Review: OnGuard Backup by Northglide

Having gone through a period of fairly frequent hard resets that occasionally resulted in lost data and great frustration, I decided to try OnGuard Backup as a complement to BackupBuddyVFS. After a few days, I ended up buying Northglide's NeatFreak Pack Plus, which included OnGuard as well as Cleanup and Uninstall Manager.

OnGuard Backup does just that: It backs things up to external cards, but it backs things up as thoroughly as you like with a couple of options. After installing OnGuard, open it and make sure it is enabled by clicking "Enabled". To add an application that should be backed up, click the "+" button. A list of applications appears; those at the top, in bold, are already registered for backup. Highlight the new application then click "Next" to choose what to back up:

• "Settings (preferences)" for things like a game application's latest scores
• "Files," for all files associated with the application, which is on by default
• "Application," for the application itself
• If you have Uninstall Manager, there is "Monitored Files," for all files created by the application, which is on by default
• If you have Uninstall Manager, "Monitored Preferences," for preference saved with different CreatorIDs, which apparently often means the serial numbers that other backup applications can miss.

When you click "Finish," OnGuard will ask you whether you would like to back the application up now. Whether you do or not, from now on, each time you run an application with OnGuard, quitting the application causes OnGuard to backup whatever you requested, though it backs up the application only once. Depending on your settings, this can be a bit slow (a few seconds on my TX), especially if you have OnGuard set to backup "Settings (Preferences)" and "Application" each time. But the crucial thing here is that you always backup the latest and greatest of your files. I have had too many cases where a restore following a hard reset has reinstalled the almost latest, which can mean lost data and serious headaches. In my opinion, OnGuard comes as near to preventing such agony as anything can.

Following a hard reset, from the Applications window, just choose the external card and open OG Restore. It will give you a list of all the applications backed up by OnGuard. Click on one of them then click "Restore." OG Restore will ask whether you want to delete the backed up copy after restoration. And just like that, one application is restored (depending on its backup settings)!

If you want to quit backing up a certain application, remove it from OnGuard by clicking the "-" button or click off the backup settings for the particular application. In both cases, OnGuard will ask if you would like it also to delete any backed up versions of the program on the external card. If you'd like to keep backup copies, just not update them, there's no problem.

OnGuard Backup has other features as well, including allowance for multiple backups of the same application, but I have been content with just the functions I've written about here. The application also gives clear and thorough information in its dialog windows when you click on an "i" in an upper right corner.

OnGuard Backup is now a critical application for me, and it makes the nightmare of hard resets far more tolerable. When I close an application like DateBk6, TealPhone, or SplashID and see OnGuard doing its work, I always feel a bit of satisfaction and relief in knowing that application and its data are safe.

While OnGuard Backup is excellent by itself, it is made even better when Uninstall Manager is installed, which is why I recommend purchasing the Neat Freak Pack Plus for just US$26.95. I only wish I had found out about these applications when I first bought my TX, because they would have saved me a ton of grief.