Today I will be looking at Uniblue’s latest backup and archival application, WinBackup 2.0 Professional. Uniblue claims that this software is 100% reliable and offers superior performance with complete data protection through a comprehensive and powerful set of enterprise-level features. Strong claims. Let’s see how they hold up.

Essentially, this application is composed of several small backup and archival tools bundled into one streamlined package. I will be comparing this application against two wide-spread encryption utilities, namely Winzip 9.0 and WinRar 3.50. I will be measuring the application’s speed, encryption and ease of use.

The test bed:

Intel Pentium 4E (Prescott) 3.0ghz @ 3.6Ghz (15x 240)
2 gigs (4x 512mb) Corsair 3200 Value Select RAM
74gig Western Digital Raptor, 10 000RPM (SATA interface)
80gig Western Digital Caviar, 7200 RPM (IDE interface)
ASUS P4P800E-Deluxe, Intel 865PE Chipset
ATI X850XT (AGP), ATI Catalyst 5.8

Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2

WinBackup Pro 2.0
Winzip 9.0
Winrar 3.50

Firing up WinBackup for the first time, it becomes obvious that the interface was created with ease and simplicity in mind. On the top panel, we can find a three-step process bar which is in turn divided into several smaller sections. On the left, we have the available tasks bar which allows you to quickly create or restore a backup. These navigation panes make it easy to begin and follow your backup’s status as you work through the procedure. However, the interface could have used a bit more color and eye candy but that can be pardoned as the application is meant for professional and power users.

So how easy is it to use? Well let’s start by creating a backup. Using side menu, you can select the option to “Create a new Job” which will begin the backup process. You will then be prompted to name your archive. In this case, I have selected to name my backup “My Music Backup” which will be composed of approximately 870 songs, weighing in at slightly less than 4.4 gigabytes, which should be more than enough to measure its performance.

The next step is to select which files we want to backup and where to save our archive. In my case, all the files were found in the same folder but I could have easily selected or remove files individually through a checkbox and pull down menu interface. I chose to save the archive to a different drive for benchmarking purposes. WinBackup also offers common backup items such as browser bookmarks, favourites and cache as well as Microsoft Outlook e-mails and dozens of Windows options. However, I haven’t seen any option to e-mail, upload or burn the backup to a CD once it has been created.

Once you have selected what files to archive, you will get to choose the job’s settings. This is where the application shines. You are poised with dozens of options ranging from your backup type to compression, security and various other actions so let’s break them down for a closer look.

Backup Type
In Backup Type, you have the option of either creating a full backup which selects all files, or an incremental one which will only backup new and modified files to save up on space. You also get the options to verify the files in two different methods using either quick or in-depth verification, which allows for higher security and integrity. The third option is the Exclude Filter which allows you to filter out certain files based on their extension (bmp, exe, zip).

Compression
In this section, you can select from four different levels of compression: none, fast, normal and max. Unfortunately, the actual amount of compression is not specified but those options offer the basic gamma and should suffice for basic users.

Security
The Security features of WinBackup 2.0 are divided into four options:
None, (no security)
Low (password protection)
Medium (fast encryption)
High (strong encryption)

During the testing, I set all security settings to maximum and when entering a password, I apparently entered the password confirmation incorrectly. Doing so generated a scripting bug with an “Unknown error” dialog box that presented me with three options: ignore, generate report or exit. Thankfully, the “Ignore” option allowed me to continue as if nothing ever happened.

Actions
The final option you get to choose is Actions. In this section, you have the option to execute special actions before and after the backup procedure. These actions are defined using a syntax-based code but how exactly remains a mystery to me as the “Syntax Help” button did not even work. However, WinBackup 2.0 includes two template actions: “Close Outlook during Backup” and “Shutdown after Backup” which should give you an idea of its flexibility.

Once all those options have been tweaked to your liking, you are prompted to select Schedule Rules. This allows you to select how often you want to run your backup making it a snap to safeguard your stuff on a routine basis. I would have loved to see more flexibility here, especially seeing as this application is aimed towards professional users and the shortest interval between backups is daily. I’m sure most people would find this time lapse ample but for people who run important business applications and websites, a custom time field would have been a welcome addition.

The final step is to actually create the backup. One of the nice things I have noticed is that WinBackup 2.0 keeps you informed of what’s going on and does so in great detail. Not only are you provided with the elapsed and remaining times during archival, you are also shown which file is currently being encrypted, a percentage graph, the number of files read, the number of bytes copied and the on-going byte rate.

As you can see, WinBackup 2.0 offers a good amount of flexibility without sacrificing ease of use and streamlining, but the more advanced users may find themselves shying away from this one due to the limited number of options that can be applied during the procedure so let’s see if its performance can make it must-have.

Dont have flash installed? then click here for a jpeg image of the above graph

 

Dont have flash installed? then click here for a jpeg image of the above graph

 

Dont have flash installed? then click here for a jpeg image of the above graph

 

Final Thoughts:

Value: 7/10
Uniblue’s website has their application at 60$ US, excluding a 10$ rebate offered at the time of this writing which sets it to about midrange in the market. It’s much more expensive than WinZip and WinRar, but cheaper than some other professional backup and archival tools and offers a nice array of features.

Security: 9/10
No doubts about it, your backups are secured. This is probably the nicest feature of this application as you have the option to not only encrypt your files, but you can also verify the integrity of your files during archival and decryption.

Interface: 7/10
The interface was alright but could have used a bit more eye candy. However, it was extremely easy to use and setup but lacked more advanced features. Also keep in mind that I have encountered a few programming or application errors during my trials so keep that in mind.

Overall: 7/10
In summary, Uniblue has released a nice little piece of software. It’s definitely not ground breaking and unfortunately offers very little to the power users but it does feature a very easy, streamlined interface that makes it easy to perform backups and archives with a solid level of security and peace of mind. If this is worth 60$ to you, then I would recommend this application for your daily/weekly backups.

 

 

Contacts: Reviewer: Eric "Daedal" Niquette
Editor/Designer: Allan "Zardon" Campbell