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Fbackup Version 5 ??????? WTF?

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:55 am
by marvmanone
To Whom it may concern,

I love Fbackup 4 and it’s clean easy to understand interface. I hate the interface of version 5.
I use and recommend this product to hundreds of my customers but I hate version 5.
There’s no summary when it’s done. Just a small exclamation mark. Version 4 was color coded green, black, & red.
Simple to understand. The backup button was nice and big. Please go back to the award winning interface you had.
Please do not ruin such an elegant and simple to understand program with this confusing interface.

Re: Fbackup Version 5 ??????? WTF?

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:15 pm
by Adrian (Softland)
The interface of FBackup 5 has a new design, the information is now compacted and you can see the same details for multiple backup jobs in the same time.
I attached a comparison image with version 4 and 5 of FBackup.
Image

As you can see, the jobs finished with errors have a colored background and also an X over the icon. You can easily see all jobs finished with errors by selecting the “Failed jobs” filter from the left column.
The jobs finished with warnings have an exclamation mark over the job’s icon.

Re: Fbackup Version 5 ??????? WTF?

Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:55 pm
by marvmanone
I appreciate the clarification on the interface but it shouldn't be necessary. The old interface is much clearer.
When I ran the first backup on my system I got the warnings symbol and after the timed results box went away I could not easily get to the log file without going through the menus.
I should be able to double click the backup job to get it or even just have the errors displayed on the screen below the backup job. The backup log itself used to say at the top search for "errors" or "warnings" in the log for your results.
It would be nice if it simply displayed the errors themselves at the top.
Both programs themselves seem to be the same underneath. They just have a new interface.
Another annoyance in both programs is that you can apply a filter to tell the program to ignore a file type but not a directory.
I was really hoping this one would have been fixed in this version.
There are also problems using the built in scheduler verses the Windows scheduler. Some people don't want to have to put a password on their system. The windows scheduler requires it and the built in scheduler won't work with the "shutdown computer after backup" command. The same command won't work with the Windows scheduler on an XP machine.
I know all this because I use this program to backup machines for lots and lots of my customers both in network environments and using external backup drives. I even pass out a 4 x 6 index card with instructions to my clients to make it brain dead easy. This new version is too confusing for people. Here is what my index cards say:

Directions For Your Backup System

Close all programs and go to your desktop.
Turn on or plug-in your backup drive and wait 15 seconds.
If a box comes up then close it with the X in the corner.
Run the “Backup My System Now” icon on your desktop.
If you see a security message click yes or continue.
Click the big backup button and wait for it to finish.
If you see any error messages run the program again.
If the error persists call xxxxxx. (xxx-xxx-xxxx).
Close the backup program.
Turn off or eject your backup drive.
Remember to back up regularly.

If you see: Last backup was successful in green = Good.
If you see: Last backup had errors or warnings in Black = No problem.
(*Some Windows files were in use during the backup - no problem.)
If you see: Last backup failed in red = Not Good. Check the cables and try the backup again. If you still have trouble call xxxxxx for help.

Thanks for your time.

Re: Fbackup Version 5 ??????? WTF?

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 1:11 pm
by Adrian (Softland)
Hi,

Simply pressing the date and time link of the last backup execution on the front page (which is right after the destination path) will open the last backup log. There is also a "View log" button in the menu, which is much closer than in version 4 of FBackup.

The warnings and errors are shown in the log file when they appear, in the execution order. It is important to see when appeared the error/warning during the backup process (for example: there could be an error during the backup test which is the last phase of the backup, or there could be an error during the backup execution).

In our commercial edition (Backup4all) the filters can be defined for both files and folders.

We will add some color and status for each backup execution, to be much visible.

Re: Fbackup Version 5 ??????? WTF?

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:05 pm
by marvmanone
That's great. I can't wait to see it. I think the programmers may have spent too much time looking at it. Sometimes you just need to step back for a minute so you can come back with fresh eyes. I still think that if you compare the 2 interfaces side by side version 4 makes more sense from a customers point of view.
Thanks again for your time.