Backup4all 4.8, 40% faster than previous versions

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Backup4all 4.8 is now available, this is a major update and we highly recommend downloading and installing the new version. It contains important improvements, as this new version is at least 40% faster than previous ones, so if you haven’t already installed it you can get it here: https://www.backup4all.com/download.html

What was improved in Backup4all 4.8:

  1. Important backup speed enhancements. In our tests the new version turns out to be 40% faster than the previous version, especially when the backup jobs contain numerous files.
  2. Improved source filter matching. All the backup jobs are filtered by default (there are several filters set up that affect all backup jobs). These filters have environment variables in the path of their sources. This means that everytime the filters were applied, the environment variables had to be expanded. We’ve optimized that process now, as the environment variables are expanded just once when the backup starts, not individually for each file (as it was before).
  3. Faster file access functions while archiving. For the archiving process we used several functions that were quite old (Delphi functions), we’ve seen a definite speed improvement when we started using certain Windows functions.
  4. Improved logging times. The speed improvement for logging is noticed especially when using the detailed log. Before this improvement, for each file/folder in the source the time format was established. Now we’ve improved that by calculating the time format at the beginning of the logging process and using that for all the files in that backup job.

You can watch the video below to see how the new version compares with the old one in terms of backup speed:

For this test we ran the same backup job with Backup4all 4.7 and after that with Backup4all 4.8:

  • Backup4all 4.7 finished the backup in 1:41 minutes, while Backup4all 4.8 finished the backup in almost 1 minute. Backup4all 4.8 was 40% faster in this particular case (in our tests we found out that this percentage grows exponentially with the amount of files).
  • We used a backup job that had 15000 files (text files), in order to better differentiate the speed improvements in the two tested versions..
  • In this video we used a stopwatch gadget to record the time, because it was better as a visual measure than checking the time in the log file. When the backup itself ran, we speeded-up the video 4 times to avoid watching a progress bar, but this doesn’t affect in any way the test.

What was fixed in Backup4all 4.8:

  • When restoring a file from a mirror backup (with zip) to a different location, the file creation time was wrong.
  • When creating a shortcut for a newly defined backup job (without running it), there were some errors if trying to change the backup type.
  • For a large backup to Blu-ray, if the sources are on different partitions the discs are not fully filled (in certain cases only 80% of the disc would get filled). We’ve fixed that now, so all discs are close to 100% filled.

This update is free for all registered users of Backup4all 4.x (i.e 4.0 – 4.7), for previous version owners (i.e. 3.x, 2.x) you have the option to upgrade by visiting https://www.backup4all.com/upgrade.html

As always we welcome any feedback regarding this release, so feel free to add your comment here or add a post on our Forums if you’re already a member.