OCB for WinRAR

OCB for WinRAR

This free backup program lets you create and schedule backups using WinRAR. We were unable to get its promised drag-and-drop functionality to work, but it still proved to be a worthy backup program.

BackUp for WinRAR’s main user interface is pretty self-explanatory, although we had to hover our mouse over a few of the toolbar commands buttons to learn their function. The program already includes a preset for backing up your registry. But creating a new preset task was not as intuitive as the rest of the program and required a visit to the Help menu. All of our questions were answered, though, so we weren’t put off by this. Soon, we were off to name our preset, and select programs to run before and after the backup. The program lets you choose from three archive formats, including RAR, ZIP, and EXE. It also lets you choose the compression method, although the selections were a bit vague and ranged from Best and Fastest to Store. We also were given the option of password-protecting our backup file, which we took advantage of during the test. All was well, until we got to the File List feature, which let us add and exclude files for the backup. The program boasts its drag-and-drop functionality for adding files, but we were unable to do so. However, we were able to add our files using the Browser option.

Once we clicked OK, the program created our new preset and backed up our files according to the schedule we had created. Novice users will need to spend some time with the Help file, but the program’s reliable backup performance is certainly worth the time and effort.