BackUp MyPC

List Price: $79.99

Customer Reviews:

Great program, slow support [Posted on 2003-02-11]
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This is Veritas' Backup Exec, but now supported by Stomp (who the he** is Stomp??) with some bug fixes.

It works very well; Stomp publishes which backup devices it supports, and the program does an extremely good job at what it says it will do. It does exceptionally well at disaster recovery, but it does require you know at least a little something about the operating system you're using (and the SERVICE PACK level you'd applied, if any) before restoring if you're recovering from a complete hard drive crash. I've recovered successfully from a complete crash using this product.

The absolute best way to recover from a complete hard drive crash is to reinstall your operating system on the new hard drive and apply whatever service pack you'd installed on your system before it failed, THEN restore from your backup. It works perfectly with everything looking like it did before the crash.

Also, remember that to restore completely successfully, your backup should include your system's "SYSTEM STATE" if running NT, Win2K or WinXP. Backup MyPC includes this component as a simple checkbox during backup.

If you're not sure you want to buy it, try the free trial available on Stomp's website. If you like it, buy it here on Amazon; if you don't like it, what have you lost?

My only problem was in the way I tried upgrading from Backup Exec Pro. I didn't follow instructions and waited a day and a half for an email reply from Stomp. Before I got the reply, I'd figured out my mistake on my own and continued on my way.
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Lack of Version # [Posted on 2003-02-11]
I will never buy any item where the seller does not state the version designation.

Superb product [Posted on 2003-02-18]
This review is for the newest version 4.85. Veritas is the originator of this software. I have used their products for years and this was familiar right from the start. Did a complete system backup of 20GB on four DVD+RW media in just under four hours (including verification). Software provides progress report of the backup itself and the progress of each media. Extremely flexible for custom backups and provides for scheduled automatic backups (provided a blank CD or DVD is in the drive).

Stomp Inc. has a website that allows you to check compatibility with your drive and download a trial version. Email support took a week to respond to a question I had during trial use. I don't find that acceptable but my question would not have been necessary had I been using the fully functional product instead of the 30 day free trial. I have since purchased and am using the full product.

NOTE: Windows XP with Service Pack I installed will not allow the creation of disaster recovery disks. Stomp Inc. included a special bulletin on the restore procedure for those affected. This is not a deficiency in Stomp's software, but a limitation created by WindowsXP/I.

I agree that retailers should disclose which version they are selling. My rating is for the software itself and I did not mark it down simply because Amazon.com is not providing as much information as they should.

Top notch - this is what backup should be! [Posted on 2003-04-20]
Just plain awesome.. For years I've been struggling with unreliable tape backup hardware and wanted to switch to DVD-RW as a storage medium. After much research I stumbled across BackupMyPC and gave it a shot. It works exactly as advertised, and is VERY easy to configure and use.

The software supports a number of storage medium including DVDs and CDs. You can backup from network drives (although I don't believe the software will install on NT Server or 2000 Server software). No problem, just install it on a workstation and backup from the network. Works like a charm!

No real complaints. In fact you'll find more uses for it after you purchase it!

Riddled with problems [Posted on 2004-03-22]
Backup MyPC has real problems with media errors - even when other applications are fine with the particular CD. One result is you can't make disaster recovery disks on to floppy disks. It's not the media, it's the Backup MyPC software.

Now try and do a backup onto CDs - the reason your buy backup software - you can get media errors on the very last disk requiring you to throw away your CD-R disks and start over!

Their support site has a long list of things causing "media error" problems. One example is apparently they have problems depending on the drivers you use for your IDE controller. They want you to use only Microsoft drivers. How is it all the other backup programs are OK with non-MS drivers? Do you know if your IDE driver is from Microsoft? If it's not, do you want to change it because of this one application?

I do not know how many other problems they have and I am not going to find out. I am so glad I downloaded a trial version first!
I just don't understand how this product has gotten such good reviews from PC Magazine and others. Don't waste your time or risk your valuable data with this sw.

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