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BackupBuddy2 from
Blue Nomad
Review by Neil Brown
To my mind, there are two essentials when it comes to
getting a new PDA- sorting out a screen protector, and finding a system of
backing up your data. There is a common misconception amongst newcomers
that a HotSync will backup all your data- unfortunately this is not the
case. HotSync primarily syncs your data, so that the information on your PC
and on your PDA is the same- for data which does not form part of the sync
process, there is little you can do if you should lose it, other than rely
on a backup application.
This is where BackUpBuddy2 comes into play- developed
by Blue Nomad, it is a complete PDA-PC backup
program, with optional extras which allow for backup to a memory card.
BackUpBuddy2 is a significant reworking on the successful principles behind
BackUpBuddy1, and makes some important changes and additions.
The main change to the application is the method by
which things are stored- essentially, you create an initial synchronisation
which mirrors all the data stored on your PDA, and subsequent backups log
the changes. The end result of this is that you can restore your PDA to any
day in which you have created a backup, which is excellent- if you think
you deleted a vital file last Thursday, you can simply restore that file.
This differs from all other backup systems, as one backup overwrites the
last, unless you are storing multiple backups- by storing the only the
changes, BB2 minimises the amount of memory used, which is important, even
on a PC- if you have T3 stuffed full of applications, each backup could
take up 54mb- it does not take long for this mount up into a significant
size.
Sheer functionality and flexibility are the biggest
assets of the new release; you can even restore a mix of files: copy the
latest data files from your applications, while restoring your system
settings from last week, and reinstalling a program you deleted months ago.
Perhaps the easiest way to look at this is that BB2 creates a library of
data from your PDA- using their PC software, you can browse through the
library, and select which files you wish to put back onto your device. BB2
does the donkey work for you, and automatically selects all the necessary
files which relate to the application you wish to restore- if you
don’t want this, however, you can simply tell it not to do so.
When I initially posted a news article about the beta
release of the product, I said that I thought the idea might be overkill
for most users. However, after using this for the best part of two weeks, I
have come to appreciate just how useful it is to be able to selectively
restore like this- I did some work on revision notes for my exam, and then
overwrote them by accident, not discovering until a couple of days later. I
was able to recover the file on the day that I had finished it, and rescue
the changes- this saved me a good couple of hours work, and was very easy
to accomplish, so I was impressed.
I was a user of BB1 before the second edition was
released, so I did go into this review with a slight bias towards BlueNomad’s products- I am more than happy to
declare this. However, I write this review with a clear mind, and a clear
desire to recommend this product- I have had no problems with it
whatsoever. However, that is not enough to really recommend something- to
have trouble-free operation is good, but, in many ways, expected. BB2 goes
considerably beyond this, adding a new degree of functionality and utility
to the backup process. BB1 did its job well, but, at times it could be
plain slow- for this reason, I got into the habit of leaving it switched
off, only using it when I thought I needed it. Obviously, I would suffer a
crash, need to restore, and find things were greatly out of date. For a few
days, I would persevere with BB1 running every time, and, gradually, I
would fall back to the old routine of switching it off. Whilst BB2 is not
instantaneous, it is considerably faster, taking a matter of seconds rather
than minutes. This has the result that I now leave it on permanently,
meaning I have a record of virtually everything done on my PDA, and always
have an up to date back up available.
BlueNomad have made some excellent
changes and additions to what was already an excellent piece of software.
The addition of incremental backup means that I am sure I have copies of
all my data easily accessible, and with little additional hotsync time. BB2 does not only do its job well, it
excels at it- the interface is easy to configure, and you can choose
exactly which files you wish to backup, and which ones to exclude. When I
was playing with this, I realised I did not need to backup AvantGo files, nor the NoviiRemote
databases, which do not change- excluding these shaved another couple of
seconds off the time. Even if you are not prepared to explore the
application, but want something efficient “out of the box,” I
would be more than happy to recommend this. What makes the deal even more
of a clincher is the inclusion of BackUpBuddyVFS Lite, which is a cut down, but still highly useful
version of their utility for backing up to a memory stick. Most of
BB2’s power comes from the desktop system, but the inclusion of the
VFS system is very welcome.
Overall, I think that BlueNomad
should be justifiably proud of this new release, which you can download
from here.
If you are a new user, the price is $29.95-
not cheap as PDA software comes, but a small price for peace of mind. You
can download a 15-day demo version from here.
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