Everyday Auto Backup

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on February 17, 2013

Backups are critical, period. Automatic or manual, full or partial, whatever -- as long as you're taking action to protect your irreplaceable personal files, your expensive software, and maybe your sanity. Full backups are best, but we also like extra protection for the data that changes the most, such as User files, as a backstop against those disasters that somehow seem to know when you're between backups. Everyday Auto Backup's name says it all: it makes automatic data backups every day (or when you want it to). It addresses some lingering issues about backup software, beginning with a biggie, the cost. Everyday Auto Backup is free, so no excuses there! It's also quite easy to use. Backup tools aren't so much challenging as confusing or even intimidating, but this one minimizes the drama.

Similar programs often bear a family resemblance, but Everyday Auto Backup's user interface makes a welcome change among backup utilities. It's simple, even plain, with a blue-gridded main view that resembles ruled notepaper and tabs for switching between Projects, Today's Tasks, Log, and Options pages. The Options page includes a simple tool for adding file types to exclude from backups. A dialog-box-based wizard walked us through each step of setting up our New Project, including selecting a Destination directory, which should always be a dedicated storage device, preferably an external drive. Our test backup executed on schedule and finished much sooner than we expected, so we put Everyday Auto Backup on active duty.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: when it comes to backups, there are two kinds of PC users -- those who back up their data, and those who don't but will, once they've learned the same way those other people learned, the hard way. We strongly recommend full backups capable of completely restoring your hard disk or your entire system when, not if, disaster strikes. But we also recommend tools like Everyday Auto Backup to fill in the cracks. Our overall impression of the program is one of a simple, almost modest tool that leaves nothing out yet pares down processes to their essentials.