Basically Second Copy 2000, referred to hereafter as Second Copy, is for backing up important data files, rather than the whole hard disk or partition, as it can not copy open files. If you need to back up a whole hard drive or partition, you would be better served to use an imaging program such as DriveImage or TrueImage and archiving to a CD-R(RW) or DVD-R(RW). That said, Second Copy will copy files to any device that appears to windows to be a hard disk, floppy drive, network drive, removable drives or CD-R(RW) and DVD-R(RW) drives that behave like a hard disk. The XP lite version of Adaptec/Roxio’s Easy CD, does not make CD of DVD drives behave like a hard disk, so to utilize them you would need something similar to Roxio’s DirectCD or Nero’s InCD full versions.

Personally, I use Second Copy for directories I am currently work with and then once the project is completed, I then archive everything with the rest of my non-active data files, which have been previously completed. I have only been using Second Copy for a little over a month, but have already found it saving me from losing valuable data, by not letting me forget to save a back up. This is because I have my profiles set up to save on exit as well as at the scheduled times and use the Exit and Shutdown option to shut down the computer, thus ensuring that the data is backed up to my last version, unless there should be a power outage during the running of the profile, of course.

I have not used the synchronization option, nor the compression option, as of yet, due to my , maybe irrational, distrust of the data integrity after these functions, in the event of a failure. Setup and editing of profiles is surprisingly straightforward using the Express Setup and is how I normally create the profiles I want to utilize. I have also used the Custom Setup, in which you need to specify every action specifically, but most times the Express Setup works fine. My only complaint is that to edit a profile, you have to run through the complete Express or Custom Setup each time, rather than being able to go directly to the item I want to change. Maybe there is a way to go directly to the item, however I have not yet found it.

Second Copy also provides a log of Profile activities, though now that I am confident that the profiles I created are doing what I want them to, I seldom check the log. The log should be checked the first few times it is run, just to ensure that it is doing what you designed it to do and then once you are confident, just check every once in a while to make sure nothing was changed inadvertently. All in all, in my humble opinion, this is a great utility and well worth the purchase price.