Customer Reviews

Data Backup 2.0 (Mac)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Admit it ? you rarely or never perform a comprehensive complete backup of all the precious data on your Macintosh. You?ve heard it?s important, but the software is expensive, difficult to use, and a lot more inconvenient than burning CDs of your Photoshop and word processing files. And now, with OS X, everything is much more stable on your monster hard disk (you a-s-s-ume), so an infrequent drag-copy onto a handy dandy FireWire external drive suffices as cheap insurance.

Baloney. Serious power users buy and run mission-critical, task-specific backup applications very frequently, often daily, and they develop reliable, redundant, rotating sets of restorable backups that are stored securely offsite. A couple of less-than-intuitive apps have existed for ages that experienced Macintoshers rely on for backing up and restoring everything.

Into the ring strolls Prosoft?s Data Backup 2, developed for OS X. We?re reviewing it in two parts, because we first want to make you aware of its existence and basic features, and then we?ll report on extensive real world usage. David Weeks and I spent a day with Data Backup 2 (DB2), and our initial comments are favorable, with a couple of important questions.

We were surprised to observe no printed material whatsoever in our packaged retail equivalent box. Why doesn't the manufacturer give people a QuickStart pamphlet, since everybody is new to DB2? How can all of us newcomers know where to click and what to do without requiring emotional therapy afterward? This backing up business is already looking too complicated.

(Answer: Prosoft tells MyMac.com that such a printed guide should be available now, or very soon.)

A 34 page PDF manual is included. The instructions are helpful, concise, and informative. Additional files include a basic Read Me and an uninstaller. Prosoft's website contains a thorough FAQ, which we urge you to read along with your study of the PDF manual, once you print it out.

Installation was uneventful on David's dual processor 1.42GB G4 with 1GB of memory running OS X Panther 10.3.3. An admin password is required each time DB2 is used, to make sure renegade visitors don't invade your privacy.

David suggests you CLONE your entire drive to an external destination upon initial setup, especially now that affordable FireWire drives are available with tremendous capacity. This process will take a long time! David's "WildGeeker" primary HD contains 107 GB of data, encompassing 242,066 files. Wowzer. "Go plant some cacti, David and Nemo," says Nancy Weeks. "See that big patch of open desert out the window?"

You can use your computer for other tasks while DB2 is cooking. A blue progress bar, listing files being processed, is at the bottom of the open backup window.





Subsequent "Quick Backup" operations will typically use the INCREMENTAL feature. DB2 has no Menu Bar preferences, but plenty of options reside within the large backup window, including:

* Versioned, Single Copy, Clone, Full, Incremental, or Synchronize
* Entire, All Non-System, All User's Folders, All File For Current, or All User's Documents
* Very flexible Scheduling interface
* Choices for Source and Destination

Quick Backup has ample default settings for most users. David approves the IGNORE ITEMS feature, but he can't yet figure out how to bypass selected folders. Our follow-up review will deal with advanced features in DB2 once we use it for backing up and restoring during the summer months, so watch this space!

Prosoft has engineered DB2 so it completes a backup cycle even if the application quits. How is this possible? We're intrigued, and we'll test it ourselves soon.

The procedure to create a bootable copy of our Mac OS X hard drive is not obvious to us (see comments below). Experienced geekers and newbies will find the process to be unfamiliar and tedious. Request! Please, Prosoft, refine this method for streamlined clarity, to encourage all of us to have safe, secure bootable duplicate drives.

(Answer: Prosoft tells MyMac.com it should be easy:

Drag internal drive icon to "Source" bin. Then drag external or network drive to "Destination" bin. Check off "Clone" and hit start. That's all there is (or should be) to it.

We?ll try it and let you know the result in part two.)

"Backup, Made Easy," is Prosoft's motto, and we agree, almost. Newcomers will still be intimidated unless some easily accessible printed hand holding is obviously attainable.

A 30-day trial version of Data Backup 2 is available from the Prosoft Engineering web site. We tested the Uninstaller, which worked quickly and completely.

Gordon Bell, product manager for Prosoft Engineering, tells MyMac.com in an exclusive email:

Our goal with Data Backup 2 (first release) was to get a product out that was on par feature-wise with the "old" Data Backup X (not only because that was a good starting point, but also because we had a large customer base that wouldn't want to lose a bunch of features on an "upgrade").

Data Backup 2 was indeed a free update for all our former Data Backup X users. The main differences are UI changes (we get a lot of compliments on how we've made a nicer UI).

However, our work is not done!

We will soon be releasing a new version with some of those features we've always wanted to have.... CD/DVD Sessioning and Spanning. There are a few other yet-to-be-announced features coming soon too... Very cool ones indeed. Oh, and these new features... All included in a free update to current users (we don't believe in gouging our customers every time we add new stuff in).

David's phase-one evaluation is:

A solid intermediate-level backup utility, easy to use and configure. DB2 is has decent, average, built-in features, but no elaborate scripting capability, which is probably a plus. For synchronizing disks and folders, for moving data between desktop and PowerBook, for a dozen other reliable uses, my rating is 4 out of 5. We're looking forward to digging deeper.
http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1772

Data Backup 2 from Prosoft Engineering is possibly the best data backup software for the Mac. The user interface is intuitive and exceedingly easy to use. The PDF manual is clear and comprehensive yet very concise (a printed manual would be nice, but is not included). Technical support is excellent. Free updates are released periodically. The latest update (2.0.5) is compatible with the newly released Mac Operating System 10.4 (code name Tiger).

Although easy is to use, Data Backup 2 is powerful and flexible. It offers:

(1) Six back up methods: Simple Copy, Clone, Versioned, Full, Incremental, and Synchronize.

(2) The option to skip files selected on the basis of name, size, extension, etc.

(3) Optional Gzip compression.

(4) Optional encryption with AES-126.

(5) Multiple backup scheduling options

Comparisons:

Data Backup 2 is far easier to use than Dantz Retrospect and it does not compress files into a proprietary format that requires the original application to open. With Data Backup 2, the compressed files can be viewed individually and opened with Stuffit Expander to verify that the backup proceeded without errors.

Data Backup 2 is far more powerful and flexible than Iomega Automatic Backup (which appears to no longer be supported by Iomega).

I have not tried the backup software included in Stuffit Deluxe 9.0 and therefore cannot compare.

Prosoft has made it very simple to do backups. The program's manual is easily read. If you have questions their online help service is quick, and if that is not sufficient, I found their telephone assistance was flawless and very knowledgable.

The Prosoft Engineering website offers a free 30 day trial which allows you to check it out on your own before spending any money. Then if you feel like it's the best solution for painless backup you can buy a new hard copy with a cd and validating number. It is a great program with a company that backs their product.

Began failing on incremental backups in September of 2005 (at OS version 10.3.?), worked before that. Also fails on 10.4.0-10.4.6. Always gives the same error message - indicating a programming error. Prosoft has offered no help after many attempts over a 9 month period.

I was using Retrospect which was bundled with my external hard drive. However, it refused to work after I upgraded the OS on my iBook. I ordered Data Backup 2.0 and had no problems getting it up and running. I've had it about a month and have had no problems with weekly incremental backukps. It works fine.

I did not want anything complicated, and this fits the bill. It so far has had no problems or crashes, and it is very very easy to set up a backup. I am using the 'simple copy' type because I don't ever trust sychronized backups. If I want to delete something on the archive, I want to do it myself.

I would never use a back up program that used some proprietary format for storing the backup, because then you not only have to hope your backup is good but you have to hoe the company stays in business and doesn't have some flaw in its scheme. This product avoids all that.

I got the 30 day free trial from the company web site, but it was cheaper to order it on Amazon than buy the serial number directly from the company. All you get in the box is a CD with no manual and no documentation, but you don't need that because it is so easy and simple to use.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants something that isn't complex and gets the job done.

I had problems with the first couple of versions but the new update seems to have fixed all the issues that I was having-- Good to see Prosoft is continuing to improve this --- Works like a champ now-

I have this software, and I couldn't make it work. I am using it with OS X, and it will do the first full backup, but just quits when I try to do any subsequent backups. I talked to customer service and they had me download an update, but that didn't work either!

The 30 day demo worked fine but the program did not work and I wasn't able to get a refund!