Use Your CD-R Drive to Make PC Backups

SUMMARY

NTI Backup Now PRO: Backs up large volumes of data easily to 650MB discs, works unattended. CON: Must be the only application running to avoid errors. VALUE: An easy way to make regular archival backups. $70 NewTech Infosystems 949/622-6970 www.ntius.com

If you think today's multigigabyte hard drives are just too big to back up anymore, think again. Most hard drives today hold 4GB or more of data, making the once seemingly bountiful 100MB Zip drives and glacierlike 2GB tape drives inadequate for full backups.

Enter NTI Backup Now. This $70 utility from NewTech Infosystems lets you use any CD-Recordable drive to make unattended backups to a CD-R disc. I tested a shipping version. Unlike backing up to a writable CD, which is a painstaking hands-on process, NTI Backup Now allows you to save, with little effort, more than 800MB of compressed files and apps on a single 650MB disc and have quick access to restore them. And unlike magnetic media (like Zip discs and tapes), CDs aren't vulnerable to stray electronic signals.

NTI Backup Now combines the best elements of other backup utilities. You use a simple Explorer-like interface to select the data you want to back up. You can also create custom settings that will let you back up entire folders or even whole drives--and NTI Backup Now will tell you how many discs you'll need.

Using the Recovery CD feature, you can make a backup of your Windows folder, which you can save on a floppy and use to start up a crashed system. You can also compare the files on the CD to those on your hard drive and save only new files or those that have changed since the last backup.

But recording data on a CD can be tricky. Even on the fastest machines, you can't run any other program while the hard drive is recording--or risk burning a coaster. Fortunately, you can easily schedule a backup time, say, in the middle of the night, leaving a blank disc in the CD tray.

Recordable CD drives aren't as common as Zip drives for backing up data, but if you already have a CD-R or CD-RW drive, NTI Backup Now is a great alternative.