Hi,
I happen to use Dantz Retrospect, but only because it came with the
external Maxtor One Touch Drive. I enjoy the fact that it will make a base
backup and then automatically make incrementals each day at a predetermined
time. However, it's not particularly intuitive software. I went to a
magazine that I subscribe to called Smart Computing. They did a review of
some backup software packages in February and liked Backup Now because of
its intuitiveness and apparently easy interface. Sorry, it's not particulaly
cheap, $80-full price, but it's something for you to compare other products
to. Here's the website. Also, though it doesn't specifically say tape drives
I believe it will back up to them since it mentions that it will back up to
external media sources. If you take an interest in it you could call or
write them.
http://www.ntius.com/default.asp
SC tested 3 software products: Simple Backup, Handy Backup and Backup Now.
Here's Smart Computing's review of Backup Now. I only post because one has
to be a subscriber to the magazine to get onto their website.
Smart Computing 2/05
Backup NOW! is the most expensive program in our test group, and for your
money, you get an extremely easy-to-use backup tool. Backup NOW! features
the EasySteps interface, a three-step procedure for defining your backups:
In step 1, you define what data you want to back up, restore, or verify. In
step 2, you specify where to back up, restore, or verify the data. In step
3, you specify how you want to back up or restore the data.
Backup NOW!'s design directly supports this intuitive approach to backup.
The left side of the window has a set of large, numbered buttons
representing the steps in the EasySteps process. The right side of the
window holds a pane showing whatever information is relevant to the step
you're on.
Setting up a basic backup is a simple process of working through each of the
steps and following the instructions that appear in the right-hand pane.
When you complete one step, you click the button for the next, and Backup
NOW! tells you what to do. Once you complete the three steps, you click the
Start button and let the program do the rest.
By default, Backup NOW! verifies and compresses the backup file it creates.
If you want to run regularly scheduled backups, click Schedule on the left
side of the window and the program will display a straightforward dialog box
for setting it up. And because Backup NOW! features automatic media spanning
(it can write to multiple diskettes and optical discs) and can write to
unformatted CD-Rs, you don't have to worry about running out of space on the
backup CD or about having a formatted disk on hand when you need it.
So what's not to like about Backup NOW!? Aside from the price, there are a
few minor issues. The program doesn't have explicit settings for backing up
your email, Desktop, Favorites, or the Windows Registry. You need to figure
out where those files are yourself if you want to back them up. Also, to do
a drive image backup, you need to jump out of the main Backup NOW! program
to the companion Drive Image Backup/Restore program.
Although it isn't the perfect backup solution, Backup NOW! delivers the best
mix of ease and power among the products we tested here.
I'm trying to get a backup solution going for