Windows 7: Need BU alternative to Genie

Win 7 Pro, Core i7, GB drives.

Need to BU WORD documents and photos, soon digital camcorder films.

Used Genie8 for years happily as the BU images on EHD can be read in clear. Then it stopped being able to save to follow on optical disks.

Come to end of life. The company has been splendid in support too.

Bought Genie Timeline Pro 2012 on trust but it is chalk and cheese, wildy different and not for me. Took all night to BU initially, etc. Incredibly if the EHD is not left connected all the time, it keeps on doing BU on the machine it's self! Now what is the point of BU on a machine that can be stolen or destroyed in a fire etc. ?

Searching the web showed some could not restore etc. = hearsay.

Spent hours searching for a replacement but all seemed worse.

What can I do? (Tempted buy a fireproof safe for the EHD and hide/bolt to the wall).

I assume Genie is a file-by-file backup application?

There are many such apps:

Karen's Replicator
Synctoy
Synchromagic
GFI Backup Home Edition
Second Copy
Allway Sync
Syncback


What replacements did you find and why did they seem worse?

What special requirements do you have, if any?

You could also use Cobain backup:Cobian Backup - CNET Download.com
Or, use the Windows built in back up

Freefilesync is another good one.

ignatzatsonic, Thanks for reply and i will look up your list.

The old ordinary Genie8 was almost perfect, it let me pick the few things i need to BU. Better yet i could see them in clear, most reassuring. Suddenly it stopped copying to optical disks, only EHD. The optical disks and EHD could be stored well away from the computer, in case of theft or fire. It was thus fast, and secure.

The new one is set to BU absolutely everything and first time took all night, so slow. I can stop it saving rubbish like emails (which i can print if needed). It is not in clear so i cannot check it is right. nor is the time saved significant.

Result, chalk and cheese, really serious time/space wasting, and no way to get the BU to a safe place.

windude99, Thanks for your reply.

Will look at Cobian.

Windows own is an included freebie and not reviewed well when i was looking up every choice.

Burdus32. Thanks for reply.

Will look for Freefilesync.

Not sure why all the replacements you found "all seemed worse".

The ones I have looked at will back up to an external, internal, or DVD.

Nor do I know why you couldn't then "get the BU to a safe place".

All the apps I have looked at give you full control over what to back up, when to back up, and the destination.

All do it "in the clear", if by that you mean unencrypted and visible.

All will take quite a while on the first backup because you are likely backing up many gigabytes. But on all future backups, they should take only seconds or a minute or two since the only files that would be backed up after the first time would be new files or modified files.

I did a video of FreeFileSync which will give you an idea of how it works. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube

One of my bookmarked videos Kado.