Backup software is one of the first solid utilities that was every created for a personal computer. Back at the beginning of time with respect to PC history, it was recognized that a convenient method was needed to save and restore data from your computer (or any device with storage) to prevent the accidental loss of data from such threats as:

• Hardware failures
• Accidental deletions
• Poorly behaved software installations
• Malicious programs (viruses, trojan horse programs, worms, etc.)
• Bulk transferring of data from one storage device/computer to another
• Preserving data before a potentially risky operation such as partition resizing

Since data backup and recovery software has been around for so long, there are a huge host of products available for you to consider. Properties of the backup software you wish to keep in mind when considering a purchase are:

• Do you really need it? - If you just want to back up a few files, then you might be better served by simply buying a couple of USB Flash Drives and copying your data manually to the drives as needed. Why spend the money on backup software if you do not really need it?
• Cost - this one is obvious
• Backup targets (where can you write the data backup to?) - This can be another hard disk (like an external hard disk), a CD or DVD, a network disk (if you have a drive with space on your network), an FTP server (a piece of software dedicated to storing/retrieving files regardless of the operating system in use) or perhaps even an online storage service)
• Security - How secure is the backup storage medium? If you are backing up to your own external hard drive then you are in good safe so long as you protect access to your external drive from unauthorized users. If you are backing up to a network drive or an online service, you will want to make certain your data is adequately protected.

BE SURE TO TEST YOUR BACKUPS!

One mistake that people often make is that they dutifully run a backup process regularly but never test the backup afterward to see if the backup is “good” or “readable”. Particularly the very first time you create a backup, be sure to perform a “trial” restore of the backup (in such a way that it does not overwrite your original data if something should go wrong!) to be sure that the backup data is actually recoverable You would be quite surprised how many large companies have instituted backup strategies for years and never bothered to “test” the backup. Believe me, it is not pretty to discover at the time of a data loss that your backups are not readable!

Fortunately, most publishers of backup software today provide a “test” option. This “test” mode basically performs a complete restore of your backed up data with one small difference…it doesn’t actually write the data back to your hard disk. In this way, the software does exactly what it would do during a data restore operation (i.e. reads the backed up data) and verifies that it can successfully read the information.

With that in mind, we have provided a list of backup software you might want to consider if you find yourself in need of such a tool.