Oct 24 2008
Cobian: Free Backup Software for Your PC
After having put it off for far too long, I recently admitted that the little voice in my head was right: I needed to back up the user data on the upstairs computer. That’s the one with all of my MP3s and digital camera images… the one that, were something to go wrong, I’d probably seriously consider hari-kari. So I trekked off to BestBuy and came home with a 1 TB My Book World external drive (a network-attached storage device).
I jumped through all kinds of hoops trying to get the included free WD Anywhere Backup software to work. After repeated failures over several days of use, I found out that the combined file name and path had to be fewer than 256 characters long. That limitation may not be a problem for some people, but I’ve gone to a LOT of trouble structuring my MP3 collection into multiple nested folders to keep everything organized, so the suggestion from Western Digital Support to start renaming folders and moving files around was unthinkable. I uninstalled their unhelpful little piece of software and started looking around for a replacement.
That’s when I found Cobian Backup. This amazing application is FREE to use and is far more robust than the offering from Western Digital. If you’re in the market for backup software, I’m convinced it’s as good as anything you might find to spend your hard-earned money on. Check it out!
4 responses so far
Grant - sorry to be the bearer of Bad News - but those Western Digital My Books are pure crap - I had 2 1T’s, and 2 500gigs die on me in the past year (an older 320gig has been going ok for 3 years, but I only use it for excess storage). I now have HP’s and they’ve worked perfectly so far.
Check the reviews of the Western Digials on Amazon - it might not be too late to return them.
UGH.
check out beinsync.com - I use them to keep my business laptop which is on the road with me in synch with the backup laptop at home and my desktop. The desktop is backed up to the HP’s every night. Also, beinsync has optional online backup space. You could just keep your mp3’s backed up on line and it would do it in real time.
I went and read all of those reviews. For the most part what people are complaining about is the lousy software that’s packaged with the unit. I’ll admit that I fell victim to its stupid nannying, too, but I uninstalled it after I realized that it would not give me completely control over my files in any way I chose.
< yoda >
But for those with whom the Geek Force is strong other ways to accomplish those sorts of things there are.
< /yoda >
So now I have the drive running without any problems, and without any of Western Digital’s stupid software.
As for actual physical failure, well, I’ll just have to cross my fingers on that one.