BACKUP ALREADY
Doing file backups is a chore almost as tedious as flossing...you know you better do it for the long-term, but it's such a hassle every time. Both the Washington Post and PC Magazine give thumbs up to a software program called NTI Shadow 2, that sounds like it may ease the hassle part.
The Post review explains:
"Shadow 2 ($30) from NewTech Infosystems Inc., or NTI ( http://www.ntius.com/) can also copy selected directories of your PC as soon as they are created, functionally mirroring them onto an external device such as a hard drive, USB key or even an MP3 player like the iPod. Conventional backup software copies data only once a day or once a week, so the backup is rarely up to date with newer, and often the most essential, files.
Shadow 2 also makes it easier to restore your data. Other backup programs store layers of incremental backups in a proprietary format that only they can unlock and recreate. Shadow 2 preserves data in the original format, simplifying and speeding the process of copying your data back."
PC Magazine has a similar take:
"Shadow is a "continuous" backup tool: Unlike its traditional counterparts, it backs up your data on the fly, so you needn't hassle with scheduling hourly or daily backups. Each time you save a file to your hard drive, Shadow creates a second copy. It's that simple. Continuous backup is a bigger drain on system performance than traditional tools, which is one knock against the method, but judging from our experience at PC Magazine Labs, Shadow's performance hit is negligible. The app is unobtrusive and extremely fast.
Once the utility is up and running, you can create any number of backup jobs. With each, you specify the system folders you'd like to include and where you'd like to store the copies. If your machine is on a network, you can easily store copies on a networked drive. If not, you can simply attach an external device (such as a hard drive or USB flash drive) and specify that as the destination."
For me, working with multiple PCs in several locations as I do, the ability of the backup software to be "network smart" is a very appealing feature. It's something that needs to be incorporated into almost every kind of consumer application.
Apparently, the company is running a promotion whereby, according to PC Magazine,
"It may be the perfect backup tool. And from now until the end of the year, you can download it for 99 cents. NTI Shadow 2.0 is a wonderfully effective and easy-to-use backup program for both home and business users. It's well worth the $29.99 you'll usually pay, but if you get to the company's site by December 31, you'll save 29 bucks."
On the surface, this piece of "pedestrian" software may be as "cool" in it's network functionality as Foldershare, which was recently bought by Microsoft, and a long-time favorite of mine.
I've just downloaded Shadow 2, and will try it over the next few days...more to follow.
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