There was a time when choice was poor and so was the features offered by backup programs. Nowadays, we live in a world of abundant supply; consumers seek out reviews and experts' opinions to determine which product is better suited to serve their needs.

Now, if there is one thing more tedious than backing up data the hard way (copying and pasting data to another storage device manually), it is working out the best backup program to use. As a result, many people do not bother. Hard disk drives do not last forever, critical files can be accidentally deleted and the operating system can fail so catastrophically that only individuals expert enough in data recovery and well versed in the intricacies of reconstructing critical operating system structural files will be able to at best recover all or some of your data, and worst none of it at all. Valuable time will be wasted if the data is important to the running of a business, besides the expense of specialist data recovery.

You really are tempting fate not investing in a backup program and performing regular backups.

Storage industry experts have identified backup and recovery as a major area of concern for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and distributive enterprises. Computer users, network and system administrators are becoming acutely aware that their current backup software solutions are failing at the very thing they were purchased to do: backing up their most critical and valuable data.

The purpose of backing up business-critical data is to enable an accurate restoration when data loss occurs. Backups have to run as quickly as possible in order to protect the multiple gigabytes (or even terabytes) of data that reside on typical networks of servers, desktops, and notebooks. A reliable backup strategy must be built on business-class backup software that is easy to use and understand, creates reliable backups and allows accurate restoration/recovery from disaster. Backup software needs to provide complete protection for all computers, applications, settings and so forth. In addition, backup software needs to utilise automated backup technology, allowing small and midsize businesses to protect data without requiring extensive IT resources or unnecessary expenditures to train employees in complicated backup and restoration procedures such as disaster recovery (DR).

It has been estimated by a leading data recovery company that approximately 300,000 hard disk drives are sent to specialist data recovery companies worldwide each year. About one-half to three-quarters have some issue with reading. This might be sporadic reading, a high number of errors, excessive retries, and so forth. About one-third to one-half is completely unreadable. That is, they are not recognized by the host computer, do not spin up, and do not send back any data, and so forth. It is estimated that approximately 260 million new hard disk drives were shipped in 2003. Data recovery is difficult at the best of times, and is getting even more so due to the way hard disk drives are hypertunned, making part replacements less successful. The longer-term unknown effects of the current change from longitudinal to perpendicular recording may also result in additional unexpected failure modes and data recovery challenges. Therefore, the need for a backup program and policy will be paramount.

The cost of data recovery ranges from US$500 to US$2,500, depending on the filesystem (servers, RAID arrays (multi-hard disk drive storage subsystem), and UNIX are more expensive)), the type of repair, the time required, the type of data to retrieve (text is easier to recover than a corrupted databases), and the probability of success and therefore payment costs. Some extreme cases require onsite support; costing tens of thousands of dollars. Worldwide, it is estimated that the market for data recovery in 2005 was over US$100 million. A backup solution and policy carried out diligently would reduce these huge costs and headaches dramatically. Unfortunately, the usefulness of backups is only realised when data is lost. Be smart, purchase Genie Backup Manager (GBM) 8.0 with Open File Backup (OFB) (an add-on that can be purchased) and save a lot of headaches as there are no guarantees data will be recovered and any mission-business critical data or precious personal data may be lost forever. It just is not worth the loss, heartache or a pink-slip.

If you look at the links relating to Reviews and testimonials and Awards you will find that Genie Backup Manager is held in high regard amongst individual computer users and IT professionals that require a backup enterprise solution.

GBM 8.0 comes in three editions: Home, Professional and Server. GBM is a total system and data protection solution that is reliable, is a robust backup and data recovery solution and combines ease-of-use. It is ideal for the single system inexperienced computer user. GBM also has the power, flexibility and is feature rich to suit multiple systems within small businesses to distributive enterprises over LANs and for use in DAS, NAS and SAN backups, resource sharing scenarios and backing up to removable media devices such as USB, REV disks, floppy diskette, all types of optical media, remote location using FTP, tape drive media, and online backups to Genie Online Backup storage servers using Ajax-based backup technology, offering better data management and greater data availability. Genie-soft has developed their own open file backup program that complements their GBM programs, called Open File Backup (OFB) - a Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista shadow-copy aware application that can receive freeze and thaw notifications to ensure that backup copies of data files are internally consistent. OFB is used to backup online/in use and locked files and is an add-on that can be purchased with each version of GBM Home and Professional. Note: OFB comes integrated within GBM Server 7.0, and soon to be released 8.0.

GBM 8.0 offers various backup types, e.g., full, differential and incremental, all of which can be achieved using the easy-to-use smart backup scheduler. Different backup jobs can be performed at different times and intervals, snooze or even pause scheduled backup(s), and prompt GBM to postpone backups if the system is running on batteries (Laptop Power Optimization Support). It is possible to adjust the impact of a backup job using a slider for either a faster and responsive system and less impact of the backup job toward other computing tasks, to quicker backups, and anything in-between.

Moreover, GBM verifies and integrity checks all backups so that it is not possible for a backup that is relied upon to fail when you need it most. There are predefined options to protect all Microsoft Windows based desktops, laptops, and networked systems against various types of threats such as computer viruses, Trojan horses or malware infections, system and/or equipment failure, power outrage, robbery, fire, natural disaster, security breaches, terrorist attack, human error, organized or deliberate disruptions, and illegal program use.

Predefined options include Internet Favourites and settings, Microsoft Outlook Express 5+ and Outlook 2000/XP (2002)/2003/2007, Windows Registry, Windows Address Book (WAB), Fonts, My Pictures, My Music and many more. Moreover, the predefined backups described can be superseded and extended upon manually with “My Folders”. For GBM Server 8.0, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange are just a few advance applications supported.

A new feature that is incorporated in all edition of GBM 8.0 is the very important disaster recovery (DR) implementation. GBM is equipped also with Windows Vista compatible DR features, guaranteeing business continuity or continuance (BC) by backing up your whole system (operating system, applications, documents, e-mails, settings, desktop, files/folders, Microsoft Outlook, and Windows Mail, etc) and offering faster and easier recovery without the need for Microsoft’s Windows Setup installation media, through a wizard-based interface.

For a long time, before the World Wide Web began to effect business operations, large enterprises would perform backups nightly. Smaller businesses would often back up data once a week or even less; computer users backed up sporadically, if at all.

Historically, server applications were run outside regular business hours only and so backups (also referred to as a cold backup) were carried out in the early hours when the applications could be stopped or brought offline without causing problems. As Web-based operations and a new breed of enterprise-level applications have emerged the traditional backup scenario has begun to break down rapidly. As companies stay "open for business 24/7" they generate more data, yet the backup window has shrunk.

Although information is growing at a geometric rate, data still has to be managed while applications are often accessing files spread across multiple volumes making point-in-time backups difficult or unfeasible using traditional approaches. If files are open/in use or locked, a backup program cannot gain access to these files. New backup and restoration implementations are now available to overcome these problems using all editions of GBM 8.0.

"This program's help and support is as solid as the product itself," Backup Software Reviews declared, while Info-Packets admired what it described as a "top-notch help system."

Furthermore, the reason data restoration failures of critical data occurs is because the most important files created, files changing regularly and in use by business-critical applications performing important functions on this data, cannot be interrupted. Even if a backup program can access an open file it still runs the risk of creating an inconsistent backup. Open file backups (also referred to as hot or dynamic backups) can be a major limitation of many business-critical applications that are typically performing functions continuously. It is also problematic for desktop and notebook computers too. For this reason most backup programs skip open files altogether. This is a serious data backup problem as this tends to be the most important business-critical and computer user data that needs to be backed up. With all editions of GBM 8.0 implementing OFB this is no longer an issue.

One further GBM feature is that it is possible to use the certified Advanced Encryption Standard (AES: 128-, 192-, 256-bit) to locally back up data and to transfer backups and restore them remotely to an encryption strength of 128-bit over a Secure
Socket Layers (SSL) for data transmissions that is certified by the leading provider of SSL certificates, Thawte; preserving data integrity and forbidding eavesdroppers from intercepting data. All data is therefore protected from snooping.
Note: There is hundreds of free plug-ins that can be used to store settings of applications, and much more, so that you do not have to go through the long and tedious process of manually reconfiguring an application.

See the Genie-soft link Plug-in page, and see how many there are and how many will be of benefit to you. The plug-in database has new plug-ins added weekly. For applications that have a version upgrade, plug-ins are updated also by Genie-soft, so you will almost certainly always have the most current plug-ins within weeks. Moreover, multiple versions of the same plug-ins existence in case computer users of GBM do not have the latest application version. Every one is catered for.

You can also submit an application that does not have a plug-in in the database at that time. The best thing is that all plug-ins are free, unlike with other backup programs, if they have them at all.

Comments from expert backup program reviewers’.

Before reviewing an assortment of products, experts usually predefine the criteria upon which they will judge the software candidates. The popular Info-Packets newsletter established a 6 Point Purchasing Guide to help users search for a backup programs, namely:

1 Ease of use
2 Value for money
3 Reliability
4 Performance
5 Depth of feature set
6 Research and Review

After defining those measures, Info-Packets started to search for the software that included the six important points mentioned above, or as many as possible.

"An impossible feat? Perhaps not," Info-Packets' Dennis Faas wrote in his March 2005 article. "Thankfully, my quest to find such a program ended when I came across a wonderful backup utility, called Genie Backup Manager."

Faas also praised GBM for its user-friendliness and advanced features. "Genie Backup Manager (GBM) is an all-in-one backup solution that provides easy to use, powerful features that can archive and restore personal files, documents, emails, complex Windows settings, programs, and more to virtually any local or remote device..."

Honouring GBM as its 2004 "Editors Choice: Best overall" in the review for Outstanding Windows Backup Software Programs, industry specialists Backup Software Reviews called it: "An impressively fast and full featured program with the capacity to back up the Windows Registry, Favorites, Outlook data and other system files in addition to normal email and user data."

While reviewing GBM, Backup Software Reviews concluded that when "the chips are down, you'd be happy to have this program working for you."

A similar notion was offered by Top Ten Reviews, who selected GBM as their 2005 "TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award Winner" for being "a powerful, versatile backup tool capable of just about any backup task you can dream up. This program has more custom backup options available than any other backup software package we reviewed.”

Besides its ease of use, GBM has won all these accolades for offering an array of features that put it at par-if not at a higher level-with other top-notch applications, while being, by far, cheaper in price. "Now that's a mouthful!" Faas wrote in his review.
Such a convention was the reason behind Top Ten Reviews decision to award GBM the highest mark for "Features", as "it's packed with a lot of good options," according to PCW, while Backup Software Reviews declared in their review, "Genie has one of the most complete feature sets of any product on the market."

GBM is also heads and shoulders above the rest for supporting "nearly every backup media format, "Info-Packets said. GBM can backup "to just about every conceivable storage device", according to Backup Software Reviews.”You have tremendous data storage versatility with Genie Backup, including the ability to pick a new location for any backup, "Top Ten Reviews noted.

Genie-soft's focus on help, support and documentation took GBM's user-experience to a different level, giving industry experts more delight as they tested the application. Since these reviews back in 2004-5, Genie-soft’s Technical Support Department, forum, extensive help files and knowledgebase ensure that an answer is only a moment away.

"This program's help and support is as solid as the product itself," Backup Software Reviews declared. Info-Packets admired what it described as a "top-notch help system."

"When we used Genie Backup Manager to backup Outlook Express email, a popup help menu showed us exactly how to restore the old emails from backup and how to import backed up email into Outlook Express. We appreciated these timely tips," Top Ten Reviews said. "Also, Genie Backup Manager offers a search tool to help you find topics fast. And Genie-Soft offers a complete tour of Genie Backup Manager's features."

After marvelling at all of these features and bonuses, experts found out for themselves that when push comes to shove, GBM will not disappoint.

"Our backup ran smoothly and the restored data worked perfectly," Top Ten Reviews added. "In all, Genie Backup Manager took 10 minutes to compress, write, and verify 650 megabytes of data on my CD-RW disc (@ 10x speed). I was severely impressed," Info-Packets' Faas wrote. Backup Software Reviews concluded, "Genie is one of those products that feels rock solid. And that folks, is a very good quality in a backup program."

There you have it. Please try Genie Backup Manager. We guarantee that you will not be disappointed. In fact, we have a 21-day no quibble money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied due to a severe technical issue.