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Having reviewed literally dozens of backup programs, I'm not easy to impress. However, I was impressed with Titan Backup. Though it's missing the ability to back up open files, and there's no imaging, it has just about everything else you could wish for in a backup program. The interface is also one of the best I've seen--an intuitive combination of tabbed dialog and set-by-step wizard that I have only a minor quibbles with.

Titan Backup's performance and abilities were pretty much on par with other second-tier backup programs. You can opt for plain file backup, backup to a zip file, or backup to an executable zip (with a 4GB size limit--a zip limitation). Options include 256-bit AES encryption, the ability to run other programs before and after the backup, and username/password entry for backing up to protected network locations. The password didn't work with my Synology DS508 NAS box when the destination was a password protected folder, however, I'm more inclined to blame this on the box which has a somewhat odd security implementation. There were no problems backing up to public folders, hard drives, flash drive, CD/DVD, or via FTP.

Other features include notification emails (with account settings), syncing of folders, a comprehensive scheduler, command line execution and some very nicely written help files. There's no support for tape, but on the consumer level this is a non-issue these days.

As to those GUI quibbles, they were as petty as wishing the company had put the "Edit Task" button on the upper tool bar with "Delete" and "Import Task" configuration buttons instead of with the primary operational "Start" and "Restore" buttons on the side panel.

Though Titan won't back up an open file, e.g., a word processing document you're working on as the backup takes place, the company assured me this feature would be included within a few weeks, with imaging to follow in the near future. Since Window's (XP SP2 or newer) shadow service makes implementing these features relatively easy, there's no particular reason to doubt this assertion. An online component that leverages Amazon's S3 service is in the works as well.

The company's stated ambitions, combined with designers and programmers who understand interface principles, should eventually make Titan Backup one of the top products on the market. That said, you might want to wait a couple of weeks until the promised open file backup shows up.

--Jon L. Jacobi