Instead, CDP selects files according to what it calls “protection policies,” more commonly known as filters. It differs, however, from many of its competitors (including Memeo Autobackup and NTI Backup 5 Advanced, reviewed on the next page) in that it doesn’t allow you to select a directory, such as My Documents, for backup. Lack of integration aside, Retrospect CDP works well. You can launch CDP from within Retrospect, but otherwise it’s a separate entity complete with its own system-tray app sitting alongside Retrospect’s monitor/scheduler. Alas, though they sound notable, neither is truly integrated they can be only roughly categorized as new Retrospect features. If it fits the traditional, file-based backup role, it’s in there.įor version 7.6, EMC offers two primary additions: support for Mozy online backup (first 2GB free) and the $29 Continuous Data Protection (CDP) add-in. This latest version of Retrospect is unmatched in the breadth of its file-based backup features: It has superflexible scheduling, disaster recovery, and plain file copy, along with support for remote clients, tape drives, Macs and PCs…you name it. I tested EMC Retrospect 7.6 Professional for this story with the Continuous Data Protection professional add-in ($129 plus $29 for the CDP module prices as of 7/15/08), which adds heretofore missing capabilities to Retrospect. And when I used the disaster recovery module on my system with XP SP2 set to ‘Large size (120 DPI)’ display mode, the interface suffered glitches until I switched to ‘Normal size (96 DPI)’, the module was unusable. Darned if I could figure out a way to save a script that I created using the backup wizard, which actually says ‘Create a script to backup your data’ (using ‘backup’–one word–as a verb is their mistake, not mine). Blinking drive lights told me it wasn’t, but the experience is just that slow.Īs improved as NovaBackup’s interface may be, the software still has a few rough spots. Because no progress bar appears during the enumeration, the first time it occurred I was nearly convinced that the program was locked up. In my hands-on testing, backups of every kind were as quick as, or quicker than, the competition’s, but the program itself was a bit slow to boot, and the disaster recovery (imaging) module was especially slothful enumerating drives–it took up to 30 seconds to recognize them all. NovaStor claims that it has reworked many of NovaBackup’s internal routines so that backups transpire faster. NovaBackup comes with a free, one-year, 2GB DigiStor account that is customized to mesh with NovaBackup, though you need to provide credit card information to use it if you don’t want to keep it, however, the account will be canceled, not automatically renewed. It also allows you to apply the same settings to your local backups so that you’re always sure you have everything backed up to each location. Not that the backup clients for other online services are bad, but using NovaBackup’s advanced options and GUI simply make it that much easier. If you have an Amazon S3 or NovaStor’s Digistor, you can simply add the service as a device, enter your user info, and then select it as the destination for any of your backups. I enjoyed my hands-on trials with NovaBackup 10 tremendously–especially the seamless integration of online backup storage.
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