I use AutoSave Essentials all the time and wanted to add that you can back up your files remotely to a FTP location.  I bring this up mainly because the objective of backing up files is if the worst happens, you have a recovery path to get your data back.  If the FTP location is not in the same place as your PC then this gives better security. You have a house fire, you could lose everything!

Finally I do strongly advise never to backup to the same drive that you are using to store your main data, typically this is the C drive, even if it's a different partition. Hard drives do break... I advise using an external drive as this is the simplest to setup.

Hi David,

I've been using Retrospect all along. I wonder if you've compared these two. I'd like to steer from retrospect.

What are your impressions of Retrospect Marco?

Retrospect seems very archaic, same user interface etc. I mean, it works but then it feels like I've been driving the same vehicle with the same features over the past 8 years. Maybe there are things that are outthere I dont' know that I could benefit from. Otherwise, nothing wrong with keep on drving the same car, ultimately it takes me from point A to B, rigth?

This is true.

I have not compared both products but in my experience, apart from a backup product doing a good job, is that the user should be able to setup the software easily and it will do what they want it to do, without any technical expertise. This is where AutoSave Essentials sticks out from the rest.  AutoSave was designed so that novice users can select a document or file type and these are backed up without the user knowing where the file are on their PC.

File types are grouped together in a "Plan", sample Plans are setup during the installation, all the user needs to do is select th right plan or plans for what they want to keep secure. The Multimedia Plan will backup automatically all Pictures, Videos and Music files wherever they are on a PC, while the Office Plan will backup all office type documents only.

If you wish to do things a little more complicated then this is possible with AutoSave, as an example, I backup to a local external USB hard drive automatically, every time a new file or new version of a file is created and once a month I have a scheduled backup to my FTP. The FTP is not in the same location as my USB drive, meaning if my house burned down, I would still have my data safe.  To do this I have 4 plans, 2 Multimedia and 2 Office Plans, one of each continuously backing up to my USB drive and the others schedule once a month to backup to my FTP.