What better way to beat the January blues than by winning a brand new iPad2 courtesy of BuddyBackup? That’s what happened to ‘NicGord’ in Australia, one of our loyal Buddies who persuaded the most number of friends and family to download and start using BuddyBackup’s free, online backup software. Congratulations! The iPad2 is making its way to you now.
Enjoy!
From everyone at BuddyBackup.
A study of computer theft in the USA has revealed that 5.5 million computers were stolen over the last 3 years, comparable with statisticaly proportional figures worldwide. Over two-thirds were laptops and 77% of thefts occurred while the respondent was mobile.
Forty-four percent of all respondents report they only back-up data weekly, monthly, rarely or never, which means that millions of people lost data permanently.
Read more here:
http://www.mactech.com/2010/08/03/key-findings-8th-annual-2010-bsi-computer-theft-survey
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/data-loss-sacrifices-1951/
http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/halloween-spam-malware-1289/
Check out our BuddyBackup ad on screens at London Train Stations! http://ping.fm/VlmAi
Which? Computing’s TechDaily says Buddybackup is “easy to install, easy to use and of course it’s free”. Plus they said: “We found recovering files to be simple.”
BuddyBackup – free software first look – Which? TechDaily
BuddyBackup is a free backup program that requires some willing friends, or you to have a second computer. It works in a similar way to a cloud backup tool but instead of saving to the cloud, it uses the spare storage space of your ‘buddy’ on their PC.
First you need to install BuddyBackup on your own computer. We found this simple to do. You can then use it to backup to a local USB drive store, but the real power is to backup to a ‘buddy’.
This can be another PC that you own, or even better a set of machines belonging to your friends. Each PC will need to have the BuddyBackup software installed and running.
The amount of storage space you have avilable on your friends PC depends on how much you’ve allowed them. For example, if you allow 10GB of storage space on your machine to be used by your buddies, you can backup up to 10GB of your own data to their PC.
If you don’t like the thought of your friends being able to see your files don’t worry, the backups are encrypted so your buddies won’t be able to see them.
Once you’ve installed the program and want to backup your data this is what happens:
Choose what data you want to save, and it runs automatically. If a ‘buddy’ is not online it will be sent to your other buddies – it’s worth having several to up the likelihood of someone being available. The default setting will send a copy to two of your buddies, but you can increase this if you want to. In our test we also found recovering files to be simple.
Everyone likes something for nothing. Find out how free software stands up against paid-for versions in our review of free software – including free anti-virus and office alternatives.
Overall it’s a very interesting concept. We found it was easy to install, easy to use and of course it’s free. You can use it to back up with friends or to back up between a couple of your own computers. There are a couple of things to watch out for though:
First, it’s important to mention that this is purely a backup solution for your files. There’s no imaging capability so it won’t be able to recover an operating system or whole applications.
Secondly, the backup process is quite slow by default. We found this reasonable though as it’s done to ensure minimal distrubance to the internet connection of you and your friends. Once you’ve completed your first backup though, the increments will be quicker.
818 – the number of computers stolen from students in Greater Manchester during the last academic year (Sept 2010 to Jul 2011).
While this might be the clichéd excuse for handing in work late – the fact is disasters do happen and losing your coursework could mean you put your degree at risk.
Rather than the dog, you’re more likely to lose work because your computer crashes or your laptop gets stolen. (A staggering 818 laptops were stolen from students in Greater Manchester during the 2010-11 academic year.)
Which is why backing up your work is vital but it needn’t be expensive. BuddyBackup offers unlimited, online data backup for free.
“Most students will take out insurance in case their laptop gets stolen,” says Mark Couvaras from BuddyBackup. “And while that can pay for a new computer, no amount of money is going to replace weeks and months of hard work. BuddyBackup software is like a free insurance policy for your data.”
BuddyBackup works by storing your files onto spare disk space on your friends’ (or buddies’) PCs. The system applies military-grade encryption to your data before it leaves your PC, which means that only you can see your files.
But backing up and remembering to back up are two different things, so BuddyBackup works continuously and automatically backs-up any changes or additions you make to your files. This means that once you’ve done an initial backup, you never have to worry about doing it again.
For added security BuddyBackup defaults to a minimum of two buddies. It wouldn’t be wise to backup just to your housemates, so it’s a good idea to include buddies who are off-campus or friends and family back home.
BuddyBackup only uses a trickle of your bandwidth when you’re on your computer. This means you can continue to work while BuddyBackup is backing up your files. After you’ve backed up, your files will continue to sit safely on your buddies’ computers.
BuddyBackup is smart software. It regularly checks that your buddies still have your backups. If it discovers a problem, it will automatically backup your files to a different buddy instead. This means you’re safe even if a buddy uninstalls BuddyBackup or has a computer failure.
If you have a disaster, you can easily recover your files by running BuddyBackup from your new computer.
“And because you’re avoiding an online storage company or cloud server,” adds Mark “BuddyBackup is a greener option too because it doesn’t add to the energy burden from power-hungry data centres.”
