For the first time in a long and often trying decade of reviewing Nero products, I can finally tout one, BackItUp & Burn, as easy to use. Not only is the attractively styled program concisely and logically laid out, but feature-wise it has everything you could ask for: plain file backup, whole drive and partition imaging, syncing, scheduling, and even an Autobackup function which mirrors one volume to another.
BackItUp & Burn isn't best of breed at any particular backup task, however, it's good at all of them and performed near perfectly in my tests. The only bump in the road was a warning that the Windows OS partition I was attempting to image wasn't locked. Regardless, the imaging process proceeded without incident, though I wish there was an option to consolidate the backup into one file instead of being split into 2GB parts. On the other hand, 2GB files are perfect for DVD and the program takes advantage of Nero's optical expertise with support for DVD-R/RW as well as CD-R/RW and BD-R/RE.
My only BackItUp & Burn gripe is its rather hefty 304MB default footprint, due in large part to the included CD recovery image and the included Nero Express, Nero BurnRights, and Nero RescueAgent. You can reduce that by nearly two-thirds if you choose a custom install and de-select the bonus software. Additionally, elements of the BackItUp & Burn package require and may install the Microsoft Installer 4.5, .NET 3.5, the Microsoft Visual Studio redistributable and Microsoft Primary Interoperability Assemblies 2005 if necessary. Also, don't blindly click through unless you really want the Ask toolbar and to have your home page set to Ask.com.
BackItUp & Burn is an excellent, feature-rich application that competes well with middle-tier backup products such as NTI's Backup Now!, Paragon Drive Backup Personal, and Titan Backup. And hopefully, it's a harbinger of a new Nero focus on the end-user experience.
--Jon L. Jacobi
Reviewed by: lvincent45
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