NTI has been in the backup software game since 1995, so the company has expertise when it comes to protecting data. Its Backup Now product packs a punch, with an improved interface and the fastest performance on our folder and file speed test by a significant margin. In addition to continuous folder and file backup, the software offers full-drive backup and restore, encryption, and other tools. But it still trails some of the competition in usability, and its full-disk backup was quite slow in my testing.

Pricing and Starting Up

To try out a fully functional free version of NTI Backup Now 6 for 30 days, you need to fill out your name and email, but you don't need to enter credit card credentials, thankfully. The list price is $69.99, but with discounts you usually pay half that. The 115MB download took over 8 minutes on a very fast Internet connection, which suggests that NTI's servers aren't the fastest. After choosing one of the three available languages (English, French, and Spanish) and agreeing to the license, you have to restart your computer to complete installation. The software runs on all versions of Windows from Vista to Windows 10, ($139.00 at Microsoft Store) as well as on Windows Server 2008 and 2012. I tested on a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 ($275.00 at Amazon) and an HP EliteBook 8460p .

As with some other backup apps, every time you launch the NTI Backup Now application, you need to OK a Windows User Account Control dialog, since the program is digging into security-sensitive areas of your system.

Interface

The program's interface is attractive and friendly, with big buttons for Backup, Restore, and Migrate—a far cry from Paragon Backup & Recovery's ($39.95 at Paragon Software) complicated interface. Choosing Backup pops open a window offering equally clear sub-choices: File Based Backup, Drive Based Backup, Continuous Backup, and NTI Cloud Backup. The latter makes Backup Now function as an online backup service. After you choose File, a window shows your system's folder tree structure in a My Folders tab, with another tab for My Profile, which lists common file types, such as Documents, Music, Pictures, and so on. NTI installs a system tray icon with simple choices of opening the backup window, stopping backup processing, showing help, and quitting.

If you want constant protection for certain folders, you can choose Continuous Backup from the main program window's left menu rail. You get a choice of saving all versions, a specified number of versions, and only the latest version.

Restoring

Tap the main interface's Restore button, and a small dialog gives you choices of File Based Restore, Drive Based Restore, and NTI Cloud Restore. Simply check the backup job or drive to restore from and pick what you're looking for from a folder tree. You can also search by filename to find what you want to restore, but you need to enter the exact filename or correct file type and wildcard characters to successfully use it. After selecting files, a clear step in the Restore wizard lets you choose whether to restore them to their original location or a new one.

The next options are also helpful: you can tell the program to never replace an existing file, to only replace if the backup has a newer date, or to always replace. A new destination will inherit whatever folder structure the original had. So, when I restored to the Backup folder, I saw Users, Username, and Desktop sub-directories created.

One thing in the interface that I'm not crazy about is that Backup jobs and Restore jobs appear in the same list, with nothing to differentiate them. Also, it takes a long time after clicking in a check box to see the drive contents display in the lower panel where you select folders and files for restoration. Selecting among previous file versions is different than in many backup programs: Instead of seeing multiple versions for a single file, you pick a date and time from a dropdown to get to the version you want. The problem with this is that each time you change the time or date, the folder tree reloads from scratch, rather than staying on the folder you selected previously.

Performance

NTI was the leader on my folder and file backup speed test. I tested backing up two sets of 100MB worth of folders and files from the HP EliteBook 8460p to a Western Digital My Passport Essential external hard drive and taking the average time. NTI Backup Now 6 took just 21 seconds to complete the task, compared with Acronis True Image 2016's 35.5 seconds, Genie Timeline's 37 seconds, and Paragon Backup & Recovery's ridiculous 2 minutes and 33 seconds.

Full disk-image backup was a different story: In my test creating a full-disk backup from a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with 63GB of files to an external USB 3 drive, NTI took 2 hours and 4 minutes, compared with Acronis True Image 2016's 7 minutes and 19 seconds and Paragon's 12 minutes and 57 seconds. Helpfully, NTI saves a log file that tells you each of its steps; this makes it easy to determine how long a backup took. But there's no control that lets you run the backup fast at the expense of other software or vice versa.

Extra Features

NTI Backup Now can create a recovery USB or disc, and can help you migrate your system to a new PC or to a new hard drive. Unfortunately, when I booted my test PC with a USB created from NTI, my Windows 10 system was inoperable: The recovery system that started was labeled 2012, before my OS's advent. Migration works similar to drive backup: You simply specify the source and destination. This is simple file moving, rather than the system recreation that Paragon Backup & Recovery attempts to perform.

Another tool include by NTI is Erase, which lets you erase recordable optical discs. Finally, the Compare tool shows you differences between a current file version and its backed-up equivalent. I didn't, however, find this tool particularly useful, but it could show you if a file has been deleted from its original location. The number of extras pales by comparison to what's in Paragon Backup & Recovery, but that product has its own issues, such as slow folder backup and a convoluted interface.

Backup Now? Maybe Later

NTI Backup Now has come a long way since our last review, with an updated interface, fast folder and file backup, and the ability to create full system images and bootable startup USB disks as well as optical discs. It also can tie in with optional cloud storage. But slow full-disk backup, few advanced tools, and some procedural quirks keep it from the top rank of local backup software. Our Editor's Choice goes, instead, to Acronis True Image 2016.

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