We hope to have Backup4all 4.1 fully Unicode (we're depending on a 3rd party, so it might be sooner).

-Softland (August 22, 2008, 01:40 AM)

The sooner the better.

Regarding the registry backup, Backup4all has the ability to do that but we haven't made this public because we consider this a rather dangerous thing if it's not used by powerusers. ...

-Softland (August 22, 2008, 01:40 AM)

Are we talking about backing up the whole registry or just selective key(s)?
Let's take GBM's registry key(s) backup as example, the selected registry key(s) are simply part of a backup job, i.e. when I setup a backup job to backup data of an application I could also pick few registry keys (where the application's settings are stored). So whenever the backup job is run, everything defined therein will be backup, I don't see how could I miss/ forget to backup the registry keys that are defined in a job. (be it incremental or not).
Btw, GBM's registry keys (and/or its plugins) backup can be added as part of a job, they don't have to stand by themselves...

I mean, I couldn't understand your logic of error/problem in registry is more dangerous then in ordinary data. A mistake in backup (or restore) of ordinary data could also cause big problem, then why only the former is being hidden from the users? You mean you hide the feature just because you think user might make mistake? I don't see that a reasonable thought or logical factor in software design.
Say I am a Backup4All user, and I forget to turn on my Backup4all scheduled backup for half a year which then cause me to loss everything when I got a bad HDD, does that cause you to cut the schedule function from Backup4All?

Btw, I do not create a gigantic job to backup several applications or EVERYTHING. I create job on per application basic and then group them. e.g. I could group A, B, C and D in a group called "daily backup" simply because they change a lot of data everyday. And I could have another group named "Graphic utilities" where it contains A, X, Y and Z applications. Note that A is also present here in this group because it is a graphic utility. So whichever group I run the backup, the A's sources are backup to the same target as defined in job A.

I am sorry I can no more remember the group feature in Backup4All in detail. I know it has tree-like presentation of jobs, but are the grouping a real grouping where groups can share a single job?

Hi,

It could be considered wizard like but it's not imo. It's more a step by step process type deal where I would have to do a backup and take screenshots at each step.

In other words it will not show the details of each step without actually taking action in each step.

-cmpm (August 21, 2008, 09:25 AM)

That is exactly what a wizard-like interface shall look like. I don't see anything from your screen captures that make it a bit non-wizard-like.

FYI, I do not against Wizard-like interface being provided in any utility/application. But that should be an optional mean of introduction or a guide for newbies to gain experience. As users become more and more familiar with what the program can do, shouldn't there be an object oriented way, something flexible and efficient. Wizard-like is task-orientated and worse still, the process is sequential...

To be frank, I own a license of Genie Backup Manager Pro and am still using it (the latest ver)... but I don't like it. I use it, NOT because it is good, but its competitors are worse. I can't find one better than it wrt to my 7 requirements.

The GBM Pro is the world most extreme software. It has fast zip engine, it is unicode aware, has treeview to select source items plus wildcard filter and it can backup registry keys and ADS streams. In brief, the engine, the internal organs of this gargoyle is extremely decent and powerful. But its interface design... uh!!! is extremely inefficient, inconsistent, brainless, ... Btw, from the screen captures, I think titanBackup wizard is a better wizard than the GBM's, though they both are wizard that I dislike.

If you don't mind my long-winded story, please read the below, the world most incredible backup achievement in 21st century:

GBM does not support job grouping nor does it provide anything that help one to quickly backup several jobs. So my wish to prepare backup jobs then create different combinations of jobs (groups) and schedule group instead of jobs is too big a dream for the developer of GBM. I decide to DIY - I use LS to prepare a list of GBM jobs (they are physical files in a folder, anyway) into a plain text file, I then use MacroExpress to process that text file line by line (after some trimming, each line becomes a job name) and these job names are supplied (as command-line parameter) to GBM (one at a time) in order to group-run the jobs. Finally I add that macro to True Launchbar so that I can one-click run a group of jobs, I have about a dozen of such macro on the launchbar... what a solution in blood and sweat, isn't it? No, no, the story doesn't end here, not yet. When I run my macro, that is - running a series of backup jobs, for each job run, I see a dialog pop up with countdown counter, wait n seconds then only a job starts... (I can't even opt to have no countdown) wtfk kind of interface is that, ugh!!!

Believe me, all that has pushed me so hard that I am willing to burn my house in order to drop it, but I find no alternative, I have no choice... don't get me wrong, I mean ... I got no other place to stay :)

4. Able to group backup jobs and act (backup/ restore) base on the group.

-tslim (August 20, 2008, 09:19 AM)

in SFFS, in order to do this you have to give the backups you want to group a prefix (with a space after it), e.g.
J Appbackups
J Paperwork
J Photos

They will then show as
J
   Appbackups
   Paperwork
   Photos
and can be selected as a group by ticking "J"

-tomos (August 21, 2008, 07:30 AM)

That sounds more like a workaround than real grouping. I can immediately see a problem, how to have groups sharing particular job?

Btw, I read the help file of SFFS, it seems to have very limited explanation for zip package on the right side (destination)...
Is all the manual's explanation on file / folder settings also applied to those files/folders being zip in a zip package?
e.g. are the below also applied on a zip package backup:
On right side, create a new folder each time
Check Existence Of Destination File Again During Copying
Clear Archive Flags

Just a quick clue please:
It is possible to create a job, where each run will create a new xxx(n).zip on the right side, n is increment counter and had SFFS control how big n can go. That is if all the xxx(n).zip of a job are backup to a destination folder say Mybackup, I can set n=52, so Mybackup will holds no more than 52 zips and when n hits 52, that is after the xxx(52).zip is created, the n roll back to 1 and start all over?