Reviewer's Guide

It is not uncommon to lose an important document or a spreadsheet that you spent all day working on it. Not everyone likes the backup operations. Besides backups are only good if you remember to do them. Many backup programs store your important data and when you need it, you have to perform a restore operation.

Centered Systems recently released Second Copy, a shareware backup utility that makes backup operations a breeze! Second Copy allows you to keep a backup of all your important files at a different location. Set it up once and forget about it. Since you always have a backup, you don’t have to perform any restore operations. Second Copy will automatically copy your files at specified intervals with little impact on system performance.

Second Copy’s elegant and clean user interface offers easy setup wizards and multiple graphical views of the information. Second Copy is designed to run under Windows . It provides automated support for Install and Uninstall.

To use Second Copy, simply create profiles for files you want to copy to another directory, folder, drive or computer across the network. Each profile defines a source location, a destination location, and how often the files should be copied.

Select Express setup for most commonly used options, or select Custom setup to define special options, e.g., files to include or exclude, compression, encryption, and synchronization. Second Copy 's setup wizard helps users define different profiles, each indicating different sets of files and rules. These profiles can be organized in groups by different categories such as daily backups, weekly archives, accounting files, etc. Setup wizard also assists the user in setting the frequency of the backups, including specific days of the week, time of the day, or any desired time intervals.

Please don't be fooled by Second Copy 's simple interface. We kept it simple for the 90% of the people who don't like to worry about the backups and who are not so computer literate. The basic interface provides these individuals with the most important functions needed to perform a reliable backup. However, to avoid a cluttered and complicated interface, the utility’s many advanced features are kept out of the way for all but the advanced computer users. These advanced features, which are easily accessible, are well designed and documented.

By default Second Copy only copies new or changed files. This reduces the amount of time it takes to make the backup. Second Copy can compress your files using PKZip compatible compression, and it comes with its own Zip Viewer. You can also synchronize your files between the source and destination so that you always have updated copies.

Files can be stored on any local fixed or removable disks, zip drives, CD-RW's, as well as on storage devices on other computers across a network. Second Copy backups can span across multiple removable disks. Second Copy does not backup to tape drives.

Second Copy can archive up to 25 earlier versions of files. You can ignore files older than a certain date, and set zip file compression ratios. You can run any program before or after running each backup operation.

For added security, the compressed files and customized settings can be protected using encrypted passwords. Second Copy 's built-in auto-dial and auto-login features enable users to back up their files remotely to their servers in the office, or to any other location.

Anyone who would like to have peace of mind without having to worry about backups needs Second Copy. Whether it’s a corrupted file, directory, or a hard disk crash – you always have a backup, and hence peace of mind. Second Copy can copy any type of file, whether it is a document, a spreadsheet, a database, an e-mail depository, system files, or program files; Second Copy will always keep your backup.

The following are a few examples of Second Copy uses:

Unattended, automatic backups

Copying files between work and home computers automatically without having to carry any storage media – You can modify files on the work computer and they can be synchronized with the home computer using Second Copy.

Many office environments require you to copy files to the network server or network storage so that their data will get backed up. Many people forget to copy files from their local machine to the server or the network storage – You can automatically copy files from your local workstation to the server or the network storage using Second Copy.

Keep your laptop synchronized with the desktop – Using Second Copy you can copy files between your laptop computer and your desktop computer keeping all important files updated on both systems.

Second Copy can also be used to copy files between the servers to have synchronized information across the network.

You can save storage space and backup files by using file compression – You can use Second Copy to backup files to any removable storage device such as floppies, Zip drives, and CD-RWs. These can be used for off-site backup.

If you periodically copy files or databases from one computer to another, you know that, if something goes wrong during the copying process, you have to restart copying all over again – Using Second Copy, once you set up the source and the destination locations, even if there is a problem, you don’t have to start copying all over again. Simply correct the problem and Second Copy profile will copy only the missed or changed files since the last copying operation.

Once you define the profiles indicating which files to copy, where to copy them, and when to copy them, Second Copy runs in the background. At the specified time, it compares the date and time stamp of the source and destination files, and it copies new and changed files. It also tracks the copying activities in a log file so that you can see which files were copied and if there were any errors. Second Copy copies only the files that are not in use by other applications. However, if it tries to copy an open file, Second Copy alerts you so that you have an option to close that file for Second Copy to copy it.

You can download Second Copy from any of the following links:

http://www.centered.com/download.html
http://www.secondcopy.com/download.html

It is also available on major shareware repositories such as Cnet/ZDNet Download and Tucows.

Technical support is available for Second Copy customers by sending e-mail to support@secondcopy.com. There are two mirrored web sites, which also offer a wealth of support information including known issues and tips and tricks.

http://www.centered.com/support.html
http://www.secondcopy.com/support.html

A single user license of Second Copy is $29.95. Discounts are available for multi-user licenses. For multi-user pricing see: http://www.secondcopy.com/secondcopy/pricing.html

On the World Wide Web using secured web site (by credit card)

By Phone (by credit card)

By Fax (by credit card)

By Mail (by check)

By Purchase Orders


For more information on how to order see: http://www.secondcopy.com/order.html
Centered Systems
7137 Oak Ridge Road
Falls Church, VA 22042-2561

Sales:

Fax: (703) 637-1259
sales@secondcopy.com

Support:

support@secondcopy.com

Websites:

http://www.centered.com
http://www.secondcopy.com