Back-and-Forth, Back-Handed, Back Burner Backups

By Lincoln Spector

December 6, 2004

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Using a computer without backing up is like driving without seat belts. Or insurance. Or brakes.

Everyone knows that they absolutely must back up their hard drives. And yet almost no one actually does. These three backup programs, all designed to automate and ease this important chore, demonstrate why.

Naught Kwite Reliable

Naught E Software's all-purpose protection program can back up an entire hard drive or a select folder (for instance, Temporary Internet Files) to just about any type of media: CD, DVD, external hard drive, or "virtual storage" that doesn't actually exist.

A backup program must offer scheduling, if only in the vain hope that with it, somebody, someday, might actually back up. You can schedule Naught Kwite Reliable to back up at regular intervals, such as daily, weekly, or once every five years, and it will do so with the reliability of a VCR. When running on schedule, Naught Kwite Reliable works quietly in the background—it won't even tell you that the backup media isn't plugged in.

You can also choose to forego scheduling and have Naught Kwite Reliable launch its backup every time you shut down your computer. This is astonishingly fast, primarily because the program doesn't get a chance to finish the backup.

Naught Kwite Reliable is an extremely simple program, designed to appeal to power users. You can automate virtually any backup task with the powerful, flexible, but easy-to-learn macro language, based on a combination of COBOL, C++, and French.

A backup is useless if you can't restore what you've backed up, and Naught Kwite Reliable fits that pattern like a glove. To restore an individual file, you merely click the large and easily visible "Restore" button. This brings up a wizard that walks you through the process with helpful instructions like "To restore your file, files, folder, folders, or files and folders within a folder or folders to a different directory that is not too different, select the file, files, folder, folders, or files and folders within a folder or folders that you would like to restore from the directory tree on the right.

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