BackupAssist imaging jobs utilise the Microsoft Windows imaging engine to backup and write your data. As some of you may already be aware, there is a known Microsoft issue when using the Windows imaging engine to back up to a destination drive that is utilising 4K bytes per cluster. This typically relates to the larger (>2TB) USB hard drives that are now becoming more common. Some hard drives can be reformatted using 512 bytes per cluster rather than 4K bytes per cluster but unfortunately not all have this option.

BackupAssist version 7 sees the first iteration of a great new central administration console  for remote control access. Administrators can now manage all of their local network installations of BackupAssist through one single web interface hosted by a central nominated BackupAssist installation. All backup jobs and reports from your various installations can be quickly monitored and remote control sessions can be launched to manage a specific installation for changes. In effect, administrators no longer need to remotely log in to a BackupAssist server to manage all of its settings.

http://www.zensoftware.co.uk/blogresources/2012/11/ba7Beta_box.pngOne of the most noticeable changes in version 7 of BackupAssist is how it looks and feels, so I thought I'd use this first of two preview posts to take an early look at the new interface in a little more detail. Earlier iterations of BackupAssist have often been praised for their simple interface layout and ease of use, so when I first heard that the developers were looking to improve on this for version 7, I'll admit to being a little apprehensive!

You may have picked up from our subtle marketing that something new is on the horizon with the next release of BackupAssist, Version 7. Now the public Beta is here I'm excited to be able to finally tell you all about the new features, which include a completely reworked interface design. First off, let me introduce the completely new simplified interface and layout...

We've had a few customers asking about whether our backup software BackupAssist can be used to restore old backups originally created using NTBackup, to a new 2008 server. This isn't such a crazy idea when you consider that at the point that you upgrade to Server 2008 you may well have a large history of old backups from your old 2003 server and still need files from within them on your new server.

One of the most notable changes visually in Windows 8 is the range of new apps that now appear on the "Start" page. In a similar vein to mobile devices, there are email and calendar apps which now integrate tightly, offering handy features such as notifications. It's easy to see why some users will end up switching to this as their preferred method of access, so in this post I'll show you how to configure MDaemon to synchronise with these two key apps.

RDX DriveOne trend I've noticed since we've been supplying  BackupAssist is the popularity of RDX and REV drives for image backups, particularly in small and medium-sized businesses. I put this down mainly to how cost-effective they can be in comparison to similar capacity tape devices, and also that they still provide that same familiar multiple cartridge approach that tape device users are used to.

Its been a while since I recommended a useful free software tool. But this time I want to introduce a tool that I have been using for many years but recently have found very useful specifically when dealing with Rsync jobs in BackupAssist. Introducing WINSCP WINSCP is developed by Martin Prikryl  of Putty fame.  It is a simple utility that at first glance works in exactly the same way as an FTP client but with  some very useful features that stand out.