Backup programs

Most of today I spent trying to do a backup. Here are some programs I tried. My requirements were that they can do incremental backups, which is what I always use. Also they must be able to copy files and folders without zipping/encrypting them, as I have found zip archives to be unreliable previously - if the archive gets corrupted you loose all your files in the archive, or if the backup system zips each file individually, then you need to unzip the files when restoring them, which is tedious and can crash the computer when dealing with large numbers of files.

My system is Vista x64, Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor, 8GB RAM, Backing up from a partition on a RAID 0 array to an internal disk (I connect the disk internally and then remove it when the backup's done).

I got the links for the different programs from this very helpful article: 13 Great Free Backup Programs for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Ice Mirror
What I normally use. Crashes when comparing/copying large folders. Doesn't have the ability to remove files/folders on the backup that no longer exist in the master, though can tell you what they are so you can delete them manually.

Areca
Can remove files/folders from backup that no longer exist in the master. Requires that the backup be done through itself (so you can't just do an incremental backup to some files you backed up previously using another program or by hand). This would mean I would have to initially do new backups of all my folders if I wanted to use Areca for my backup solution. It seems to produce some files (stored with the backup: content; manifest; trace) that it uses to check what files exist in the backup, so if you change files in the backup without using Areca, it won't know. If these files became corrupted you would also need to do a full backup again.

Comodo Backup
Can remove files from the backup that don't exist in the master anymore, but still leaves the old folders?! What's the point of removing old files but leaving the folders?

Bonkey
Didn't seem to be able to detect that I had changed some file/folder names, and so wouldn't do an incremental backup. Pointless.

Abakt
Couldn't detect when I changed a folder name, but did detect when I changed a filename. Wouldn't delete files in the backup that didn't exist in the master.

Cobian Backup
Doesn't delete/detect files in the backup that don't exist in the master.

JaBack
First time I tried a 'Uni-directional synchronise' with it, it worked okay, but then after that it would just max out one of the CPU cores and not do anything.

Microsoft Sync Toy v2.0
Tried both the 64 and 32 bit versions in echo mode, which claims to delete files/folders on the backup that no longer exist in the master. However, it would not do that, leaving my backup with files and folders that no longer existed in the master.

SyncBackSE
You have to pay for it ($30), but it actually seems to work, and was quicker than all the other programs I've tried today as well. $30 is for a 5 user license as well. I'll have to give it a proper try backing all my stuff up tomorrow as I'm quite sleepy now. I'll also have to uninstall all the other backup programs I've tried today tomorrow.

I spent most of the day messing around with the different backup, but also played Mario Kart Wii, Goldeneye (N64) and Snowbow Kids (N64) with Mac, Ben, Mathew (Ben's mate) and Luke a bit.

Food
Breakfast: Strawberry jam toast sandwich; cup o' tea.
Elevenses: Maple & Pecan Cookie; cup o' tea.
Lunch: Mature cheddar cheese sandwich; clementine; piece of Tiramisu; Cadbury's chocolate finger; celebration; cup o' tea.
Dinner: Cup o' soup style soup; Quarter pounder burger with cheese and tomato ketchup in bun. Pudding was an apricot yoghurt and a shortbread finger. Coffee; Celebration.