 "NovaBACKUP Professional V12")
The hard disk is a very important piece of hardware because it holds critical user data. The importance of data is higher for small offices and businesses, wherein important databases, accounts, emails and other data are maintained. Since hard drives are delicate mechanical hardware, they are prone to failure and no one can afford to lose their precious data. So it’s crucial that you backup your data from time to time. And for that, you need a good backup utility.
The simplest form of data backup is copying data manually from the source to an external storage device or optical medium. With a data backup utility, you can rest assured that each and every file is automatically backed up from time to time without any user intervention. Either the entire drive or specific folders and file types can be backed up and restored.
User Interface and Features
NovaBACKUP Professional is targeted at individuals and small business users. It offers numerous useful features and everything is well presented in an intuitive user interface, which makes this application simple to use. The user interface can be switched between simple (default) and advanced. The simple mode is for beginners and those who like clean interfaces. It displays the main functions with one-line descriptions and a small pane to the left that offers one-click access to recent jobs, next scheduled job, settings, and help. Experienced users can switch to ‘Advanced’ view with the click of a button at the bottom of the window.
The utility has components for backing up data to FTP servers, local devices and online storage. These can be selected during custom installation.
You start with the ‘Setup My Backup’ option from the main screen, which runs the Backup Wizard. Here, you have to select what you wish to backup (entire drive, My Documents folder or specific files), backup options (full backup or only the modified files), and the backup destination. The backup process can be started in the next step or scheduled for future run. The schedule can be set to run monthly, weekly, daily, hourly or even every minute. The backup is created as a single file on the destination, which can be an external storage device (USB flash drive or external hard disk), FTP server, network location, optical discs, or online. The Disaster Recovery option comes in handy for backing up the entire hard drive.
The interface in the default Simple view shows only the main functions of the program. Each function is wizard-driven and hence easy to understand.
The process of backing up and restoring data is simple. Every task is wizard-driven and stepwise, which makes things very easy. If you can’t understand a function /step or need clarifications regarding the Settings dialog box, you can refer to the online Help. You’ll get a clear idea about the capabilities of this utility when you see the Settings dialog box. There are tabs for configuring various functions such as Backup, Restore, Filters, Antivirus, and so on. For example, the backup file can be compressed and the mode can be set to full, incremental, differential or snap shot.
The Advanced view doesn’t look very daunting. In fact, it presents functions in a better way than in the Simple view.
The built-in antivirus module scans each and every file that is being backed up and it can be set to include or exclude files on warnings. Although the Simple view makes things look and feel easy, the ‘Advanced’ view presents more options. It’s not as daunting as it sounds; in fact, we suggest using this mode because it presents more options and separate tabs for copying, backup, restore, schedule and so on, with detailed settings pertaining to each function.
Verdict
NovaBACKUP Professional is the best backup software we’ve come across so far. It’s feature-rich, very easy to use and priced very well for what it offers. We only wish it had help built-in for offline reference instead of online. Other than that, everything’s good. The utility can be purchased online as a download or as a physical CD copy for Rs. 576 extra.
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 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
