Backing up without the hassle: Handy Backup reviewed

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2003. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

Do you back up your work properly? Your surgery fileserver is probably backed up to a DAT drive; however, is the data on your desktop or home machine as safe? It is important to keep a copy of your vital data, as programs crash, hard disks stop working and computers have been known to be stolen.

I have about 4GB of data, including pictures, videos, old letters, emails, accounts and other files. Most of these are scattered over my hard disk, though I try to keep as many in the My Documents directory as possible. To keep track of all these files and copy them manually takes forever.

What I needed was a program that would do all of this for me and keep track of what files needed backing up and where they were stored, and update them whenever they changed. Although Windows doesn’t provide anything like this, luckily there are numerous programs available that provide all this functionality and more.

The one I have chosen is Handy Backup. It is available to download from www.handybackup.com and costs $30. The program is on version 4.0 and works very well, with no bugs that I have found so far. There is a free 30-day trial version available.

It allows you to create as many different backup sets as you would like. In each set you tell it which files to keep track of and where to back them up. You can keep track of multiple files and folders on different disks. When run, the program will compare the original files to the backup set and update the backup with any new files added, or refresh any files you have changed. This is all done automatically, and you can tell it to do this every time you turn on or off the machine, or when you tell it to.

The backup set can be compressed into a zip file to save space, and this can be password protected for security. Some of the other backup programs use proprietary compression software, so that you need them to extract or restore the files. However, Windows XP can read zip, which means you can get to your data without any need to install the software first - very useful if you have a crash and are restoring your system.

Another useful feature of Handy Backup is that the backup sets can be stored anywhere. You can back up to any hard drive, a floppy disk (though you won’t get much on one), a zip drive, an external drive, a CD or DVD, or even to another computer on your network.

I have a second cheap hard disk installed in my computer and use this as a backup. The software keeps a copy of my files on it every time I log off. Also, having recently set up a wireless network at home, I can now sit in the garden with my laptop and automatically back up any work I have done to my main computer using Handy Backup.

The software was easy to install and is good value for the peace of mind it brings. It comes with a couple of additional-cost options that seem a bit of a con. For a small amount you can buy an add-on that automatically backs up your Outlook folder, a function that Outlook bizarrely lacks. However, once you know where this folder is stored on your hard disk you don’t need the add-on to do it - you just have to create a backup set of your own.

All in all, I feel a lot happier knowing that my data is backed up without me having to do anything.