Uniblue WinBackup 2.0 Professional Review

      While we pride our selves in reviewing some of the finest hardware on the market here at the Club, sometimes we get a chance to play with a nice software title as well.  Uniblue's WinBackup 2.0 Professional is just such a title.  This award winning backup utility is designed to make protecting your data simple and fast.  Lets see if WinBackup should have a place on your Christmas list.

     There is no doubt backing up your critical data is important.  After all, no one likes to loose a file or worse, a crash!  So why don't we backup?  WinBackup wants to make your experience affordable and easy.

     Installing WinBackup is pretty easy.  Or evaluation version shows the three levels of WinBackup available.  For this review I will be using the Professional interface.  For most home users the Standard version is the way to go.

The install is quick and brainless, the way I like it.  I even like the life preserver imagery.

Key Features:

	Exceptionally simple to use WinBackup 2.0 Professional allows small and medium businesses to focus on the more challenging issues rather than on administering backups.
	Minimized cost of ownership WinBackup 2.0 Professional features are designed specifically for small and medium sized businesses to minimize cost of ownership.
	Peace of mind and complete reliability Small and medium sized businesses can rely completely on WinBackup 2.0 Professional for full protection if and when things go wrong.
	Proven performance and superior speed WinBackup 2.0 Professional leverages proprietary technology to build a backup and recovery management solution that is among the fastest on the market.
	Enterprise-level features WinBackup 2.0 Professional guarantees complete protection of the data assets of small and medium sized businesses through a comprehensive and powerful set of enterprise-level features. Click for Detailed Feature List
	Breadth of backup and media coverage With its wealth of functionality, WinBackup 2.0 Professional ensures that all notebooks and workstations are backed up to any chosen media and that all data assets are fully recoverable.

     The software opens to this default screen.  You have the most common functions right at your fingertips.  The numbered steps across the top will help you navigate through creating and modifying your backup jobs. The option to view a flash demo is an added bonus for first time users.

     After choosing the new job option you are confronted with an explorer like window allowing you to navigate and select your files.  A handy search option is available for those misplaced documents.  The flexibility to backup exactly what you want or the whole system is very welcome.

     Next, choose your backup location.  UniBlue has included support for all major data locations, including CD/DVD burners and external drive solutions.  For this example I have chosen to back up my data to a network drive on another PC.

     The job settings tab gives you the option to choose a total or incremental backup.  You can select a validation method; none, fast or secure.  You can exclude certain file types and even have the WinBackup software erase your re-writable media before writing to it.

     You can choose your compression level.  High compression takes less space but more time and low compression is the opposite.  WinBackup offers 4 different settings to choose from.  I will be setting my job up to run while I sleep so speed is not an issue.

     Your security options allow you to set a password and choose between two different levels of encryption for extra security.  This would be useful in an enterprise environment.

     The actions options allow you to create a template both before and/or after the backup job is run.  A couple of examples are provided as templates.  These included templates cover closing outlook during the backup and shutting down when the backup has concluded.  Both are options I would see getting a lot of use.

     Like any good backup suite, WinBackup allows you to schedule your backup for running when it will be least intrusive.

     The added calendar is a nice plus allowing you to visualize the jobs you have setup in an easy to read format.  If you have multiple jobs setup, you can see at a glance if the schedule needs to be adjusted.

     Once your backup job is completed you can run it manually or using the schedule you have setup.  This picture shows a sample backup in progress.  The log at the bottom will keep you informed of your progress and any issues your job has encountered.  In addition, your logs are kept as a history for further reference.

Tray Icon

The life preserver sits on your tray and allows you access to a progress meter for backups in progress.

Restoring a backup is even easier.  Simply browse to the backup file, select the data to be restored and hit the button.

     Using WinBackup is pretty easy but UniBlue provides a fantastic help that can also be updated with the touch of a button.

Conclusion:

     Uniblue has been around for a long time as LiUtilities Inc.  Now UniBlue has created a backup solution that is nearly bullet proof.  Not only did I find the setup to be both simple and intuitive to use,  I found both full system and incremental backups ran flawlessly and restored without issues.  Uniblue is currently offering WinBackup 2.0 Professional for $69.95, the Standard version for only $49.95 and the Enterprise version for $349.95.  That's a small price to pay for your peace of mind.  Everyone knows you should be backing up your critical data, now you can take care of backups with no hassle or worry.

Note:  There has never been a better time to try a Uniblue backup solution.  The good folks at UniBlue have just released the full and unlimited version of WinBackup 1.86 for free!  Packed with advanced features, the free download product is available exclusively at their new backup and storage portal backupanswers.com.  Don't miss your chance to get a market-leading and unrestricted backup product for free (previously USD49.95).