Subject: REVIEW: ABackup version 2.11
From: [email-masked] (Marc Schaefer)
Date: 13 Jan 1993 15:30:28 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	ABackup V2.11

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	ABackup is a backup and restore utility with unique features.

AUTHOR

	Name:		Denis Gounelle
	Address:	Bonte 71
			6, rue des Cailloux
			F-92110 Clichy
			France

	E-mail: 	[email-masked]
			(E-mail to the author is slow because it has to be
			sent by normal mail anyway by someone at alphanet.)

LIST PRICE

	There are two versions:  freely distributable (unregistered) and
registered.  They are identical except that the unregistered version has a
"BuyMe" requester.  The registered version costs 50 FF, or approximately 12
SFr or US$8.

	If you register, you receive the next version of the program, and
sometimes also other utilities.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE
		NONE

		Works with 880KB floppy drive, 1.6MB HD floppy, Syquest, ...

	SOFTWARE
		NONE

		Works under 1.3 and 2.04.

COPY PROTECTION

	NONE.  The freely distributable version has a shareware requester.

MACHINES USED FOR TESTING

	1. Amiga B2000 rev 4.4 with Trumpcard FileCard, Quantum 105MB HD,
	512K Chip RAM, 512k Slow-Fast RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM. OS 2.04, two 880KB
	disk-drives.

	2. Amiga 3000, 6 MB RAM, with a Syquest removable media drive.

REVIEW

	I do huge backups onto floppy disks (yes, floppy disks), and it
takes me a lot of time.  I tried other backup programs such as Commodore's
supplied HDBackup, MRBackup, and a demo version of Ami-Back, but they were
slow, inefficient with compression, didn't work on two disk drives, had bugs
and forced you to insert disks 1 to 65 to restore the file on the last disk.
And alas, they were English-speaking only.

	ABackup is very fast, easy to use, has a nice GUI, and is very
flexible.  It has many features, some of which are not found in the other
backup programs I have used.

	- Ability to backup physically on any disk drive (DF0:, DF1:, DF2:,
	  ...)  or to a file (e.g., your Syquest, TAPE:, ...).  More than one
	  disk drive may be used during the same backup (e.g., sequential
	  backup on DF0: and DF1:).

	- Ability to select internal compression (compress-like).

	- Ability to select which files NOT to compress, based on their
	  filename extensions (e.g., .lha, .jpg, ...).

	- Compatibility with XPK compression external libraries.  I think
	  this is feature is unique to ABackup.

	- Ability to select files for incremental backups via date, file
	  protections, and so on.

	- Ability to select which files to restore before restoring.

	- Automatic formatting of the backup disks before use (see BUGS).

	- If an error occurs on the disk being used for backup, you are
	  requested to insert another one, and the backup continues.

	- Reconstruction of the backup catalog, normally created on the last
	  disk.

	- Support for A3000T HD drives (I couldn't test this).

	- It uses a separate task for input and output (I/O), thus using
	  fully the Amiga's multitasking capabilities and speeding up I/O.
	  I think that's also an unique feature.

	- Documentation both in ASCII and (hypertext-like) ADoc.

	ABackup has a nice GUI; however, it may also be used from the CLI for
automated backups/restoring.

	I have used ABackup for approximately 8 months, doing a full backup
each month and incremental backups each week, and the program works well.

DOCUMENTATION

	The program comes with English and French documentation in an ASCII
file on disk.  The documentation covers all menu items, gadgets and CLI
commands.  It is easy to read.  It also comes with specially formatted
documentation to use in ADoc's hypertext-like system. 

DISLIKES

	It is currently not possible to backup non AmigaDOS partitions, such
as A-MAX for example.  Also, there is no support for multi-disk-drive
restores; you can only RESTORE from one of the drives, unlike with the
BACKUP command.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	ABackup is largely superior to HDBackup for compression quality,
speed, ease-of-use, reliability (you don't have to restart the backup from
the beginning if something goes wrong, and you are not obliged to traverse
all disks to find the file you want to restore).  If the disk catalog gets
destroyed, you may _reconstruct_ it.  The internal compression is sufficient
for all applications; however, XPK compatibility allows for special options
(hyperfast compression, encryption, etc.).  The XPK compatibility and the
secondary task for I/O both seem to be be unique among backup utilities.

BUGS

	The last version I tried had no serious bugs.  It only had some minor
glitches I already reported to the author. For example, if you use
non-formatted floppy disks for backup, sometimes it can't format them.
However, you normally quickly recover from this, and this does not stop the
current backup.

	Most bugs from previous releases were corrected rather quickly.  My
suggestions were also taken in account very seriously, and some of them were
adopted.

	The author of ABackup reports that there is a problem with ABackup
under AmigaDOS release 3.0, which I do not have.  A temporary fix is to use
the NOTASK option.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	It is not only possible to make suggestions, but also they are often
taken into account very quickly, and added in the next release.  For example,
a friend of mine had a problem with a backup:  he couldn't find the last disk
which contains the catalog.  The author made a new version in less than one
week that supported catalog reconstruction.

WARRANTY

	None.

AVAILABILITY

	Either on a FTP site (litamiga.epfl.ch:/pub/amiga/gounelle), for the
public redistributable version, or directly from the author for the
registered version.

CONCLUSIONS

	Reliability:	9 out of 10 (had some problems when backing up to
			non-formatted disks)

	Rapidity:	9 out of 10 (very fast, even on 68000, except with
			internal compression; with XPK it's sometimes faster.)

	Ease-of-use:	8 out of 10 (easy-to-understand clicking and
			selection; however, restoring from ONE drive is
			painful)

	GUI:		9 out of 10 (does not use standard file requester
			under 2.04)

	Support:	10 out of 10 (my wishes were almost all fulfilled)

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1993	Marc SCHAEFER, Ms...	<[email-masked]>

	This review is freely distributable, as long as conditions in the
comp.sys.amiga.reviews monthly posting regarding fees are respected.

DISCLAIMER

	I'm not associated in any way whatsoever with the author.  I'm only
a registered user of ABackup.

+------------------_+-----------------------------------------------+
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