Backup4All is the winner
Following the recent Mozy unpleasantness I've been trying other services and software to get a network-wide backup working, both on-site and off-site.
I was recommended to use SyncBack - by a lot of very clever people. I hated it. It looked like it could do everything you could ever want with backup, with hundreds of options to finely tune every aspect of who/what/where.
I wanted one button, labelled "Backup".
Seriously, SyncBack looked like it had been designed by committee, and one without any sense of why you'd want to keep software simple.
I tried Crashplan, seduced by the gorgeous website and UI. Very clever software, but it didn't support backing up to USB drive. I really don't understand why, but there you are. Check back at end of 2007 to see if they updated it..
Next, I was recommended Norton Ghost. Yeah, well that didn't happen. I don't even remember why now (sorry) - was it that it didn't keep versions?
In any case, suprisingly none of the recommendations worked out. So, I googled backup softtware myself and actually found one that I will probably buy at the end of the 30 day trial! I've never heard of it before - Backup4All.
Yeah, I know. The name is a little clumsy, but the web site is clean, detailed and easy to use. The software is the same.
It can backup to FTP and to a USB drive. It keeps unlimited versions of files (if you want) and a big bonus is that it backs up into zip files. No scheme reminiscent of SourceSafe with unrecoverable data. You can, outside of Backup4All, go and open the zip and get a file. I love that.
I also bought a new USB drive to backup locally, and now recommend the 1TB My Book. I never imagined I'd own a terabyte of storage, let alone one that cost less than $400.