Data Backup X is software to help you do the (seemingly) impossible: backup your hard drive. Not that you couldn't do this before, but even with Data Backup X the backing up is still up to you. But this program is likely to make backing up a bit less painful. However, as a first release, Data Backup X still has some growing to do to make the backup process as painless as possible.

I recently reviewed Data Rescue, software that has a very strong chance of letting you rescue data from a hard disk that has crashed so bad that it won't even mount and cannot be mounted by repair software. While Data Rescue can do this, I pointed out in my review, you cannot depend upon programs to make up for not backing up your hard drive. That's where Data Backup X comes in. While Data Rescue can help you recover data off your hard drive, nothing can recover data from a drive that has been stolen or physically trashed beyond help.

The constant question one must ask themselves "is my data not worth saving?" If the answer is no, don't bother to continue reading this article, but if you feel your tax records are important, read on...

After installation, ProSoft recommends that you drag the Data Backup X's icon into the Login file so that the program is always running--another push to make backing up your data as commonplace as checking your E-mail.

The main screen one is likely to encounter when first staring at Data Backup appears below.

If you click on the Backup icon, you see the following below. This couldn't be simpler: you drag the folder or volume (mounted drive) that you want to back up into the region on the left and drag where you want to back it up to into the region on the right. You can drag it to just about any other mountable media: Zip, other hard drive (built-in or via Firewire), or even a mounted CD-R that's ready to record onto.

Here is where I find the first catch with Data Backup X: There is no option during this process (or at any other time when selecting the backup media) for you to name the receiving volume. More on this later, where it will be called Request #2.

As you can see below, you can select only the Documents, Replace only new files, and, if you are backing up onto a previously backup volume, if you have removed material from the original folder, that same material can be deleted from the receiving volume. When you click the Backup button, all the files are transported to the receiving volume exactly as they were in the finder from the original volume. Except the original containing folder. That is, let's say you have a folder called "My Folder" and it is selected on the left side. On the right side you select a Zip Cartridge. Once the backup is complete, in the Zip Cartridge you will find all the files contained within My Folder, but not a folder called My Folder. We now have Request #2, a check box offering to place the contents into a folder/volume by the same name as the original folder/volume. [Interestingly, if you are running an Action (explained later) the original folder is saved as the containing folder.]

Lastly, you also see the "Compress files" option. This lets you compress the files during the saving process to take up less space. To the right is a compressed file in ProSoft's proprietary compression format. The compression algorithm used is not as good as that used by Stuffit, but it's good. But here's the catch: the compression process used it unknown by Stuffit (at least at the time of this writing). The danger here is obvious: let's say you back up a collection of documents--say an old screenplay. And many years from now an agent calls you up asking if you still have the old screenplay; Lucas is interested. Let's also say that the original was corrupted on your hard drive, so the backup is all you have left. Let's also say that you got silly and threw out all your backup software. You see where I'm going with this. The great thing about Data Backup is that it preserves the Finder view of all your data (compressed or not). This means even without the Data Backup software you can restore all your data by dragging it from the removable media back onto your hard drive. If you place it in a compressed state that you can't do anything with, it's as good as gone. While it is a great idea to offer compression of data, I would never use it.

As fast and easy as the previous technique was, you can get more formal/organized with Data Backup. If you click on the toggle arrowhead, you can access the various Advanced Actions.

Here, three new options are presented: Copy, Synchronize, and Compress. Copy is similar to Backup but no compression is offered and if a file is the same at the Destination one can leave it alone, move it to the Trash, or delete the item.

Synchronize lets you move files in both directions, one way, or the other. Compress gives you the option to replace non-compressed versions of your documents with compressed versions.

To be honest, I'm not sure why these three options are considered "Advanced Actions," but I digress. You can create Programmed Actions which is what you really want to do if you want total backup control on your files.

If you click on the "Create..." Button, "Advanced Actions" can be created. Actions, simply put, are macros that can be performed on a variety and/or collection of processes by either selecting the action and telling Data Backup to perform that action or have it self-execute at a defined date and time. Thus, if you do not want the backup process taking away from your computer time, you could set your computer to back itself up at 2 in the morning--every morning.

This latter option is obviously only available if one has a network or very large hard drive to back up onto. Without such options, one has to back up onto removable media.

To set up an action, one simply goes from left to right. You set the type of backup in Mode (see above), and Items lets you select what folder(s) to back up for that action.

In the Options tab, one can set whether the file(s) will be compressed, delete files in the backup if the original file has been deleted, allow replacement of newer files with older files (if that's what you've done in the original) and set the maximum size of each partition. That is, if you are saving to 100 MB Zip Cartridges (about 94 MB effective size), you can set the maximum partition at 90 MB, or 650 MB if you are backing up to CDs.

Trigger lets you select how the action will be run by either doing nothing (meaning you will manually initiate the backup) or at a set time/day for the action to be run. Exceptions lets you define specific files within selected folders that can be ignored. These can be identified by name, Mac Creator/Type code, size is greater/less than a given size or modified before or after a given date.

Lastly, Links lets you have Data Backup automatically run one type of file, application, and/or script if the backup was successful, or a different one if the backup was unsuccessful. And lastly, the completion of one action can initiate the start of another action.

There are many things to commend Data Backup, but there are a few glitches:

1. The good news is that no special software is NEEDED to recover data because the selected items are saved in a Finder like format. However, no attempt is made to try and get the maximum number of files on any backup media. Let me explain. Let's say I've got a folder that is 125 MB in size with documents ranging from 4 KB to 20 MB and I'm backing up to 100 MB Zip Cartridges. If, during the file copying process, there is 16 MB left on the first Zip Cartridge, but the next file selected for copying is the 20 MB file, the 2nd Zip will be asked for even though there is ample room on the first Zip for more files. Thus, what I'm asking for is intelligent selection of files to maximize space--these are computers after all.
2. There is neither automatic naming of removable media nor is there any chance to name removable media during the saving process. Fortunately there is no problem with changing the name of a Zip after having used it as a selected backup media, but if you have multiple disks, there is no automatic selection after one is full.
3. In a given folder, I added one document, ran my action to backup that folder as a Mirror, and it not only backup up the new file but a series of others that had not been altered.
4. When the first removable media is full, a warning message comes up for you to either cancel or select another folder to place more files. An "Eject" option would be great here.
5. No paper manual. This is not terribly complicated software, and at 53 pages (including the cover) the manual is not overly complex, but some of us like looking at paper and the screen instead of trying to flip back and forth from one program to another on the same screen.

Keep in mind though that although this is not complex-to-use software, it can restore to a bootable OS X disks. Although I would not recommend restoring your hard drive intact*, the fact that this software can do that shows that this is a powerful, albeit young, program.

I state a young program because it runs not as a seasoned program but one that is likely to be dynamite when version 2 comes along. Right now it's a good program with some rough edges--particularly #3 above.

At a minimum, Data Backup can help you organize your backup procedures and do a fine job of backing up your data.

Remember, there are two kinds of people who use computers: those who've had a major hard drive crash, and those who've not had a major hard drive crash yet. Where will your data be when one or the other happens?

*[Editor's comment: Assuming that you have all the CDs of all the software on your computer, you already have the "backup" of all your applications. The only thing that is not "automatically" backed up in that regard is your documents. Thus, the only thing you really need to keep backed up are your personal files which include E-mail, updaters to your applications, your favorites in your browser, tax records, etc. If you are having to restore your files, that implies you have had a horrific incident with your computer. If you restore your computer, you may be restoring a condition that caused it to crash/implode in the first place. Thus, you are much much better off to just bite the bullet, re-install everything (OS and applications) from scratch, and then replace your data.]

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