Which backup software to use

You can back up an entire system, a specific disk, or data locations of your choosing. And you can send that backup file to a local drive, a network location, or one of three popular cloud locations: Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. If you choose the free option, however, be ready for constant reminders that the company really wants you to upgrade to one of its paid products.

Those reminders include pop-up notifications and orange reminders in the user interface that specific features aren't available to you.

With the home upgrade, you lose the upsells and get the ability to transfer a system to a new PC. The Pro edition includes a Smart Backup feature that runs every half-hour to capture recent changes.

The free edition includes versions for Mac and Windows as well as Backup for Hyper-V Host, which does full backups and one-click restores of virtual machines in non-production environments. The full product also includes advanced partitioning tools, drive migration features, and disk wiping methods. NTI's website has the old-school look you'd expect from a company that has been around since Windows 95 was still new and fresh.

There's no free edition, but you can get a day trial, and the company is aggressive with discounts. A Continuous Backup option not available on Backup Now EZ ensures that work you do between scheduled backups is protected.

It's worth noting that NTI has a warning on its product page that its complete system restore operation isn't compatible with "some tablet PCs e.

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Sorry, Gen Z isn't going to solve your tech skills crisis. Microsoft introduces Loop: A new collaboration tool built on Fluid Framework. A one-year subscription offers ransomware protection built in. For cloud-backups, you'll need to upgrade to the Advanced plan. A Premium plan offers 5TB of storage and electronic signatures. EaseUS ToDo Backup is a solution that has been around for over a decade, with packages for businesses, home users and even service providers.

It offers software for both Windows XP and higher and Mac platforms. In the Home and Home Office tier, it can handle an incremental or full backup for up to 16TB of data, including coping with multiple partitions, hardware RAID, and it also supports cloud backups.

While there is a free tier, the single paid Home tier offers more features for those really concerned with managing their backups on a regular basis. The Home edition is available for a one-time fee, or alternatively you can subscribe on a yearly basis, or a charge every two years. The Business options for a single Workstation has additional options for servers and technicians which offer an even more rich range of features.

With the Create Backup Job wizard, guidance is provided to what will be backed up, and where the data will be stored. This software covers all the usual backup processes, and can easily create complex routines, including automated backup.

A standout feature is the WinPE recovery media, which in the worst case scenario comes to the rescue for when your PC refuses to even boot. Via a bootable USB stick, users can rescue files, fix boot problems, and even perform a restoration to get up and running again in a jiffy.

A home plan is charged for a single home user license. For business users you will need to contact Paragon for a quote. Not so anymore!

Some of the best free software tools do everything expensive programs do We also keep an updated list of online backup services , which are companies that, for a fee, allow you to back up to their secure servers online. We're big fans of backing up this way, so be sure to check that out, too. In addition to particular, custom content, the program can also back up an entire disk, partition, or system drive.

While scheduling a backup, or once one has completed, you can run an incremental, differential, or full backup on the same data. More specifically, you can double-click the backup file to open it in EaseUS Todo Backup, where it looks like Windows Explorer and is just as easy to use, but you have to have the program installed in order to open the backup.

A timeline of backups is shown so that it's easy to choose a particular time from which to restore files. EaseUS Todo Backup also allows changing the file compression of a backup, limiting the backup speed and priority, wiping a disk , backing up an Android device, preserving security settings during a backup, splitting an archive into a smaller section, password protecting a backup, and scheduling a backup on a one-time, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The program is compatible with Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. You can also clone a partition or entire disk to another drive. All backed up data, no matter the type, is held in one single file, which can be saved to a local or external drive as well as a shared network folder. AOMEI Backupper supports encrypting a backup with a password, setting a custom compression level, receiving email notifications once backups have completed, splitting a backup into pieces of a custom size like for CDs and DVDs , and choosing between an exact backup copies used and unused space or an intelligent sector backup just backs up used space.

Scheduling is supported, so you can choose to run a backup on one occasion only or every day, week, or month, as well as at a continual interval throughout the day. Advanced settings are available to choose a full, incremental, or differential backup. We particularly like the restore function. You can even copy out individual files and folders. Instead of exploring a backup, you can also restore all the data with just a few clicks. Restoration isn't an option in the program; you have to manually restore files from the destination folder.

Cobian Backup can backup files, drives, and folders to and from all the following locations: local disk, FTP server, network share, external drive, or a manual location. Any or all of these destinations can be used alongside the others for both the source and backup location. A full, differential, or incremental backup can be used with Cobian Backup. It also supports automatically removing empty folders from a backup and utilizing Volume Shadow Copy. If compressing a backup, you also have the option to configure splitting it into smaller sections, which is useful if using the files on something like a CD.

Scheduling a backup can be very precise. Cobian Backup can run a backup job once, on startup, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or on a timer that runs every so many minutes. Unfortunately, There are no restore options with Cobian Backup short of just browsing the backup folder and pulling out the files. A wizard walks you through the backup process to help you specify what files should be backed up and where they should go. You can encrypt a backup, schedule backups daily or weekly, and optionally run missed ones at startup.

Restoring a backup gives you the option to restore to the original location or a new one. Several other programs try to install during setup, and you must manually deselect them if you don't want them on your computer. Simple selection lets you choose common files and locations to back up, such as internet browser bookmarks, music, and videos. Data can be included or excluded from a backup by folder or file name, as well as by using advanced filtering options with the use of wildcards.

Backups made with BackUp Maker can be restricted to run on certain days of the week or month, can launch when you log on or off, can be scheduled to run every so-many minutes, and can even be automatically launched only if a certain USB device is plugged in. Conditional settings can be set like only running a backup if a particular file or folder is found anywhere on a local, external, or network location.

You're also given the choice to run a backup only if files have changed since a certain date, within the last so-many days, or since the last full backup.

When restoring a backup, you can choose any location on your computer and optionally select to only back up new files. One thing we don't like is that password protection isn't an included feature. DriveImage XML can back up the system drive or any other attached drive, to just two files that can then be stored on a network folder, local disk, or external drive. A DAT file is made that contains the actual data that's on the drive while a small XML file is built to keep descriptive information regarding the backup.

If splitting a backup into pieces, you are unable to specify the size of the slices, which is unfortunate. You can restore a backup image onto a hard drive that's the same size or larger as the original or browse through the backup using DriveImage XML. You're able to extract out individual files, search through the backup, and even directly launch some files without restoring everything.

Scheduling a backup is supported, but it's done only with command line parameters, which is useful if using Task Scheduler to automate a backup. DriveImage XML can also back up, or clone, one drive to another without creating an image file. This method, as well as a regular backup and restore as described above, can also be launched before Windows boots, using the Live CD. The program will start a backup during the wizard when you seemingly least expect it, so ensure you're ready to start the backup when clicking Next on the screen entitled Backup.

It can back up registry files, files and folders, email accounts, particular registry entries, IM conversations, browser data, partitions, or entire disks like the system drive.

The scheduling options are very specific, enabling a backup to run manually, at login, once, daily, weekly, monthly, when idle, or every so-many minutes. Missed jobs can even be configured to run in silent mode to suppress all notifications and program windows. Restoring files with COMODO Backup is really easy because you can mount the image file as a disk and browse through the backed up files as you would in Explorer, copying out anything you wish.

Alternatively, you can just restore the whole backup image to the original location. During setup, COMODO Backup tries to install another program that you must deselect if you wish for it not to be added to your computer. Redo Rescue doesn't support backing up individual files and folders.

Instead, this program backs up an entire hard drive at once by running from a bootable device like a disc or flash drive. A collection of files backed up with this program can't be read as regular files.

To restore the data, you must use the program again and then select the drive you wish to restore the files to. The destination drive will be completely overwritten with the backed up data. Redo Rescue is best used in a situation where you wish to be able to restore an entire hard drive. While this type of backup does include all the files and programs on the drive, it's not meant for individual file and folder restoration. Back up folders to an FTP server or local, external, or network drive with Yadis!

Any number of file versioning is supported, and you have the option to keep the original folder structure intact for better organization. The only scheduling option is to run backup jobs automatically or manually.

There are no custom options, like on a per hour or day basis. If any or all of these events take place, a backup job will run. Even the settings you've modified in Yadis! Backup can be configured to back up to a specified folder when changes are made so that you don't lose your custom options.

You can only choose one folder to back up at a time. Any additional folders need to be created as their own backup job. Something we don't like is that there are no options for easily restoring backed up files. To access files that have been backed up is to simply browse through the backup folder, whether it be on an FTP server or a different drive. Everyday Auto Backup is really easy to use. It can back up folders to and from a local disk or network location in just a few clicks.

Scheduling can be set for more than one job at a time and supports hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or manual backups. There are no password options or encryption settings. While that's unfortunate, it also means you can use the backed up data as real files; you can open, edit, and view them normally. The minimum requirement is that you're using one of these operating systems: Windows 8, 7, Vista, or XP. It should also work in newer versions, like Windows 11 and It has also got you covered if you want the added protection of a private encryption key.

In case a problem occurs, you can quickly roll back to your previous state. The only downside is that the basic one-year plan offers GB free cloud storage, which may not be enough in the long run if you have an extensive collection of videos and photos.

Registered users enjoy access to hour technical support via phone. Its performance was equally impressive during restoration, downloading 1 GB of video and photo files in nine minutes. You can try Acronis True Image free for 30 days.

If you like it, you can purchase any of these three plans:. Based in California, IDrive has been in the backup business since While its cloud backup plan for personal users is not the cheapest or most featured, it hits high marks across all important categories — pricing, advanced backup features, and performance.

I was able to install the software in a jiffy, and the user interface is simple yet effective. There are six buttons in the left pane, which between themselves cover all the primary functions and features. IDrive has you covered. It lets you backup as many computers as you like, including external or locally networked drives.

However, you may want to go a little easy on it because the space offered is limited 2 TB in the Personal plan. Like most cloud backup programs, IDrive backs up only user files — not system or application files. IDrive offers a courier service, IDrive Express, which lets you request a physical hard drive to perform an initial backup.

Once you return the drive, the company will upload your files to its cloud servers. You can create one such backup a year for free. Additionally, IDrive allows you to use this service once a year for free to restore large amounts of files from an existing backup. Simply attach an external drive and click the Disk Image Backup button.

Unlike most file backup software, it supports endless versioning, keeping up to 10 older versions of deleted or updated files forever. However, unlike Acronis and Backblaze, IDrive makes continuous backups. But the good part is that it does offer some advanced features, like File Syncing. You can sync selected files across different computers with a single click.

Another useful but somewhat limited feature is File Sharing, which allows you to share files with other IDrive users. Like Backblaze and Acronis, IDrive encrypts data at the client site but also supports a private encryption key.

You can choose to use the default encryption or add private encryption when you set up your IDrive account. IDrive is not only suitable for personal users — but also tailor-made for small businesses.

IDrive is compatible with Windows 10, 8. Among Windows servers, it supports Windows Server , , IDrive uploaded data faster than other cloud backup solutions for Windows I tested.

It took 1 hr and 28 mins to complete my initial upload of 16 GB files. However, its download speed is nothing to rave about. IDrive offers a free basic plan — but it can work as an online-syncing solution at best since you get only 5 GB space.

It is reasonably-priced, puts in a good performance, offers technical support via phone, and provides some advanced features like file syncing. Backblaze is one of the top names in the cloud backup niche. While there are many who offer better sets of features, few make backups as convenient and cost-effective as Backblaze.

Backblaze offers unlimited cloud storage, which is truly awesome. Backblaze takes the worry of scheduling backups off your shoulders by backing up non-stop by default. Backblaze uses AES encryption to keep your data safe, but you can add a private encryption key for extra security. But remember — you lose the key, you lose the data forever. The restoration process is simple and handled through a web interface. You will have to bear the return shipping cost if you opt to receive your files via mail — provided you return the USB flash drive or USB drive within 30 days and make no more than five requests a year.

However, you can contact its team via email or chat. Backblaze uploads files at a good speed. It uploaded 16 GB of photos, music, videos, and documents in about 2 hours 38 minutes. I was also happy with its download speed. It took me about 9 minutes to restore 1 GB of video and photo files. You can check out a more detailed Backblaze review in our backup software reviews section. Backblaze is the best set-it-forget-it backup solution. The fact that it is extremely cost-effective and offers unlimited cloud storage helps too.

If what you want is a no-frills backup software, you should certainly give it a try. I was able to download and install the software with ease. Its user interface is pleasing to the eye and nicely laid out. However, with a plethora of Windows backup programs, navigating through it might prove tough sledding for newbies. To be fair, though, the software is designed for power users and IT professionals — so the geekiness is not out of place.

Want to backup your stuff on Google Drive to OneDrive? CloudBerry has you covered. With CloudBerry, you get real-time backups , as well as a number of scheduling options, like hourly, daily, and weekly. If you want, you can set up your own schedule, too. It encrypts backups with up to bit AES Encryption on the client side and uses the TLS protocol to protect data while it is in transit.

On top of this, it also provides ransomware protection to keep your data safe from bad guys. This means that, if you are using this backup solution, you can have your servers up and running in no time at all in case of a crash. On the brighter side, though, the email support is top-notch.

I contacted them twice with questions, and both times they responded within 20 minutes, with step-by-step solutions to my problems.