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Backup and Restore in Windows. |
Best Windows backup software Free and paid options reviewed | PCWorld - Reviews of the best free backup software for Windows
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 The MiniTool ShadowMaker free backup program is packed full of some really great features. It backs up not only files and folders, but entire hard drives. You can back up disks, partitions, and files and folders to any local, external, or networked drive.
Backups can run on a set schedule daily, weekly, or monthly, but only incremental backup is supported not full or differential. It's also your choice if you want to back up every sector or only the used ones. With this program, you can set a custom file size for the backup so that it fits on CDs, etc. Custom compression, email alerts, hibernation file exclusion, password protection, and backup verification are supported, too.
You'd think the features would end by now, but MiniTool ShadowMaker also has a tool you can utilize to restore a backup even if your computer won't start. Some features are excluded in the free version and only available if you pay. However, what you get with the free edition is still much better than what some free backup tools supply.
This software was built to run on all edition of Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. Iperius Backup backs up files from a local folder to a network or local drive. The program interface looks really nice, is clean, and isn't at all hard to use. The menus are displayed side by side in separate tabs, so it's simple to move through the settings. Files can be added to a backup job one at a time or in bulk through a folder, and a backup job can be saved locally or on a network, using one of three backup types.
You can also choose the number of backups to store. Aside from ZIP compression, email notifications, and password protection, Iperius Backup has some other custom options as well. You can include hidden files and system files in the backup, shut down the computer after completing the backup, favor compression speed over high compression, and run backups on a schedule.
When building a backup job, you can also exclude files, particular folders, all subfolders, and particular extensions from the backup. You can even include or exclude files that are less than, equal to, or greater than a specific file size to ensure you're backing up exactly what you want.
Several of the options in this free version actually only work in the paid, full version of Iperius Backup, such as backing up to Google Drive. You'll be told which features aren't usable when you try to use them. Mutual Backup is an interesting backup solution because instead of storing the data on a flash drive or other device attached to your computer, this one copies everything over the network. The program lets you store copies of your files on a friend's computer, no matter where it's at.
It's a bit like an online backup service, but instead of paying for storage space on a server somewhere, you and a friend can exchange free space on your own hard drives to store the other person's backups. This also works on your own network, so if you want to keep your videos backed up to the computer downstairs, you can do that, too.
All files are encrypted and compressed before transport, so someone on the other computer can't see what you're backing up. File and folder filtering are supported. Restoring is as easy as choosing which files you want to download back to your computer, and you can, at any time, delete the remote backup from your own computer. If you're connecting with a friend outside your network, they'll have to set up port forwarding , and you'll need to know their public IP address.
This app runs on any Java platform, so it works on Windows, Linux, and other operating systems. The great thing about this tool is that you can back up the primary hard drive you're using as you use it. This means you don't need to boot to a disc or avoid backing up your primary hard drive. Also, only the used space is backed up, meaning a 40 GB drive with 2 GB of used space will only produce a 2 GB backup file. If backing up the drive you're currently using, ensure "Use Volume Shadow Copy" is enabled so Disk2vhd can copy files that are currently being used.
It's ideal to save the backup image to a drive other than the one you're backing up to avoid performance degradation. There's also support for creating a backup file using the command line. If any larger, other virtualization software might be more suitable.
It's really easy to add more than one file or folder to GFI Backup to be included in a backup job. The folder structure looks just like it does in Explorer, letting you place a check next to anything you want to be included.
A backup can be encrypted with a password, compressed, split into small chunks, and even built into a self-extracting archive.
You can choose to restore certain files or select entire folders at once to be copied back to the original backup location or saved elsewhere. GFI Backup also includes a sync feature, detailed scheduled tasks, and incremental and differential backups.
It should be able to run on all versions of Windows, including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7. Free Easis Drive Cloning is extremely easy to use. You'll walk through a wizard with any option you choose. The first will ask you to choose the drive you wish to back up and where to save the IMG file. The Restore Image option is just the opposite of the first, and the last selection lets you clone a drive to another without having to first create an image.
The bad thing about Free Easis Drive Cloning is that it backs up everything , even the unused, free space of the drive. We tested it in Windows 10 and Windows 8 without running into any problems. Ocster Backup permits backing up files and folders to any local or external hard drive. When adding content to back up, you must browse for each file and folder you want to be added.
While you are able to select multiple files at once, you can't quickly add numerous folders like some of the other backup programs from this list are able to do. You can encrypt a backup with Ocster Backup, set up a daily or weekly schedule, and exclude content by name, extension, or folder. Also, another plus is that the original directory structure is still present when you restore the files, which makes it rather simple to navigate through them. Ocster Backup is limited in that it doesn't support backing up to a network drive, and restoring files is an all or nothing deal where you must restore everything at once.
Ashampoo Backup has replaced Ocster Backup, but you can still get the last released version through the link above. You can optionally save to more than one location if you want multiple places to store your files.
Backups can be compressed using one of three modes: password-protected, encrypted, and set up to use a schedule. The log files made with AceBackup can optionally be emailed on the event of an error or chosen to be sent even on successful backups.
Something we don't like is that some of the options in this program aren't described, which can leave you wondering what certain settings will do when they are enabled.
We successfully used AceBackup in Windows 10, but it should work just as well in Windows 11, Windows 8, and Windows 7. FBackup allows the backup of individual files and whole folders even from your Google Drive or Dropbox account to be saved to a local, external, or network folder, as well as to those same online file storage services. An easy to use wizard guides you through the backup process and includes preset locations you can choose to back up, like the Documents and Pictures folder, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Chrome settings.
In addition, FBackup lets you add your own files and folders to a backup job. You can exclude certain data from a job by specifying a word in the folder or file name, as well as the type of file extension. Two backup types are supported in the free edition: Full and Mirror. Backup files hourly by default. From daily to monthly. Every Sunday at p PM by default. From daily to monthly, and you can set backup date, time and intervals.
And more premium features. Recovery Restore a complete history of your files in the user folder. Restore individual files or system you back it up. Restore file, system, disk, partition. To backup users folder, you can use all of them. The previous one allows you to select other partitions on the disk while the latter one supports backing up system or disk directly.
But some users report the following problem during use: The backup image is not easy to manage due to the Use of multiple software. You need to create a file backup with File History and complete system backup with Backup and Restore Windows 7.
And the system backup is not scheduled. The file history schedule backup requires the external drive connected always, but receiving the "Reconnect your drive" error sometimes.
And when you want to backup files to another drive, but receive error like "File History doesn't recognize this drive". At the same time, this tool does not delete file history backup in Windows 10 automatically. The most obvious flaw of Backup and Restore Windows 7 is that the latest system backup will overwrite the previous one and it cannot be restored to a different computer.
Also, you may be tired of its backup speed, very slow, or even overnight. In addition, the backup and restore process always fail with various error messages, such as, "Windows backup did not complete successfully", "The backup failed", " cannot find a system image ", etc.
How to easily backup and restore with Windows 10 backup utility You should already know a lot about the built-in tools on the Internet, so I won't say much more. Thus, you can restore to any previous backup versions, not limited to one version. When I moved my Windows drive to a new ssd, Windows backup failed to restore but the image I created with Macrium worked first time. I'd 2nd that FWIW. The only downside I've found is that Macrium is more expensive than alternatives if you want more advanced features.
If you get a Samsung SSD, their free migration tool is surprisingly quick and easy too. Whole process was easy and took less than an hour. It's like a totally different machine now. Yeah Macrium Reflect is a good one. I believe this feature is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Windows Maybe the fall update? Anyone have an idea why this might happen? I have seen it on multiple different laptops I have tried to backup to my home server. I have used Macrium to clone a new hard drive and replace and it has always worked very well, even on Surface Pro's that seem to be a bit quirky.
Doesn't work on SSD's. Getting a non NTFS error. Oh well. Windows backup hasn't worked for a couple of years on my machine. I use Aomei backupper instead. WD drive owners can get a copy of Acronis True Image for free. You only need to own one WD drive it checks on boot , even an external one, and you qualify to use it on all your drives even non-WD ones.
I use it for scheduled backups and it seems to do the job well. It is free and easy to use. It never fails for months and it is been updated by their team all the time. I guess I've found the best way to backup my computer. Backup is one of the lifesaving act of our data. Without multiple backups, the chances of losing crucial data are quite high.
But, what happened if one can miss of taking a backup of their valuable data? There are multiple choices of data recovery software available online which can easily recover the lost or deleted data. But, the few are listed here.
Thanks for sharing an informative post with us. So after everything is done, do you have to go back to your bios and change it back to the original drive to boot from? Good luck backing that up to the cloud. Good luck backing it up, period! Please look into that one. Three Modes of Backup Full Backup — Full Backup, as the name suggests, makes a copy of all of your data, and stores on the specified location.
Because it involves all of the data, it is also the most time consuming type of backup. The first time you try a backup, it should be this one, the Full backup. Incremental Backup — Incremental Backup only copies the files that have been changed or modified since the last backup — be it Full backup or Incremental backup.
Suppose you made your first full backup on Monday, and the next full backup is going to be performed on next Monday. Differential backup — Differential backup is similar to Incremental backup as it also copies only those files that have been modified, and not all of the files.
However, it uses on a different approach. It will backup only the files that have been modified since the last Full backup, and not the last Differential backup.
Suppose you made your first full backup on Monday. Other types of Backup provided by companies as special or premium features Automatic Backup — It lets user select data, time, frequency, and other factors to make backups.
Smart Backup — Smart Backup lets user select custom files, folders, and locations to backup. It lets you backup selected files or folders. It makes a backup of the complete disk. With this, you can also make a clone of your existing disk for the purpose of OS migration to newer disk. It is an appropriate solution if you have huge amount of data to backup.
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