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What Happened to Genie Backup Manager?

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delaners:
I started using Genie BU Manager when it was mentioned on Donation Coder.  I used Timeline, but removed it from my computer as it was very intrusive and really slowed the computer down when it was running.  There are plenty of better solutions to mirror files.  More recently, I am trying EaseUS ToDo Backup Free 3.0.  This is a relatively new program (China), free, and has characteristics of both Genie BU and Acronis.  So far, seems pretty good. 

Curt:
Genie Timeline Professional 2012 (v3)

Genie Timeline 2012 has been enhanced with plenty of new features.

Backup speeds are twice the speed of the previous version, for instance.

The program is smarter, less likely to store multiple copies of the same file, so reducing backup space requirements.

Explorer folder icons will have a marker to indicate which ones are backed up. And it's now quicker and easier to restore the files you need.

The Professional edition provides fine control over which files are backed up, enable you to encrypt them for maximum security, can schedule backups to run on particular dates (and as frequently as every 3 minutes), and are able to shut your PC down once a backup is complete.

Note that Genie Timeline Professional 2012 ships with a single PC, non-expiring lifetime license.
-Genie
--- End quote ---

Genie Timeline Professional 2012 (v3)
includes a 1-PC, unlimited non-expiring license

RRP: A$59.95
Save: A$30.00 (50%)
Our Price: A$29.95

http://store.pcauthority.com.au/p27383-genie-timeline-professional-2012-v3


-pcauthority
--- End quote ---

f0dder:
Hm, can't make up my mind with regards to purchasing Genie Timeline or not.

I'm near the end of my trial period, and so far it has been pretty satisfactory. It doesn't bog down my machine (admittedly, that would be a pretty awesome feat after my latest upgrade :P), and I really like the no-nonsense simple GUI and the multiple backups. I've pointed it a my fileserver and let it use 50 gigabytes storage, which is enough for quite a few versions of my most important data.

So, what's holding me back?

First, two relatively minor points, that still nag me somewhat.
1) the structure of the backups. Poking around there just looks... weird. OTOH, rather than 100% opaque binary blobs, there's a bunch of individually zipped up versions - plus special storage for files with very long path/filenames, and some bookkeeping database stuff. Would be a pain to extract stuff by hand, but seems doable. The structure also does seem to be relatively wasteful... then again, it makes for fast restore of individual versions.
2) the use of an explorer shell extension for the timeline explorer. I really, really, don't think that's the best way to implement this... also, the UI for this is a bit too simplistic, offering only home/end, prev/next and some 'dots' you can click - there's no decent overview of or way to select based on dates.
3) restore seems relatively slow - seems like traversing their version-database/whatever might not be designed the best way in the world (actual file restoration after the "preparing data" step seemed to run at fine speed). And this is after the 30-day trial period - I have no idea whether the "preparing data" step will take even longer as more versions are accumulated?
4) trying to con you into "extended download support" and adding whatever unrelated crap. I know there's a fair amount of online stores doing this, but it's still damn cheesy. (That's the shop on Curt's link, btw, not the official(?) genie9 store).

I can live with the above flaws, but they do nag me a bit. And I haven't found another piece of backup software that runs unobtrusively in the background and does local, versioned, on-modified backups.

Now, there's a few other things that, when added to the above points, makes me queasy.
1) the "tweet about this" and "like us on facebook" buttons in the main UI. Like, WTF? Sure, have those on your webpage if you must - but in the program UI? Tacky.
2) "but where did the forums go?"
3) genie-software/genie9's history of not updating their software for ages.
4) the genie9 blog... like, W-T-MEGA-F? Why the heck is a backup software company blogging about smartphone apps, Nikon kameras, tablets and stuff? The blog seems like a mix of somehow-revenue-generating links and stuff that really doesn't have anything to do with backup (olympics 2012, for instance).

So I don't really know. I haven't found any other backup software that I really like, but the company seems dodgy. What to do?

They currently have a 35% off summer sale, but Curt's link also seems to work (at least up until you enter your CC information, haven't gone through with it) - dunno if there's any differences between the Pro version there and the Pro version on their site?

*sigh*. Why can't these things ever be easy?

tomos:
And I haven't found another piece of backup software that runs unobtrusively in the background and does local, versioned, on-modified backups.
-f0dder (August 20, 2012, 01:58 PM)
--- End quote ---

what have you tried?

I would have thought SFFS would be your type of backup programme - have you tried it? Seems to me it does all you want, backups are very accessible. It's very versatile, I find that a problem at times - not knowing which goddamn option to choose- and have run into problems because of that.
But:
the developer is very quick to reply to emails or in the forum
I've had it a few years now and there was only one paid update - quite recently, in spite of the fact that there are very regular updates.

Oh, yeah: it's called Syncovery now - www.syncovery.com

J-Mac:
I have used SFFS for about four or five years now. At first I just used it for syncing some folders, but now I am using it for more. I did away with Jungle Disk - once they were purchased by Rackspace they really pushed hard to get me to abandon my Amazon S3 account and use Rackspace instead. But the Rackspace storage doesn’t allow browsing your files/folders, as Amazon S3 does. So I stuck with it for about two years but each update broke a little more of the interface with S3 and they would pressure me to switch my data to Rackspace again. I finally set up SFFS to sync directly to Amazon S3 and that now happens daily, silently, and hasn’t screwed up anything at all yet. So bye-bye to Jungle Disk.

I didn't even know they changed the name, Tom! Tobias seems to have stopped sending out any newsletters or any emails at all. Maybe since he changed his web site I need to re-subscribe or something.

Thanks!

Jim

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