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BullGuard Backup 8.0
Price: £25/year

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 02/08/2008
Featured in magazine:
Issue 190
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: BullGuard
Web Address: www.bullguard.com


It makes a lot of sense to back up your files in more than one place. Relying on DVDs or an external hard disk is fine until you're hit by fire, flood or theft. Then again, solely preserving your files online puts your back-up in the hands of a company, and companies rarely last forever. BullGuard Backup offers both options from the same program to further enhance your security.

Features:
I t's this dual approach that is the cornerstone of BullGuard's offering, closely followed by its incredibly easy-to-use software. There's no set way of working with the program – you can configure it to work as you like – but it's easy to create some sensible regular schedules. The online back-up will work in the background and you get 10GB to play with. The disk-based back-up is set up separately and, as well as backing up your back-up, could be used for things such as videos that take up too much space for the online version. The online back-up can also be integrated with Windows so you can browse it and add files through Explorer, as if it were a remote hard disk.

Performance:
We were pleasantly surprised by how quickly it sent files away to be archived though, realistically speaking, this is going to have a lot to do with the speed of your internet connection. The data is encrypted and, because the uploading occurs in the background while you're not using your PC, you shouldn't even notice it happening. It also only backs up the files it needs to – those already backed up and unchanged since previous sessions won't be copied across again.

Ease of use:
The program is really easy to use. It's divided into three sections – an overview, the configuration screen and a support screen. The overview tells you if you should be thinking of doing a back-up soon, the configuration provides the option of performing an instant back-up or setting up a simple schedule and the support is available 24/7 in the form of an online chat.

Value for money:
The price of the software is very competitive and bundling it with online space is an extra benefit. The only downside is that, although 10GB is a generous amount of storage space, other companies such as Mozy (www.mozy.com) offer unlimited storage for a similar fee. It's arguable that BullGuard is more flexible and has the added benefits of disk-based back-up and instant access to files, but it's hard to beat the promise of unlimited storage space.

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