The Friendliest Computer Club in Ventura County Since 1986
NTI Backup Now!
This is a reprint from the January 2007 issue of TOE (The Outer Edge)
By Jim Thornton
In a recent article, I identified six computer maintenance freeware programs that came with the Intel Express Installer CD. These programs are StressTest, NTI Backup NOW!, Diskeeper Lite, Security Check, System Information, and AdminWorks Management Suite. In this article, we look at NTI Backup NOW!, a user-friendly backup program.
The opening screen of NTI Backup NOW! looks like a typical Window Explorer screen except there are open square checkboxes to the left of each drive, folder, and file. In addition, on the left hand side of the screen are four buttons labeled 1, 2, 3, and Start, which controls the backup sequence. Step 1 identifies which drives, folders, and/or files are to be backed up. Step 2 the backup storage device to be used - another hard drive, a network drive, a CD or DVD disc, a removable USB flash drive, etc. Step 3 what to backup - the choices are all selected (checked) drives, folders, and files or only new or changed files. The latter choice has two options in backing up - incremental where only the files modified or added to since last backup are backed up or differential where only the files changed or added to since the last full backup. A significant difference between incremental and differential backups is the incremental uses less storage space but does take longer than a differential backup. The backup times are dependent on the speed of your burner. Typical times are 1.5 hours to backup 2 GB and an entire system may take as long as 13 hours and may use about five discs.
Why is backing up so important? Our newer computers are coming with larger and larger hard drives and when a hard drive fails we lose more data than ever before. Can you image losing your stored e-mail messages and especially your irreplaceable address book? What about all of the computer software programs that you have downloaded off the Internet? All of your family and vacation photographs? And your customized computer settings like your desktop settings, etc.?
NTI Backup NOW!, the freeware program, was developed by New Tech Infosystems, and is available as part of the Intel Desktop Utilities, version 2.1.9.66, a freeware program.
NewTech Infosystems offers a more in depth version of NTI Backup NOW! called NTI Backup NOW! 4 ($59.99 when downloaded) and this version provide full imaging backup.
My opinion - I'm uncomfortable with any backup program that compresses the backed up data into a unique and propriety format. What happens when you lose the program through a system crash - how do you restore the files? They can't be viewed with Windows Explorer, etc. Perhaps a better choice would be to use a widely accepted compression program like PKZIP, WinZip, etc. Also, I perform a manual monthly backup of all of the Excel, Word, Eudora, Internet Explorer Favorites, etc., files that have changed since the previous month onto floppy diskettes organized by subfolders. I use floppies for quick access to any backed file by just inserting the floppy into my computer, or any other family member's, friend's, or co-worker's computer without any delays or problems, opening the appropriate program, and immediately accessing the file. At the end of the year, then I copy the floppies onto a single CD with the contents of each floppy having its own folder. There is no uncompression process to go thru, etc. I'm still looking for the perfect backup program that meets my simple needs.
