For anyone who uses a computer at least on a daily or weekly basis, or someone who uses their PC for things like keeping photos, doing financial work, etc., a backup solution is very important.  I’m sure everyone knows someone, or at least heard the stories of people who have lost very important data that was unrecoverable, and that’s why finding a good solution is key.  I was happy to see that Genie-Soft has some applications available on Impulse, so I wanted to give the Home version of Genie Backup Manager a run through. 

The first thing I noticed is it has an “Easy” and “Normal” mode.  Easy mode has a very basic interface that even the most computer illiterate could use, but for most users, the Normal mode should suffice. 

One of the great things about an application like Genie Backup Manager is that you can either backup your entire system, or just pick and choose the elements to backup.  Getting started is easy as you just click the Backup button and you are guided through the steps to create your backup.  In the left hand menu you can see the steps and jump to a certain section if needed. 

Flexibility is key, and Genie Backup Manager gives you several options on how you actually want to get your data backed up.

• Local/LAN
• Removable Media
• Remote using FTP
• CD/DVD
• Online backup

I think the bases are covered when it comes to location choices, and where you backup will really depend on your system, your needs, and really what is easiest for you to manage.  By no means think you are limited to one backup, I personally do a full backup and then a separate backup of items such as mail, photos, etc.  I will typically do a full system backup using an external USB hard drive, and for my smaller backup jobs I will use a DVD, and also the online backup service.  More on that in a minute.

Moving on to the next step, you can now select the data to be backed up.  What really stood out to me is how Genie Backup Manager not only lets you select the specific item to backup, but has selections of “common” items like Contacts, My Photos, Fonts, etc.  You can even backup the registry from here.

Now here is the feature that seals the deal for me…..plugins!  There are tons of free plugins available that make backing up specific applications that much easier.  I was browsing through and found one that will backup the themes and settings of WindowBlinds 6.  No more lost skins!

After you select your data, you can now give the final options such as enabling password and encryption protection on the backup job, and enable the SwiftRestore feature which creates an .exe that can be viewed and restored on a system regardless if Genie Backup is installed or not.  That is a very useful feature.  There is also a scheduling manager that lets users select the times and frequency of scheduled backups.  Genie Backup Manager Home also has a disaster recovery feature to help you in the event of a system failure.  It guides you through the process of creating a boot disk which you can use to restore your system if you ever find yourself in that situation.

Now to my favorite feature of all…..online backup.  Backing up to online services has always been a bit tricky, and finding a good service always seemed difficult, but not anymore.  Genie-Soft has their own online backup service which can give home users up to 5GB of storage space.  There are other plans available, but this is perfect for home users.  There is a free 1 month trial available for Backup Manager users to try it out, but I’m sure it’s something many people will want to upgrade to and use.  I ran several online backup jobs and every one of them was very, very fast.  Even through the restore process it acted as if it was just an external HD connected to my system.  Kudos to Genie-Soft for making this so easy to use.

There are many features that I could go into, but after using using Genie Backup Manager 8.0 for a while now, I definitely can and will recommend it to anyone looking for a complete backup solution for their PC.  The ease of use and reliability make this a winner.  Next I will take a tour of the Pro version, and see how that can benefit users who need more than what the Home solution offers.  Genie Backup Manager 8.0 is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, and is available in the Impulse Store for $49.98.