Backup Platinum Review: Nice and Easy

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.

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http://www.softlogica.com Sergey Petrov
David,
Thank you for your high appreciation of Backup Platinum. I know that such reputable websites as PCMech value their readership too much to publish biased reviews whether you paid them or not for a chance to be introduced. So I’m really pleased that you like our product.
I would like to propose a 20% discount to all PCMech readers: SOFT-LIWR-PCM. This coupon expires on June 15.
http://tech.bizriver.com Ded Ryzing
Blowing Cobian off because it’s Open Source is pretty weak. I have been using Cobian for a long time with zero issues. I have created the backup profiles and then forget about it. It chugs along doing it’s thing as happy as can be. Periodicly I will check the backups, as you should do with ANY solution regardless of price, and that’s it.
I have it installed on a secondary machine with drives mapped to all my systems, including Linux. It just works. I even backup my wife’s computer over wireless. All data is backed up to an external drive. It currently looks after 160+GB of data and 4 computers.
Open Source does NOT mean lacking. Cobian is very capable and a great solution for home use. It truly amazes me how some people think that the moment you use something Open Source you get digital AIDS or something.

Wayniack!
First, in reply to Ded’s comment: I’m not sure why you’re so sensitive about open source, but nevertheless IMHO you’ve jumped to a conclusion not substantiated by the wording of the review. There was nothing negative said about open source in general or Cobian in particular. He simply stated the facts that it’s open source (i.e. ‘free’) and that there is no support (which is a given with ‘free’ software). Nothing but fact. And the fact that he even mentions Cobian is something of a tribute in itself since the man pretty much makes his living by disseminating trustworthy information. My only criticism would be that to say that there is ‘no support whatsoever’ isn’t entirely accurate. There may not be any paid support options (though there may be 3rd parties who are selling support options for it) there are certain forums or usenet groups where users of varying abilities share their knowledge. So there is SOME support.
Second, in regards to the review David, my criticism would be that you didn’t cover the area of how granular one can get with the restore options. What if a user accidentally deletes one document. Is it possible to drill down and just restore a single file? Also, you didn’t mention if it will backup an Exchange Mail Store and allowing the restore of indivdual mailboxes, etc.