Three free, easy-to-use PC backup apps

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	BEST SOFTWARE[/size][/font] Three free, easy-to-use PC backup apps[/size]
	By Lincoln Spector It’s no exaggeration to say we keep our lives on our PCs — that career-making report, those plans for Fiji, a thousand kid photos — and you can lose it all in the blink of a hard-drive crash. Windows comes with apps for backing up that data, but there’s free, third-party software that’s more flexible and easier to use.[/size]

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2010/10/14/06 (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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According to easus.com, the free edition is restricted to 1 GB of data. I assume this applies to complete mirror-image backups/restorations. Hardly sufficient for my disks.

Thanks,

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According to easus.com, the free edition is restricted to 1 GB of data. I assume this applies to complete mirror-image backups/restorations. Hardly sufficient for my disks.

Thanks,

Perhaps, you were looking at Easeus’ Data Recovery Software. The article is referring to Easeus’ Todo Backup.

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Could you link to the page where you are seeing this restriction. The free version has always been unlimited as long as I have used it (something may have changed in the last month or two though.)

Here is another company that I have used.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

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Checkout Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator, it works. It will run on XP and W7, but don’t think she supports it muck anymore. The files are fully accessible just like the originals. She also has several other free aps on her site as well.

http://www.karenware.com/

zepe

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This is all great and wonderful,. but which backup software will allow you to backup all your systems files without having the click on each file to be backed up?

I was using DTransfer’s PC Backup Pro, but when I reinstalled Windows, their software no longer backs up my system state! It was an option to select “System State” and it knew which files to back up. Their tech support is unable to solve my problem so I’ve been without a system state backup now for over 3 months! This is no good! Other backups I set up have worked, but their “System State” does not!

I don’t need to back up my entire drive C, just the critical files! Most folks know the system state is a bunch of files, but don’t know which ones!

I’ve looked at Acronis Tur Home Image 2011 and they don’t have a “system state”. Neither does Cobiansoft’s Cobian Backup, FileGee Backup & Synchronization Personal Edition, nor EASEUS Todo Backup unless I missed something on the features pages!

Thanks,

Paul

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Hi Paul, and welcome to the Lounge!

I have burned and successfully restored Drive C: partition images using both Acronis True Image as well as Macrium Reflect Free Edition. All I had to specify was the drive letter I wanted imaged. Every image restoration I have done completely put my system back to the state it was in the day I made the image backup. Typically, it has taken only 15 to 20 minutes to restore the image backups.

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I’m trying to do a backup of my Disk (C:) to Disk (D:) using EASUS Todo Backup. Page 1 is easy as I only select Disk (C:) as the disk to backup, but the next page, asking to select the backup location and input a file name for the backup archive, has got me stumped, because all I get is a “The path has some error character, please choose another location”. Please suggest a path name to use.

wylie

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Thanks for the Info. I, too, had downloaded, but not installed, the wrong program. The site is not very clear as to where you go when you ask for “More Information”.
Again, thanks.

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I erred when I wrote that FileGee Backup & Synchronization Personal Edition can back up to “an internal, external, or networked drive or an FTP server on the Internet.” In fact, only the $70 Enterprise edition supports networks and FTP. My apologies and my thanks to reader Don Bacon for pointing this out.

Lincoln Spector

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This could be a dumb couple of questions, but here goes … I’ve always found Loungers to be very tolerant!

Question 1: I have a Maxtor HD backup that, I think, backed up everything when I first installed it and backs up automatically throughout the day. Do I also need Cobian or a similar program to back up onto it as well?

Question 2: I did learn from your article that I should disconnect the HD backup from the computer so it doesn’t get zapped if the computer does (I currently have it on whenever the computer is on). When I connect it at the end of the day so it backs up the new data, will it back up automatically or will I need to do something to back up the day’s data?

Thanks for the back up suggestions. It was an earlier Woody’s article that got me backing up with the external HD in the first place!

Linda

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I was curious about one thing with FileGee. I uninstalled the program for an unrelated reason. Ran CCleaner and removed a couple of registry entries found related to that and restarted the computer. I then subsequently re-installed the program and was surprised to find when it launched that there were the jobs that I had previously set up.

Why didn’t those jobs disappear? How do you remove all the associated stuff from a program like this?

Jim

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How you back up a system depends on what you are backing up.

When I am setting up a system, I partition the drive into three partitions: C: (Windows and Apps), D: (Data) and E: (everything else).

After installing Windows, I point “My Documents” to a folder on D: This means that the operating system and the Data are in two separate places.

I then image Drive C to Drive E:, and keep a copy on an external drive. This means I can reinstall or restore the OS at any time without losing any data.

“Backing Up Your Data” is as simple as copying drive D: to an external drive. This also makes multi-booting easier, as all OSs have access to the same “Data” partition.

Yes, it’s a little more work, but it pays big dividends in the long run.

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