Areca Backup

Author:TipsAndTricksForPC November 5th, 2010Cat:System Utilities

Areca Backup is a file backup tool written in java.

It supports data compression & encryption, incremental backup, file history explorer and many other features. Areca Backup also includes a transaction mechanism which guarantees your backups´ integrity. As an additional security measure areca also features a backup simulation module.

“Areca Backup is an easy personal file backup software developed in Java”

Areca Backup has been designed to :

Be as simple as possible to set up : No complex configuration files to edit – Your backup configuration (which is stored as an XML file) can be edited with Areca's graphical user interface.
Be as versatile as possible : Areca can use advanced backup modes (like "delta backup") or simply produce a "basic" copy of your source files as a standard directory or zip archive (readable by WinZip or other archivers).
Allow you to interact with your archives and the files they contain : Track different versions of a specific file, browse your archives, recover or view specific files, merge a set of archives, ..

Features:

Archives compression (Zip format)
Archives encryption (Triple DES & AES encryption algorithm)
Source file filters (by extension, subdirectory, regular expression, size, date, status, usage)
Incremental / Full backup support
Archives merges / deletion : You can merge contiguous archives in one single archive or safely delete your latest archives.
As of date recovery : Areca allows you to recover your archives (or single files) as of a specific date.
Transaction mechanism : All critical processes (such as backups or merges) support a transaction mechanism (with commit / rollback management) which guarantees your backups´ integrity.
Backup reports : Areca generates backup reports that can be stored on your disk or send by email.
Post backup scripts : Areca can launch shell scripts after backup.
Files permissions backup. (Linux only)
Archives content explorer. (including a ´find file in archives´ feature)
Archive description : A manifest is associated to each archive, which contains various informations such as author, title, date, description, and some technical data.
File history explorer : Areca keeps track of your file´s history (creation / modifications / deletion) over your archives.
Backup simulation : useful to check wether a backup is necessary
User´s actions history : Areca keeps an history of all user´s actions (archives deletion, merges, backups, recoveries).
Archive´s indicators : Areca computes a lot of indicators for you, which will help you in the everyday management of your archives.
Areca comes with a command-line interface which can be used for backup automation.