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Resco to the Rescue (1/2)

Resco Backup v1.20

By: Neal Stublen | Date: 5-May-08 | Comments

INTRODUCTION

It's inevitable, really. At some point in time you will need to access some information stored on your phone and it won't be there. Maybe you installed a new application that shouldn't have yet made it out of the testing phase. Maybe your memory card gave up the ghost. Whatever the cause, you'll need to recover your data from a backup source. (Yes, unfortunately, that means you needed to create a backup source before the data loss occurred.) Can Resco Backup help you reliably backup your mobile phone so your data is always safe and secure? Read on to find out...

WHAT'S HOT

Here's what is unique about Resco Backup:

Full or partial backup, verify and restore
AES encryption
Scheduling of full or incremental backups

SETUP

Resco Backup can be installed using a Windows installer that will install the application to your device via ActiveSync or you can download a CAB file directly to your device and install it from there.

An optional desktop tool for unpacking files from a backup archive can be downloaded from the Resco web site. Since it is a standalone application and does not include an installer, you will need to copy the file to your hard drive and setup any shortcuts manually.

PRODUCT FEATURES

The key features of any data recovery product are obviously backup and restore.

Resco Backup provides a basic interface (above left) that makes backup and restore quick and easy. Accessing backup sets and updating and verifying archives can be done through the Menu attached to the right soft-key. An advanced UI (above right) reveals a few more features by getting rid of the large backup and restore icons. Both interfaces provide the same functionality. The only difference is how you access that functionality.

Creating a backup involves defining a backup project. The backup project determines where the archive is stored and how many archives are kept in storage. If you have applications that tend to interfere with the backup process because they lock files and prevent them from being copied into an archive, you can have Resco Backup terminate all running applications before performing the backup operation.

Encryption settings allow you to protect your backup archives from prying eyes and compression options let you make trade-offs between backup speed and archive size.

If you don't need to backup all the files on your device, you can remove them from the backup project. This can be useful if you have music files or photos that you already have stored on a PC and having another backup becomes unnecessarily redundant.

Once you begin your backup, it's just a matter of waiting for it to complete. Resco Backup keeps you up to date as the backup is being run and provides details on the backup once it's finished.

Information on any file in the backup archive is readily available along with the options of comparing it to the corresponding file on the device or restoring it to the device.

Once a backup archive is complete, it is possible to later restore the entire archive or you can select only certain files or folders to restore from the archive.

    If you're satisfied with your backup configuration, you can schedule automatic backups to keep your backup archives up-to-date. You can create a full or incremental backup at any set interval. I've found it easy to run daily backups of my device in the middle of the night. The Resco Backup scheduler will automatically awaken the device from suspend mode, run the backup, and suspend the device again.

    If you have some information that you only need to backup occasionally, Resco Backup allows you to define multiple backup projects to handle those needs. Each project keeps track of which files to backup and can maintain its own schedule that's independent of other projects.

    All the screen captures used in this review were taken during my first use of Resco Backup. If you look back at the clock in the upper right, you'll notice that the entire process of configuring and running a backup took less than 10 minutes - 4:56pm to 5:05pm. Keep in mind - this includes the time required for me to capture the images and run the backup. (The one image without the clock was captured at a later date for use in the review.) Using Resco Backup, you will be up and running in no time and you'll quickly have your first backup completed in just minutes.

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