Which tape backup software, compatible with a Seagate Travan Portable
USB tape drive, is best for home office tape backup use?  The
Retrospect software that comes with the drive is very difficult to
figure out how to use.

Main criteria: easy to set up to schedule weekly full backups and
daily incremental backups.

Secondary (not required but high interest) criteria:  What can keep
data on a laptop synchronized with the desktop, both PCs connected via
a Windows
Ethernet network?

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Request for Question Clarification by nishka-ga on 09 May 2002 21:23 PDT

What version of Windows are you running?

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Clarification of Question by cloudstepper-ga on 11 May 2002 19:08 PDT

I am running Win XP.

Hey cloudstepper, 

I personally use Iomega's QuikSync:
[ http://www.iomega.com/iom_software/quiksync3_features.html ]

It is easy to setup, easy to use (you tell it what
files/directories/drives, how often, and where you want it backed up).

I don't use it to a tape drive, I use it to back up one HDD to
another.

I don't know if it will provide sync'ing features, but you can set it
to only update files that have changed on a daily basis.

You can download a version of it here:
[ http://download.com.com/3000-2242-2807604.html?legacy=cnet ]

Good luck!

Hi Couldstepper,

Backing up your software can be a nightmare sometimes, but it
certainly beats the alternative.  I got my last job because the IS
department didn’t do a good job of managing backups.

I found a decent buying guide on Backup Software at Network Computer
site (http://www.networkcomputing.com/1215/1215buyers2.html)  It’s
from last year, but it still pointed me to the following five software
companies.

·	Avantrix's Backup Plus,  
    (http://www.backupplus.net/) 
·	Dantz's Retrospect Desktop Backup
       (http://www.dantz.com/)
·	Iomega Corp.'s QuikSync,  
       (http://www.iomega.com/iom_software/quiksync3.html) 
·	Storactive's LiveBackup 2.0, and
       (http://www.storactive.com/) 
·	Veritas' NetBackup
       (http://www.veritas.com/)

(Lookout for the Veritas site, I got a lot of 404s when trying to
search for product information.)

Zdnet gave reviews on some of these products.

·	Dantz got a 7.8 out of 10
(http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/review/44/1/46.html)
·	The Windous User Group Network likes Backup Plus but doesn’t give it
a numerical rating (http://www.wugnet.com/csreviews/software/backupplus/)
·	PC Mag thinks that IO Mega’s QuikSync software isn’t very good - 2
circles out of 5 possible.
(http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s=1596&a=1624,00.asp)
·	PC Mag likes the Enterprise version of LiveBackup – 4 out of 5. 
(http://www.pcmag.com/article/0%2C2997%2Cs%3D1470&a%3D25310%2C00.asp)
·	The Melbourne Computer group thinks that NetBackup is too big for
what you need. (http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2103/2103article6.htm)


As far as compatibility, I definitely got hits out of the Retrospect
software to be compatible with your Seagate tape drive.

In general, I’d take a look first at Retrospect and Backup Plus, and
see if they offer what you need.

Hope this helps,
Metis