Altaro Oops!Backup review

Windows 7 has a reasonable built-in backup program, but it’s pretty simple, with little fine control over what files you back up and, while it will store multiple backup sets, you have to navigate through zipped folders to find previous versions of files.

Oops!Backup aims to make the whole process easier. It’s a simple setup process – you choose which files you want to save, select your location and run your first backup. You can back up to any drive attached to your computer, as well as to a PC on your network or a NAS device, and add a second backup location for added data security.

We were impressed with the fine control the program gives you over which files you want to back up. The program splits out your Documents, Music and Pictures from the rest of your system, and also lets you select whether or not to back up your Outlook personal folder without having to hunt around for it on the C drive. You can also select whether or not to archive individual files and folders on any storage device in your PC, or exclude certain file types from the backup.

Backups can be run on a schedule in time periods from as short as five minutes to several days. Only files that have changed are backed up, and the program keeps multiple different versions of your file on record – only stopping creating new versions when it runs out of disk space. This is where one of the program’s cleverest features comes in – using the BackinTime feature (a shameless homage to Apple’s Time Machine software), you can access previous versions of backed-up files and restore them – great if you mis-edited a document or a file becomes corrupted. You can preview these previous versions within the software, and it can also copy the file to a temporary location and launch an external program in ‘Full Preview’ mode.

Oops!Backup also has a couple of tricks to help manage large backups. To avoid multiple copies of files taking up huge amounts of disk space, it uses what the program calls ReverseDelta. When a file is changed and Oops!Backup copies over the new version, the old one is reduced to a small ‘delta’ file, which contains only information about the changes made in the new file. This enables the program to rebuild the older version from both files. According to Altaro it works well with large files that change frequently, such as Outlook personal folder (pst) files.

Oops!Backup makes it easy to back up your whole system or just specific files, and the BackInTime feature adds the peace of mind of knowing that you can go back to previous versions of your files. There’s no way to create a system restore disc, so it’s no good for restoring your entire Windows installation, but works brilliantly for personal files. The software is reasonable value if you only have one PC, but, at £54 for three licences, starts to become expensive if you want to back up all data in a multi-PC household.