BeLight Software Get Backup

August, 2009

By: Marcel Dufresne

The mantra of any computer user is “Save! Save! Save!”. You never know when you will need to reclaim something you input into the computer but it is almost inevitable that it will occur. It could something as simple as a power failure of one-half second to a complete failure of the hard drive. You need back up. This is the reason there are quite a few applications out there that will do just that for you so that you do not need to consciously activate the save format. There have been reviews of some of these programs. The problem with a lot of these is that they lack flexibility. It is not essential to have a backup of everything on your computer. Which files are worth backing up? Think about the documents that you have created. Probably the only copy in the world is on your hard drive. Such a document is a candidate for inclusion in a backup. It is advisable to create a backup copy of your mail. You can also save the information related to your user account (in case you have to re-install the operating system). You need not backup programs, clip arts and other computer data if you have it on installation discs. Also there is not much sense it backing up relatively small files or installation packages if they are available for free in the Internet. This review is about a product from BeLight Software called Get Backup which I have found does just what I want it to in terms of backup.

Get Backup is a backup software utility which allows you to create backup archives of files and folders located on your computer, and then restore the archived files back. Use of the program does not require special computer skills being suitable for both beginners and pros. There are in effect four ways that files can be saved with Get Backup. There is a Full backup -all selected files are saved, and the resulting archive replaces the previously created one. Next is the Versioned backup -all selected files are saved in a new backup archive, and the previous archives remain intact. This is similar to Leopard's Time Machine. Next is the Incremental backup -each time a backup is built, only the files that were changed are saved in the new backup archive. This is similar to Versioned but takes less time. The last method is synchronization -synchronize drives or folders are saved so that both drives or folders have the latest files. Get Backup also allows you to compress the files as they are saved. Get Backup uses the TAR file format for archives and GZIP format for compression. The archive name reflects the chosen backup method and the time of archive creation. There is a restore button to get your files back using Get Backup but because the saved archive is in TAR you can simply double click the archive to open it up. The program allows you to save backups to any locally mounted device/drive, including FireWire, USB, ATA, SCSI, CD and DVD devices, or network volumes. As well you can burn your backups to Blu-ray discs, CD/DVD through Roxio Toast Titanium. There is a choice of saving the archives in packages that would easily fit on multiple CD or DVD disks.

When you first open Get Backup you are presented with a window that contains five preselected most commonly backed up folders, a content window where you can add what needs to be saved, and buttons to configure how and when the backup is to be done. The application calls each backup you do a project. At the bottom of the window are tabs for each project you make and a time when the last project was run. This way you can backup your Documents folder daily with an incremental, compressed archive being made and you can decide to backup your iTunes folder only once a month using the full backup. Each project can be configured to your taste.

A full backup contains copies of all files and folders listed in the backup project. A full backup archive size is equal to the total size of the original files. If you enable the compression feature, the archive can be smaller. If the folder where a new archive should be created contains a previous version of the archive, the program will delete it (if possible). To restore files, you should have only the last version of the archive. An incremental archive contains only files that were changed after the previous backup archive (full or incremental) has been created. The archive size depends on the total size of modified files and can be much smaller than the full archive. New incremental archives have unique names. The program places new archives into the folder where the previous archives are located. To restore files, you should have all the previous incremental archives including the full archive. Every time you create a new version of the archive, it contains copies of all the source files. Unlike the full backup, previous versions are not deleted. To restore files, you should have only the last version of the archive. If you work on two Macs, making sure they have the same, most up-to-date versions of the files you're working on is important. Get Backup makes a good attempt at file synchronisation, offering one-way and two-way synching, and it tracks files properly: delete a file from one Mac and it'll delete it from the other, not create a new version the next time you sync.

What happens if the external drive for the backup is not turned when the scheduled backup is to occur? First of all, you need not have Get Backup running for it to execute the scheduled backup. At the prearranged time, Get Backup comes on and attempts to save your files. A dialog window pops up if your target location is not found asking you to designate a suitable spot to put your backup. This window will be there until the question has been answered. I found that if I turned on my external drive, then chose cancel from the pop up dialog window, that the backup proceeds as though all were in place to start with. No fuss, no muss, no problem. Of course, the computer has to be on at the scheduled time for Get Backup to work.

You can go to the web site and get a Quick video tour of Get Backup as well as more details on what it can do for you. You can download the free fully running application and use it for 30 days in order to check it out. The full version is $40. It requires an Apple Macintosh G3 or higher, Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later and 4 MB of free space for the application. With this application, you can reduce the backup archive size using compression tools and restore it on any computer. The customizable scheduling tool allows a fully automated backup process, so that backups are built on a regular basis (daily, weekly or monthly). You can create separate schedules for different backup projects. For those who want more power and ease of use, have Tiger, Get Backup is ideal. You really cant afford not to have a backup system of some sort. Give Get Backup a try.

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