File Backup Manager

File Backup Manager is as simple as you can get and is fine for backing up your computer over an internal network but not for backup over the Internet.

File Backup Manager is a graphical front end for the rdiff-backup utility. Rdiff-backup does not compress files or encrypt the result. Consider File Backup Manager for backups across internal networks, not the Internet.

Across the Internet you typically need compression to save time and reduce data charges. Combining multiple files into one can also reduce file processing overheads. If there are many files connected into one big archive and your connection quality is low, you might end up with continual restarts and waste time compared to transmitting many smaller files one at a time.

Across the Internet you need encryption to protect your privacy. If your computer is set to connect through a VPN, a Virtual Private network, you already have encryption and can use File Backup Manager through the VPN.

Home directory

If the only thing you want to backup is your home directory, start File Backup Manager then press the go button in the Home tab.

File Backup Manager will spend a minute finding all the files then several minutes building a backup image ready for a CD or DVD. I am writing this on a netbook with optical drive but File Backup Manager has not yet worked that out. Perhaps there will be a warning message after the image is built.

Backup tab

For every other type of backup, select the Backup tab. You can select the source and the destination.

Status

The status display is almost useless. The progress indication is close to useless. If an error occurs, the backup stops with no indication. You have to manually find the message log to see what happened.

In my test I backed up a directory I owned but the backup failed trying to change permissions in the output share. Not good. Backups are supposed to capture everything and list problems later. If the backup can read the files, which it can in this test, it should copy everything. At the end it can list exceptions including not setting a permission.

To make matters worse, it does not say what permission produced the problem. It did not say which file produced the problem. I cannot do anything with this backup program because the backup log does not contain enough information to start an investigation.

Conclusion

Useless error logging makes File Backup Manager unusable.