or files are already marked for backup. This is not the case. You have to actually add the files/directories from with the Preferences window. So the first thing you will want to do is click on the Edit menu and select Preferences. From within the Preferences window (see Figur 2) you will need to take care of a few tasks. The first task (and you might get a warning about this) is to configure the backup location. This is fairly

Figure 2

straightforward – just click on the Storage Location tab and then click the drop down to select  your backup location. After you have configured this click on the Include/Exclude Directories tab. From within that tab you select the directories you want to include in your backup from the drop down and then click the Add button. In order to delete  a directory from the backup you simply right click the directory from the “Included dirs” pane and select Delete.

Once you have all of your directories set up, you can then create exclude patterns. Fortunately the application includes a great Help file on creating exclude patterns. To get to this file click on the Help button just above the OK button. This will give you all the information you need on creating excluding patterns.

Figure 3

After you have your directories set up, you can either click OK and then click the Backup button on the main window, or you can set up a scheduled backup from within the Backup Schedule tab (see Figure 3).

In order to set this up as an automatic backup click the “automatically” check box and then set up the time you want to run the backup.

From this same window you can configure Flyback to delete backups when space is need or when a backup is older than a defined time period.

One thing to note. If you are setting up a regular, automatic backup, you need to make sure the location you are backing up to will be available. For instance, if you backup to a thumb drive, that thumb drive best be inserted when the backup is set to run.

Final thoughts

That’s it. A very simple backup solution that is somewhat flexible, but very user-friendly. Although not the most advanced solution, but a solution that should meet most of your desktop backup needs.

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The most important parameters are the source and destination directory for the backup. Filters are available to include or exclude specific file types and even complete subdirectories from the backup. These filters can be set for each folder individually which gives the user a lot of control over the files and folders that will be backed up.

File versioning and monitoring are two options that are available in advanced tasks only. File versioning can be configured to keep x versions of a backed up file before it gets deleted while file monitoring will monitor create, delete and change events and initiate backups whenever an event occurs. The default mode is set to realtime backups which can be changed in the program’s options. Another interesting feature of Yadis! Backup is the ability to memorize backup jobs if the destination folder is not available at that point in time. The backup will then be performed once the destination folder for that backup becomes available again.

Yadis! Backup is a free backup software for the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website. No compatibility information are provided. It was tested successfully on a Windows XP SP3 computer system.

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The developer’s of Lifestream Backup have developed their service for that reason. Lifestream Backup is a solution to backup data that is stored at various popular online services. The list of supported services reads like the who is who of the most popular online services:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Basecamp
• Gmail
• Google Docs
• Delicious
• FriendFeed
• Flickr
• Photobucket
• Zoho Writer
• Wordpress

Youtube and Blogger will soon be added to that portfolio raising the supported online services to 13. The principle is simple. All that user’s need to do is to authorize the Lifestream Backup service. This is either done by authorizing them directly at a service or by providing the username and password to that service. Lifestream Backup will start to backup data on a daily or weekly schedule. Email notifications can be send to inform the user that a backup has been performed (emails can be send after every backup or as digests).

Backups that have been created are accessible in the archives section of the backup service.Data backups are usually offered as xml files or as multimedia files. Each file can be viewed online or downloaded to the local computer system. An option to download all backed up data of a service would come in handy, especially for services like Flickr where the file count can easily reach a hundred and more.

To give one real life example: A Twitter backup consists of updates, mentions, received and send direct messages, favorites, friends and followers. The backed up data is offered in seven different XML files. No information about the data that gets backed up is available before the first backup. The developer’s should definitely add information about the data that gets backed up by their service. This usually includes the most important data but it is always better to see it in writing before configuring a backup for a specific service.

The Wordpress backup option is different from most other options. A plugin needs to be installed on the blog and a key configured so that the backups can be performed.

Invites:

The developer’s of Lifestream Backup were nice enough to provide Ghacks readers with a free one year account that can store up to 2 Gigabytes of data. These accounts are sold for $29 regularly but free for the next 24 hours if you visit the signup page that has been created for Ghacks.

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The interface looks well designed and it is obvious that the program has been designed with usability in mind. Users can select one of the quick backup options in the left sidebar (backup entire Registry, backup system partition or backup user settings) or select a backup source from the main pane instead. These include options to backup mail accounts, the system state, disk, partitions and the MBR, full or custom Registry keys or files and directories.

A selection screen will be displayed depending on the choice that the user made. The user can for example select specific Registry keys or desktop email clients when selecting the custom Registry or Mail accounts backup option from the interface.

It is possible to select multiple options of a specific backup source but not multiple backup sources. That’s a bit unfortunate as it potentially means that several backup jobs need to be configured to create all desired backups.

Backups are divided into six steps that can be easily followed.

• Backup Source: Selection of backup type
• Backup Settings: Include and exclude filters, password protection, compressions and file sizes can be configured in here.
• Backup Destination: Options to store the backup locally, on network drives, ftp servers or Comodo online storage.
• Other Settings: Configure email notifications, macros and tasks that should be run before or after the backup.
• Scheduled Backup: Schedule the backup instead of running it immediately.
• Backup Progress: Log that details the progress.

The history pane will detail all backups that have been created with Comodo Backup with options to restore or delete these backups right from within that pane. It is furthermore possible to restore backups using the restore pane. This might be handy if backups need to be restored that have not been created on that computer system.

Comodo Backup is an easy to use backup software for the Windows operating system. It offers a clean interface and most functionality that users would expect from a backup software. It would have been nice if users could define a backup that would include several backup sources at once. Another interesting option would be to be able to add backup shortcuts to the sidebar so that the first few steps of the process can be skipped.

Comodo Backup is available for most 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.

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The only drawback (if you can call it a drawback) is that customizations such as themes, fonts, colors, etc are not configured by default. As a backup, Remastersys will copy all personal data. As a Live CD, Remastersys will include all installed applications, but not personal data. In this tutorial you will learn how to install Remastersys and create a backup and a Live CD version of your currently installed Ubuntu desktop.

Installing Remastersys

The first thing you will need to do is open up your /etc/apt/sources.list file in a terminal window. You will need to do this using the sudo nano /etc/aptsources.list command. Once that file is open add the following to the end of the file (depending upon your release):

For Gutsy and Earlier add the following:

# Remastersys
deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository remastersys/

For Hardy and Newer add the following:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository ubuntu/

Save that file and then issue the commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install remastersys

There will be some dependencies to install, so accept those and wait for the installation to complete.

Running remastersys

You will find the menu entry for Remastersys in the Administration sub-menu of the System menu. There you will see two entries: Remastersys Backup and Remastersys Grub Restore. The entry you want is Remastersys Backup. When you first start Remastersys you will get a warning that you must close all other windows as well as unmount any network shares. Naturally this makes for complicating the process of taking screenshots, but when using Linux – we have ways.

Figure 1

The main window of Remastersys is very simple (see Figure 1). You have a window with a number of options to select from. To create a Live CD click the “Make a Distributable copy to share with friends” and then click OK. To create a backup of your current running system (which will include all personal data) click “Backup Complete System” and click OK.

Let’s examine the process of creating a backup. You will want to make sure you have all windows, but Remastersys, closed. Select “Backup Complete System” and click OK. When you click OK the main window will disappear to be replaced by a terminal window. The rest of the process will occur within this terminal window. Depending on how large your system is, the creation of the .iso will take some time (and many CPU cycles). Do not do anything on your machine during this process.

Once the iso is created you will be informed the iso file can be found within /home/remastersys/remastersys. The file name will be custom.iso (unless you have changed the name by using the “Modify the remastersys config file” option before you create your backup or Live CD.

Once the process is complete you will need to burn your iso onto DVD. Most likely your backup will not fit on a CD. You can burn your ISO using the handy K3B tool (For a tutorial on burning ISOs with K3B check out my article, “Burn CD and DVD ISO images with K3B“.) After the DVD is burned you will have a perfect backup of your system, including configurations and personal data.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a nearly foolproof means of backing up your Ubuntu system, you have most likely found it. Remastersys is an outstanding tool that will create backups and Live CDs of your currently running system.

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FavBackup is a web browser backup and restore application for the Windows operating system that supports the five popular web browsers Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome. Users can use FavBackup to backup and restore web browser settings and files.

FavBackup displays a list of options and web browsers in its interface upon startup. It should be noted that the software program is fully portable and does not require an installation. The options include creating a backup of the selected default web browser installation, of all selected web browser installations and to restore these settings again. Only one web browser can be backed up or restored at a time. It is for example possible to backup all different versions of Firefox or Google Chrome using the safe backup option. Backing up Firefox and Internet Explorer on the other hand would require two backup runs.

The difference between the backup and safe backup option is that the former only backs up the default web browser installation while the second will backup all installations of the selected web browser. FavBackup will display a list of settings and files that can be backed up after making the selection. This includes backing up bookmarks, cookies, plugins, extensions, preferences and history among other things.

One interesting aspect of the program is that it is possible to restore less data. It is for example possible to only restore bookmarks or cookies although a full browser backup has been created during the backup phase.

There are a few things that should be improved by the developer though. The first would be to provide an option to backup multiple web browsers at once. This is more comfortable than having to start the backup software multiple times to backup all installed browsers. An option to backup portable versions of the web browsers would also come in handy. Finally support for Opera 10 has to be added so that it can be backed up as well.

FavBrowser is a free portable software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to backup and restore web browsers easily.

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A registration is required which requires entering a name and valid email address. A verification email is send to the mail account. That link leads to a website containing the download link of East-Tec Backup 2009 and the registration code to register the software program.

The backup software program offers four modules in the main interface: Backup, Restore, Tasks and Sync.

New backup jobs are created in this module. One of the interesting – and user friendly – features of East-Tec Backup 2009 are presets that are available. Presets can be used to backup specific, and usually important, files and data. It is for example possible to backup the mail accounts (recognized the email clients Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook and Opera on the test system), Registry keys or user settings from programs such as Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Winamp, Windows Media Player, various web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera but not Google Chrome), Putty and dozens more. It is of course also possible to select files or folders from the computer system.

The data can be backed up to local folders, external hard drives, local area network folders, removable disks, CD, DVD or remote locations using the ftp protocol. The usual set of options are available to use compression and encryption to ensure data safety and integrity. Several backup types can be selected ranging from incremental backups over differential backups to stack backups. Backups can be scheduled and warnings configured.

It is furthermore possible to run programs before and after the task starts and to verify the backup after it has been completed. Another great option is to place backup jobs into groups which can be executed sequentially then.

Backups that have been created can be restored completely. It is also possible to only restore specific files or folders which is obviously great if you only need access to some files or folders of the entire backup.

The Sync option makes it possible to synchronize files and folders between two computers or devices like a local computer and server, desktop computer and laptop or a local computer and a network location.

The interface of the backup software is user friendly, tasks are easy to create. Users who are currently looking for a backup software should take a closer look and download East-Tec Backup 2009 for a test run. It might be exactly what they are looking for.

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The reason for this is that many users believe that the data is safe on Internet servers. A lot can happen that can put the data on those servers at risk. This ranges from hacking attempts, hardware failures that cause data loss or bankruptcy. It is therefor essential to make sure that data that is stored online is backed up regularly.

We have already mentioned how to backup Gmail before should be essential for every Gmail user. While it is unlikely that Gmail will be discontinued there have been times where the service was not accessible. Having a backup of the data would make it possible to access the emails anyway.

Google Docs Backup is another Windows backup software that can be used to backup one of the popular Google services. Users can use it to backup all documents on their local computer system that they have uploaded to Google Docs. Usage of the backup software has been simplified. All that needs to be done is to enter the username and password of the Google Docs account and to select a directory on the local computer where the data should be downloaded to.

A few optional settings are available. It is for example possible to select the output format for each document type and to route the traffic through a proxy server. A click on the Exec button will initiate the data backup which can take some time depending on the size of the data stored at Google Docs and the connection speed.

Gdoc Backup (via To The PC) is a free software program for the Windows operating system.

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The very same menu offers the ability to add filters that specify specific file extensions that should be included or excluded in the backup. Filters can easily be configured in the advanced options of the backup software program.

The options are also home to various other backup related settings including the configuration of compression and encryption settings, running programs before or after backup jobs, scheduling backups and selecting a backup type (full or mirror backups).

Probably the most interesting features are plugins that can be added to FBackup. A plugin is basically an xml file that has been created to backup specific data or programs. Several plugins are already supplied with the default installation which can be used to backup the My Documents folder or Microsoft Outlook data. Dozens of additional plugins can be downloaded from the plugin repository for data of Mozilla Firefox, Nero Burning Rom, Songbird, Thunderbird, Skype, Roboform, Mirc, ICQ, uTorrent, Opera and multiple other popular computer programs.

Each plugin can be added to the backup software easily and becomes then automatically available during the creation of new data backup jobs.

Free Backup can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, windows Server 2003 and 2008. FBackup is free for both commercial and private use.

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Fling is a file transfer software that can be used to transfer and backup files over a computer network and ftp. It’s two main uses are to backup files that are stored on a local computer system to computers in the network or to an ftp server located on the Internet.

The developers have added some other options that include backing up files between local hard drives, update a remote website over ftp or to automate transfers of files to an USB drive.

The program displays a wizard upon first start which will aid the user in setting up the first backup or transfer job. The user needs to enter some data after making the selection. The type of data depends largely on the selected job. Backing up data to a remote ftp server requires the ftp login credentials and IP while backing up files between two local hard drives requires only the selection of the folders involved.

The last step is included in every setup. It asks the user to select an update and scan option. Possibilities are manual updates, automatic updates when changes are detected (that means almost instantly), interval scans to check for changes occasionally and on demand folder scans.

It is possible to skip the wizard and configure the service manually. This adds a few additional option to the file transfer which could be interesting for experienced users.

It is for example possible to exclude files from being copied (using wildcards, e.g. *.exe), prevent the deletion of remotely hosted files or to delete local files after a successful file transfer.

Fling’s main advantage is that it is not complicated to setup. It takes roughly a minute to configure a backup or file transfer job in the software program. Fling is available for the Microsoft Windows operating system, more precisely for all major releases of the last years including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, 2008 and Windows 7.

You might want to check out our article on Windows backup software to read about additional free programs that can be used to backup and transfer data.

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Backups are the single most effective method of preventing data loss on computer systems. The following article will list the 10 best Windows backup software programs.

Cobian Backup

Cobian Backup is a free for personal use backup software that supports both local and remote backups. The software is constantly under development by the developer which means that features are included regularly. Some of the key features include full, differential and incremental backups, file compression including the popular 7-zip format plus strong encryption for data security.

DeltaCopy

An Open source backup solution supporting incremental backups, one-click restore options, task scheduling and email notifications. Some advanced options include ssh tunneling and connecting to rsync daemons.

It makes use of a server client system. One or multiple backup servers can be created on computers running Windows by installing the server version on these computer systems. The client will be installed on the any computer system where files should be backed up regularly.

The backup software supports authentication, scheduling and connection by IP or hostname.

Cucku Backup

Cucku Backup calls itself social backup. It provides local backups but also backups on friend?s computers. It supports complete and continuous backups and can automate the remote backup process to take that of the user?s shoulders. All files that are backed up use encryption algorithms to ensure data safety and integrity so that the backup partners cannot see the filenames nor contents of the files that are send over to their computer systems.
It works best in computer networks but can also work over the Internet if enough time or upload bandwidth is provided.

Backup Maker

Backup Maker provides extensive backup capabilities. It comes with a standard and expert mode to suite both the needs of experienced and inexperienced users. The software supports full and partial backups, local and remote backups, selection of a backup execution interval and execution on certain events like USB detection or start and shutdown.

All in all an excellent software program to backup files on the Windows operating system.

Ace Backup

Powerful backup software that supports multi-versioning, backups to local and remote locations, file compression and encryption.

Microsoft SyncToy

SyncToy is offered by Microsoft as a free download for the Windows operating system. It can be used to easily synchronize data between computer systems. The program offers five different synchronization options that the user can choose from including a preview option before starting the process.

Mozy

Mozy is an online backup solution that offers backup clients for Windows NT based systems and Mac OS X. Every registered user receives 2 Gigabytes of free space with the option to sign up for a paid account for currently $4.95 that offers unlimited backup space. Several pre-configured backup sets are populated after installation including bookmarks, documents and multimedia files. These can but do not have to be backed up. Expert mode provides access to the full file system to pick files or folders to backup directly.

Personal Backup

A backup for the advanced user that provides great file filtering options. It comes with the usual set of features including local and remote backup creation (including SFTP), file compression and encryption, status reports and log file generation.

Allways Sync

Another software that has been primarily designed for file synchronization that is also supporting file backups to a local drive, over a local network or the Internet. It works on a per directory basis and can be installed on as many computer systems as the user desires. The software comes as a setup or portable version.

Comodo Backup

Another free backup solution for Windows users. Comodo Backup can backup files and folders on a local computer system to other drives, network locations, ftp servers and removable media. Backups can be scheduled and notifications can be send to inform about completed backup jobs. Other features include compressing backups, data recovery options, support of multi-session backups and incremental backups.

DriveImage XML

DriveImage XML is more a drive imaging software than a backup program. It can however be used to backup a full hard drive or partition to another drive. It uses the Volume Shadow Service to create exact backups during runtime. It is afterwards possible to restore the backup either from within Windows or with the use of a boot disk.

The verdict:

The choice of the correct backup software depends on several factors including the data size, the frequency of backups or the local computer infrastructure.

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The fast backup mode that is displayed by default consists of steps to select the files and folders on the computer system that should be included in the backup, the backup execution interval (execute every x minutes, execute at, execute on (Windows start, USB detection, Windows logoff), week days or months days, the selection of full or partial backups or combined execution (create full backup after x partial ones), the selection of the target directory (local drives, CD / DVD or ftp) and a descriptive name. Backups can also be executed manually by the user in the main interface as opposed to being executed automatically.

The six configuration steps that are added in expert mode allow the user to add more detail to the backup process.The steps allow the user to include or exclude specific files or folders, add a maximum single file size, how and if to catch up on missed backups, define the maximum number of full and partial backup instances, to backup only files with the archive bit set, adding password protection, things that should be executed before or after the backup and to split the backup into different parts.

Backup Maker is a full Windows backup software that should satisfy most users who are seeking for a reliable backup software for their operating system. Interested readers can take a look at the 10 best windows backup software programs.

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Mail Browser Backup tries to change that by introducing a computer software program for the Windows operating system that can – in its current version – backup Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and the Chrome clone SRWare Iron. It can also create backups for the email client Mozilla Thunderbird and the ftp software Filezilla. The list is incomplete and the software developer has already announced that the next version of the backup software will include Internet Explorer backups as well as backups for the Opera and Safari web browsers, the email clients Windows Mail and Incredimail plus eMule.

The backup itself could not be more straightforward. The portable application displays all supported computer software programs in a list. Grayed out items are currently not supported. Each entry can be selected by clicking in the checkbox next to it. Options are to either backup or restore the selected programs.

The program will open a file browser that can be used to select a directory for the backup or to select a previously created backup for the restoration process. Mail Browser Backup requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or above and will run on Windows XP or Windows Vista. The source code of the application is provided by the software developer on his homepage.

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Backing up seems somewhat of a chore and whilst a cron job can be set up, a WordPress plug-in makes backing up a blog’s mySQL database absolutely hassle free.

WordPress Database Backup allows database backups to be emailed, saved to a hard disk or saved to a server.

Having the back-up emailed may be favourable, especially if you use a service like Gmail with large amounts of storage and reliable hosting.

A useful trick is to set up a Gmail filter to separate backups so quick access is available. Different tables can be backed up, so spam and statistics can be excluded.

Databases can be gzipped, and the SQL file inside the archive can then just be imported should the weblog to be hacked.

Naturally, WordPress Database Backup does not back up files, so images, templates and plugins must be backed up separately.

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We covered Windows backup software before at Ghacks but never before a portable software that could backup partitions and hard drives.

ODIN, which stands for Open Disk Imager, is a portable Open-Source backup software that can backup partitions and hard drives with the exception of the system partition. It is currently available in a very early beta which should not be used in a productive environment.

The hard drive backup software is able to backup or restore data. The current version is easy to use. Backing up data basically involves picking a drive letter or physical drive, selecting a location to store the hard drive image, optionally changing a few parameters and hitting the start button.

The options provide access to a few interesting settings like turning on gzip or bzzip2 compression, splitting data into chunks or saving only used or all blocks of the partition or physical drive.

Restoring an image is as straightforward and easy. The user has to pick the partition or physical drive and select the image that should be restored.

The hard drive backup software has a few limitations which probably will be removed in later builds of the software. The inability to create a backup of the system partition is probably the biggest.

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Functionality depends largely on the way GBridge is used. If the software program is installed on one computer the user can make use of the automatic backup option and chat. The backup can be used to store files locally if GBridge has been installed on one computer. The backup simply takes the files of a selected folder and copies them into the other location. Windows users who are only looking for a way to backup files could look at the more advanced Windows Backup Software Deltacopy instead.

It becomes more interesting if the user installs GBridge on multiple computers. The file backup can now be used to backup files in a remote location on the other computer. Another interesting option that becomes available to access files on every connected computer that the computer owner runs. It can be used to play multimedia files and access any other file type on another connected computer.

Lastly it is possible to run DesktopShare to access the other’s computer desktop to access it remotely.

GBridge comes with additional functions if it is installed on computers of different users who have added each other as friends. Secure Share and Auto Sync can be used to share files and folders with friends. The remote desktop option becomes available as well which is interesting for remote computer assistance and remote presentation.

GBridge uses a virtual private network infrastructure that automatically expands across all computers owned by the same user and which can also be expanded to include computers owned by friends.

GBridge requires a Gmail account and a Windows NT operating system.

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DeltaCopy is an Open Source portable Windows backup software that supports incremental backups, email notifications, one-click restore options and a task scheduler in an easy to use interface. It will run on any Windows NT based operating systems. The developers have not listed Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 on their web pages.

Interestingly enough it can connect to rsync daemons running on Linux systems since it basically is a Windows wrapper around rsync. SSH Tunneling is available if the destination server is a Linux / Unix system running rsync.

How does the Windows backup software work?

The administrator installs the server version of Deltacopy on one machine. The backup software installs itself as a Windows Service. Once the server is up and running so called virtual directories can be created. This is a similar procedure to setting up an ftp server. The admin picks a folder on a hard drive on the server with the option to create multiple virtual directories on the server.

The client is then executed on a client machine. Profiles manage the backup jobs on the client machine. This is the place where the user selects the files and folders that should be backed up regularly. The backup server will be entered during that configuration as well. The server can be identified by entering the IP or hostname of the server running the backup software.

Authentication is possible. This has to be enabled during server setup and the client computer has to use the same login credentials that have been created on the server to be able to perform the backup.

Backups can be initiated either manually or by using the Windows Task Scheduler. Files can be restored from the client interface if the need should arise.

DeltaCopy is a sophisticated but not overly complicated Windows backup software that works best for small home and company networks.

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The interface seems to have received its last lift in the last century which would not be that of a problem if there would not be so many buttons and menus available. It takes a while to get used to the interface but once that has been achieved users will reap the benefits of the backup software.

Personal Backup supports the creation of backups on local and network hard drives as well as ftp servers using ftp and sftp connections. The first ace that is actually a pretty handy feature is the creation of several so called auto backups which can be configured independently of each other. That comes in handy with the excellent filtering options of Personal Backup.

As soon as a folder or partition gets added to the backup list it is scanned and a list of all file types, their count and total sizes are displayed next to the usual information like directories and many options.

The listing of file types makes it pretty comfortable to pick certain file types that should be backed up on all hard drives and schedule those backups next to other backups. One scenario would be to backup all .doc, .xls and other document formats on all drives regularly which is just a few clicks away in Personal Backup.

The filtering options of this Windows backup software are immense. Filters can be set to match filenames, file attributes, file sizes, time and regular expressions. The preview button can be used to check on the files that would be backed up by Personal Backup which can be used for verification.

The options that define the output are as extensive as the filtering options. Some of the backup options include:

• To backup single files or one zip.
• Preserve, ignore the directory structure, create separate directories for drives.
• To compress the files and add file type exceptions.
• To encrypt the backup using AES.
• To add notes, send emails and run external programs before and after backup.
• To synchronize files
• To verify files
• To chose a backup mode from Copy, Full, Differential and Incremental.
• To adjust the time gap for timestamp comparison
• Creation of a backup log
• Integrated restore function for whole trees or selected files
• Automatic decryption on restore
• Synchronise backup directories

The Windows backup software contains so many options that it will really take a while before everything has been discovered. Most of the options are not needed to perform a simple backup but Personal Backup is more a software for users who want to make exact backups on their system, who want to point at the exact data and backup that data.

Backups can be scheduled multiple ways which range from daily to weekly backups. It is also possible to combine backup methods during the scheduled backups, for instance to create multiple backups for data safety purposes.

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