Any computer user worth their salt will stress the importance of data backup. Too many people either don’t think about it or put it off into the “someday” category, leaving open the possibility that you’ll get burned. Anybody, though, who has been caught with a hosed system and inadequate backups realizes the cold, hard importance of it.

So, it is a given you need to back up your data. The question is: how?

You can go the free, more manual way – something similar to what Jason outlined when he provided his batch script. You could go the open source route using something like Cobian Backup. Cobian will get the job done, but there is no support whatsoever. Or you could go the commercial route. There are several commercial options out there, but I am going to take a look here at Backup Platinum, by SoftLogica.

Backup Platinum is a Windows-only utility that makes it super easy to have automated backups. You can back up to pretty much anything, including a network drive, a remote server (using FTP) or recordable optical mediums and USB. The program’s notable features include:

• Built-in CD engine which allows for automated CD burning, automatic erasure of optical media as well as spanning several discs
• Integrated ZIP compression
• 128-bit encryption for secure backups (requires a password to unlock a backup)
• Built-in scheduler to run automatic backups at any time. Uses a Windows service, too, so it doesn’t depend on being logged into Windows to function
• Multi-threaded engine so that it can function without slowing down your system
• Command line interface (if you want to use it in batch scripts)
• Ability to backup registry as well as certain keys in the registry
• Email notifications
• Ability to start or shut down programs when executing backups

In short, this thing more or less does it all.

I went to their site and downloaded the 30 day trial. Install went through without hassle. Upon starting the program, I went through a wizard which walked me through creating an “item”. An “item” is the name for a particular set of files/folders/settings that I want to back up. I can have as many items as I want and execute each on its own schedule.

I was running this application in a virtual machine on my Mac (Windows XP running under VMware Fusion). So, my Mac looks like a network drive as far as Windows is concerned. I set up an item to back up my Quickbooks data (which is on the virtual disk) and back it up to the host disk. I was impressed that it easily allowed me to keep multiple versions of the data file on the system and it automatically timestamps the backups. Nice. So, I set it up to back up Quickbooks, storing up to 4 different versions. I executed it and it worked and did so quite quickly.

My Conclusions

I get asked to review a lot of things. Sometimes those things are just a real stretch. I always call it like I see it. In this case, it isn’t a stretch at all.

Backup Platinum does exactly what it is supposed to do. It is clean software and easy to use. It is fast and they also threw some “kitchen sink” features in here to boot (like encryption and email notifications). Backup Platinum is a powerful backup utility for Windows.

My only thought was that, well, I’m on a Mac. Of course, on the Mac, I have Time Machine built right into the operating system. Now that VMware has fixed the conflict between Time Machine and VMware Fusion, my entire Windows session is backed up. But, most definitely, if I were still using Windows as my primary operating system, I would certainly use Backup Platinum.

Cost of the software is $67. Last I looked, this was right in line with other comparable backup software for Windows.

NOTE: The preceding review was a paid review. But, trust me, as always, I don’t mess around with reviews. There is really nothing bad to say about Backup Platinum.