This software rocks! Thanks GAOTD. I didn't have any problem with the download like some are reporting and after completing a back up I should say that it is a much more complete back up than any other back up software I've used. I highly recommend!

I gotta say I am loving this program! They couldn't have placed it on here at a better time! I was able to use Titan Back up to back up all of our Client Applications on to a web sever from a network drive!

JSM #43
Thanks for the tip from Seagate!!
I have a seagate or maxtor drive in almost every system I have.
The program works great and I'll never have to worry about losing a program because of formatting.

That is my biggest pet peeve with this site. Yes the programs are nice, but if they can only be installed on one day, well, they're pretty much useless IMHO. I come here for tips like this from informed users and sometimes to lead people to freeware versions.

Thanks again!!

I had commented in a support area that I was unable to download this program. There was an error message across the top of the page which I had copied and pasted in that support ticket. I tried to open the page with 3 different browsers, and they all showed the exact same message, so I believe it was this site's problem, and not mine. Also, I had no such warning (error message) with any other website. At any rate, the reason I could not download the program is because there was no "download" tab anywhere. There was no link to move to a second page. Did others find this same problem as well? I'm hoping very much that you offer this again for the reason stated. Thank you GAOTD! You are the BEST!

when i have installing titan backup the "giveaway period for this software is over, please check our web-site for a new giveaway" message apply.
why ?

dilip

For some this back up program might seem a good idea. I do not believe it is for the very reason that if it is not stored outside your computer then it is open for loss in many ways. The program that operates the back up must also be put on disc or you will not be able to use the backups.

You do not need a special program to do this because nearly all OS systems have a way of coppying to disc or another sourse. If the other source is another computer it should not be on the same network. If not on a disc then at least two backups should be made. Again outside the computer.

program just crashes when i start it, giving an "exception in code segment blah blah..."
probably one of those overprotected/packed programs which run on 98% of all computers only :(

I am quite late for this download and hope someone could help me with solving an unexpected error which states, "You do not have access to make the required system configuration nodifications. Plese rerun this installation from an administrators account."

I have tried and had got the same result.

#42 & #53: Thank you for your comments, which I have found very useful. I always check the best possibilities for any software.

#57: You are right, that some people here attempt to "show their PC Muscle" (even then, some comments can be really useful). It is very easy however, comparing them with the real experts (I check no more than 2-3 "experts websites", as truly reliable references), to tell their actual level of expertise, which is only at the user level. Most of their knowledge comes actually from what they have learned from other people.

I had version 1.2.0.4 installed and I installed the newer version 1.2.0.13. I used the same settings for installation location, start menu position,...

I started it and it ran perfect. I checked the about file and it says that I am running version 1.2.0.13, but the serial number is still the old one. I am going to change the serial number to the new one, but I would like to know why there has been a change at all if the old serial number works fine.

THANK YOU #26 & #42, Your comments are going to help me decide to download this product, out of 50 comments only 2 addressed the product from experience! 20+ comments, most by their own admittion had not even downloaded it let alone tried it!

The majority attempted to show their PC Muscle, but like most muscle men it is mostly bloated ego's. I say IF you have not tried it, don't comment! If you want to boast your PC abilities start a blog site! But please don't advertise it here,(like #7 does anytime he gets a chance) you might mess up some "inexperienced" user's PC and I would feel guilty for suggesting it to you!
Last but not least #47 the most negative & paranoid commenter on this site. Go buy some more RAM!

@50, 'Calvin'
You must look for 'unicode'...
There are zip programs which support unicode filenames... but I can´t remeber if (which?) backup software supports this: but a good app. SHOULD! (with german äöüß it doesn´t seem to be a problem!!!

what is the best way to transfer programs to my #2 computer that i have downloaded to my main computer #1 I have many programson #1 that i should have downloaded onto #2 but didn't have time to do both cp's at the same time..

can i make a backup of my computer and load the backup into my other computer and transfer the info or will that not work?

37) I've used COMODO backup and it's rather nice, doesn't have all the GUI bells and whistles as this one. And this one also looks nicer, and is easier to set up. On the other hand, Comodo also is constantly improving on their products, so if you see something you like, sign up for the forums, and ask for it. Might be done in the next release.

38) Hush, fool. I run Comodo Firewall and Backup. Both are more powerful then the ZoneAlarm stuff most will pay an arm and leg for.

#22 The free program I use is called XXClone. http://www.xxclone.com/ What I like most about XXCLone is it copies everything including the hard drive ID and more. This way some programs won't ask you to re-install when you run the new hard drive. I've bought and tossed many programs that claimed to backup the entire disk, but this little freebie is the only one I've found that actually does.

The interfact looks almost exactly the same as the EastTec backup which was offered a while ago....very odd
http://www.east-tec.com/images/consumer/backup/shot1_b.gif

Can't use zip in some of my files, all special characters and foreign characters in file names are lost in zip (become ?????).

As I commented way back in number 5, The only real way to back-up your files securely is to burn them on a disk or flash drive. see
comment #32,#18, and #11.

@8, 'Lorry'

Indeed: the DL version from Titan Backup´s homepage IS identical (of course un-wraped) - and thus the key works.
___________________
(german)werwölfchen

All in all not a bad application, but consumes a lot of RAM...

I want to link to older discussion on backing up your important data:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/doublesafety-41/#comments

(links to some free alternatives and discussion on HOW to develop a safety concept...)
___________________
(german)werwölfchen

Vista Ultimate ships with a full system backup facility so no need for this but thanks anyway. Always a pleasure to look in on the site.

The Major Concern for users of these programmes is data retrieval. There are no difficulties retrieving backup data with this programme in particular, and as someone mention above, you could also download a trial version - in the unfortunate case of a system crash. However i would suggest to designers of these programmes, that they would look at providing an extended download service, such as Norton do . Its peace of mind for the sceptics and certainly would enhance the sales of such programmes.

Could someone please tell me if a backup utility like Titan or Self-image will do the same thing as Norton Symantec's Ghost? In other words, what is the difference between backing up, making an image and cloning or ghosting? This is just not my bailiwick at all!

A close friend /since passed away/ divided my 250 gb hard drive into 7 partitions.
c: windows, office, IE, Firefox, some original programs
d: most programs I was instructed to store free downloads here
e: art
f: business
g: music
h: movies
i: personal files

I use the WindowsXP backup utility to do a full unencrypted, uncompressed backup of all 7 partitions, stored on one of 3 partitions on an external 320 gb drive. /I overwrite the oldest previous back up with a new ddmmyy.bkf file/

Even though my working hard drive is 250 gb, it'll be years before I acumulate enough stuff to worry about filling one of the 100 gb partitions on the larger external.

? If my primary hard drive ever dies, will I simply reverse the process and upload the most recent back up or image or whatever it's called on a new hard drive or do I first have to partition the new one to replicate the partitions I have now?

? Someone told me that if the hard drive is intact and only Windows is corrupted, I could just do a partial reformat of just the c: partition. Does that mean I should also be backing up each partition individually?

? Does a backup save the Registry information so all my programs including giveawayoftheday's will work, or does only a ghost or clone do that, or do none of them?

Thanks bunches
Elyse

Elyse, these are questions that are probably best asked, and discussed in the Forums

There is no need to worry about being able to retrieve data should you damage this program. We mentioned at lease 4-ways the data can be recovered even if the Titian Backup program fails. The recovery methods were given several times in the forum when Titan Backup was offered this fall. Again they were given in the forum for East Tec. They have been posted in numerous other forums.

Files are backed up as .ZIP files. Everyone should know how to open and retrieve data from a ZIP file. The same people ask the same questions about what do you do if you lose the original backup program. This question always starts appearing within minutes of the software being offered going on the download block. That shows that you don't spend any time trying to figure out how to do something yourself. Answers to this and several other questions that keep coming up on the download forum can be quickly found by doing a search on the GOTD website. Other techniques are even simpler.

Please READ and LISTEN. I would request that the website moderators start removing post asking the same question and asking questions that have been answered dozens of time in the past. Almost every other forum that I follow does remove these aggravating posts.

I hope that we stomp out garbage posts. STOMP, STOMP, STOMP - YEA

I got this the last time it was offered and love it. The interface for choosing folders and files to backup is easy. It has a Windows Explorer like tree where all you have to do is check the boxes next to the files and/or folders you want in the backup set. The built in features for common backup settings is also very helpful. The automatic backup scheduling is easy to set up as well and works flawlessly. Backups are put into zip files so that if your system does crash and you lose the program, you can easily restore the files from the zipped files. (Provided your backups were to removable or external sources!)

Josh: I have tried Comodo Free Backup. It is not at GAOTD because it is a free product. Comodo is not as easy as this one is to setup and the automatic backups did not work for me, although others have had no problems. I don't know, maybe it is a system thing. I am sticking with Titan, at least til Comodo has reached a user friendly stage and the automatic backups work properly.

Thank you again, Neobyte Solutions and GAOTD!

# 23 and others.
If you have a Seagate og Maxtor HD you can get Acronis Truimage for free.
It’s included in the free DiskWizard from Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard

For files & folders backup on HD, take a look at the free MS SyncToy
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx

I like it so far. We'll see how it does with incremental backup. I've had some issues with Windows Vista's incremental backup. Seemed like ever couple of backups it would do the ENTIRE backup again. Since I'm backing up on a different hard drive, that was eating up space way too quick.

Hope this works as advertised.

I use the freeware WinBackup 1.86 edition. Works fine.

>Josh

"I wonder, before also trying Comodo Backup, why this software is not mentioned nor reviewed very often among the backup utilities to be considered, this is the reason why I am asking this question."

Because the name makes it sound like a chamber pot.

Comodo Backup

Has anybody tried Comodo Backup? How does it compare to today's Giveaway, Titan Backup? (I have installed and will try it)

http://backup.comodo.com/

I wonder, before also trying Comodo Backup, why this software is not mentioned nor reviewed very often among the backup utilities to be considered, this is the reason why I am asking this question.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

As bladedtooth says its a clone of Eeast-Tec,wich is very good,another freebie thats easy to use is Filehamster try,
http://www.mogware.com/FileHamster/downloads/index.html

Very good program ! Nice for me to found these function:
- incremental backup
- differential backup
- sync from folder to folder


Thank you!

I don't comment that often, due to no really good deals that grab me. But I love this one and lost it to a format. Since then, I've been using a program called COMODO Backup. It seems to have some of the same features with a different GUI. It is nice to have this one return to my hard drive though.

On a different note, would it be possible to re-run Aston Shell? I loved that one, and actually ended up paying for it later. Now my friends want to try it, and the demo, according to them, doesn't cut it.

Thanks.
HELL NOIRE

When I started this program, I got an error message saying it couldn't find "duser.dll". This was easily remedied by a download from a DLL website. No issues other than that.

This program is really great to use! It has a very clean interface, and it completes the backup process very quickly. I just backed up 1 1/2 GBs of email in just over a minute.

Very easy for beginners, yet loaded with features for professionals! This one is staying for a long time! Thanks, GAOTD!

Hi all,

Just a general note as I haven't tried the software yet (I am currently using the EZBackItUP from an earlier give away here)about losing your installation.

Other than the .zip comments which are true about not needing the original program to back up you might want to simply install the backup program on a different hard drive (Or partition) than your OS. Then if you C: drive crashes and you have to format and re-install your OS you still have the backup program installed. :)

Just a side note to help with concerns...

I keep all of my important files on a separate drive and then backup all of the drives to an external hard drive several times a week. Having an online business may make me a bit more paranoid as I have all of the ebooks, software etc. that I have paid for and my web sites that I need to protect, but I also have family photos, receipts, bank statements etc., just like everyone else.

Anything I don't want to lose by not being able to re-install, like some of the games and video converters etc. from here, I also (In addition to the backup software) install and run from the non-OS drive as an extra level of safety.

Obviously that drive could fail, but the chances are much slimmer the 2nd (or 3rd, etc.)drive would fail than the drive with the OS.

Hope this helps :)

"Techie" Teri
"Use What You Learn to Increase What You Earn!"

PS. I am going also to try this program too as a comparison to see which I like better. If I have specific comments about the software after a few days I will come back and post them.

Happy Holidays!

t.t.

If this is just a re-packaged version of East Tec, then don't waste your time. That software lasted all of two seconds on my machine, with its wonky graphics and 4GB limit (ridiculous!). If you really want to protect your data, give AIS Backup a try for 30 days. It does everything the software here supposedly does (including backing up to an FTP server), without that ridiculous 4GB limit. After the 30 days, you do have to pay $37.50, but as far as I'm concerned, it's worth every penny.

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/prod01.php or http://www.download.com/3000-2242_4-10694556.html

I downloaded and installed this last time, it's still installed on my Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64 bit system, but I don't use it. I did for a while, and it ran fine, but it was actually not a whole lot better than Windows Backup. I just use the built-in Windows Backup which seems to do the same thing, plus gives me the option to utilize the Windows install disk to restore the entire hard drive from a backup. Perhaps I could use it to restore a backup created by Titan, but why? I have Windows backup scheduled to run an incremental backup every day and then I backup the entire system every month. Between Windows Backup and System Restore, I have not had a problem recovering from a hosed system yet - and I manage to hose it up on occasion due to testing and playing with lots of different software and hardware. I can download and test those registry fixing programs and get right back to where I was before they made something (or everything!) not work. I had one disable system restore, but the backup fixed that...

Anyway, this Titan Backup is probably better than what comes with XP and way better than not backing up at all.

bladed thoth wrote: "The previous version was 1.2.0.4, and this title is 1.2.0.13. I can’t detect any changes that would affect my review."

my question is: i have the 1.2.0.4. should i uninstall the old one before downloading and installing the new version?

thanks for helping...

hunter

The 15 minute review says that it is the same as East-Tec Backup. If thats true, i didnt really like that product myself.

Just buy and external hard drive and download TrueCrypt. Its free and has really strong encryption as well as other very nice security features

This one gets a thumbs down from me

I think DoubleSafety is better. Well DoubleSafety's only flaw is,making it a bit difficult to add the files you need ...
you can backup your files to http://mediafire.com or http://filefront.com
but filefront has some http://deletionqueue.hosted.filefront.com/
so you have to be careful

I didn't even download this software .. coz DoubleSafety came first.. and although this one says they can e-mail. they didnt provide no backup websites or free ones that are reliable. so think again

I downloaded and trialled Titan Backup last time it was offered on GAOTD and was very happy with it. So I subsequently purchased two copies - one for myself and one for my business partner. He is not very computer savvy, but after I provided assistance in setting up various backup tasks on his machine in Titan Backup, he's been able to back up all his important data regularly to an external USB drive - easily and hassle free. Restore also has worked without a hitch for both of us on occasion when we've needed it.

From the welcome screen you can click on "Backup" to create a new task or go to My Tasks and create one from there. Under My Tasks you'll also see an option to create a new Sync task - simple syncing of folders/files with no compression. Sync tasks also include various options to determine "which target should prevail" if there is a conflict.

You can choose to back up with no compresssion - fastest option, but uses more disk space. Or you can choose to compress backups - with a slider to select from low to high compression. (Highest compression takes longer but uses the least disk space.)

Compressed backups are created using standard Zip file format - so you don't need to have Titan Backup installed to access and restore backed up data - as long as you don't select the encryption option available in the program. (Of course if you create a sync job instead of a backup job, this isn't an issue anyway.)

Backup files are limited in size to 4GB, so you may need to set up a series of tasks if you have a large amount of data to back up - as I have. I'd suggest the following tips, based on my own experience with the program, particularly if you have a large number of files and folders to back up:

1) Select 'replace backup', with incremental and differential options also selected. That way, although the first time you run a backup task it will take some time, subsequent backups will be much faster as only changed or additional files will be backed up.
2) Create a series of backup tasks related to different needs and different folders on your computer. That way you will be able to run the relevant backup task for the files or folders with which you've been working, while ignoring those you know haven't changed - again making the process faster for you.

I have also successfully backed up files over my ADSL connection to our domain host's server. Uploading is the slowest part of this process of course - so again it is best to be selective about what files you include, keeping to a smaller size for the zip file that will be uploaded.

Overall I've found Titan Backup to be equal to or, in many cases, much better than other backup programs I've tried - for efficiency, speed and trouble-free ease of use.

Cheers
Sue

#16, molly, are you able to download files from other sites? Are you using a download manager (if you have broadband, you don't need one)? It doesn't sound like an IE add-on problem, but you could try disabling them. Have you tried another browser, such as Firefox 2? There is a small possibility that it could be a malware problem, are you using security software? If these suggestions don't help, take your problem to the forums.

Hello all!

Today's software title has been previously reviewed by myself. The previous version was 1.2.0.4, and this title is 1.2.0.13. I can't detect any changes that would affect my review.

http://www.bladedthoth.com/reviews/15mrs/titan-backup-v1-2-0-4/

In answer to comment 9, Acronis True Image does what you want and it works. Not free though, but not too expensive. Buy the disk and not the download version and use the disk to restore in case of failure.

#17 (Hunter): Thank you very much. I hope you'll be a regular visitor to my blog.

#18 (Phil): You are a very wise person, and thanks for explaining your backup regimen. I wish I had your discipline! You might want to name the cloning utility you use to image your drive. Many swear by Acronis True Image (shareware) or freeware DriveImage XML, RoadKill Disk Image, or Self Image. Vista includes such a tool, Complete PC Backup.

#19 (Felix): You are among many people I've heard from who like SyncBack Free. However, I think Titan is better, as long as it's free (today only). My reasons are explained in post #40 of my utilities blog.

I hope this is helpful.

If your computer crashes and you made a compressed backup with this program, all you do is simply download the trial version from their website, and restore your computer with that.

I downloaded program but will try it later. In referance to what you would could do with the free programs if you have a crash and didn't have a good backup. When I download these programs I copy the activation info into a word document and print them out. After a crash without no backup you could try downloading the program from the programs site and type the info from the document into the registration.

I use the freeware version of Syncback at http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware
so i won't need this one.

I have to agree with #11 and #12, Your files ETC, are only as safe as your levels of redundancy. Titan does allow you to create a self extracting unzipped backup of your registry and files which means you wouldn't need Titan to restore them. My levels of redundancy are in order as follows 1. I clone my hard drive every month by rotating it with the drive previously used while saving my original with the system recovery on it. 2. I back up everything important to an external drive, and put a copy of it on my main drive. I burn to disk all important documents and images, placing one copy in a fire proof safe, and storing another off site. I know it seems a bit too much, but when I run into people who ask me to help them recover "Precious family pictures" because they failed to maintain their system, or power surges it only confirms that there's no such thing as "Too much protection". Once little Johnny's kindergarten pictures are gone, they're gone for good. To do these backups takes only a little effort and time which some people ignore, or find other things more important. Nothing is more important than keeping your system maintained, and your levels of redundancy high. Thanks GAOTD for a solution in helping secure important information.