Best free backup software.

justaquestion

Hi folks,


I have done a windows image of windows 10 but want to try free backup programs as we..


My computer has a C drive, and also a recovery partition and a 100mb partition.


I have partitioned the C drive and have created E drive now which I will use for backup but will also copy the backup to an external drive for extra security.


I see that there is a recovery partition and a 100mb partition in disk management.


1 when backing up windows on drive C, do I just backup the whole c drive and have no need to worry about that 100mb partition, (does it contrain mbr or what)


2 I have tried Easeus Todo but the free version is very slow to backup paid would be three times as fast.


Is Marcium reflect a lot quicker, It seem to be on its website both free and paid have same speed. only thing is free doesn't support dynamic disks, not sure if my drive is GPT or if it will work on it.


Glad of any suggestions.
Thanks

forgotmyname

Backup to the same drive? Defeats the object of a backup. If the drive fails you lose your backup as well.

Get an external hard drive, it will come with free backup software.

John_Gray

Yes to using an external USB Hard Drive, and also to Macrium Reflect Free. Disk manufacturers' free backup software is usually more limited.

dipsomaniac

+1 for external drive. win10 has it own free backup options. you also need some off site backup for important files. i use google for photos, videos, music and contacts. anything office related i use onedrive. both have free options and can be sync'ed easily with pc

paddyrg

Programmes can be replaced, data can't, so cloud based backup for any data is always worthwhile. I use a combination of Google Drive, One Drive, copy.com, Dropbox with some broadly defined rules 'work stuff on this one, photos on this one', etc. I no longer worry about backups or computer failures, just get a new one, install my programmes, and resync the services, and I'm done.

Jivesinger

dipsomaniac wrote: »

win10 has it own free backup options.

True, but Macrium Reflect Free (and I guess some other free tools) is better. It offers more control and features.

SnowTiger

paddyrg wrote: »

Programmes can be replaced, data can't, so cloud based backup for any data is always worthwhile. I use a combination of Google Drive, One Drive, copy.com, Dropbox with some broadly defined rules 'work stuff on this one, photos on this one', etc. I no longer worry about backups or computer failures, just get a new one, install my programmes, and resync the services, and I'm done.

That's great until one of those services looses all of your precious files.

Offline backup is useful for secondary backup.

kwikbreaks

SnowTiger wrote: »

Offline backup is useful for secondary backup.

In the event of fire, flood, burglary, or some other calamity that offline backup may become the only backup should your computers and backup drives all be destroyed or stolen.

paddyrg

SnowTiger wrote: »

That's great until one of those services looses all of your precious files.

Offline backup is useful for secondary backup.

Tertiary, in that case, as of course I still have copies of all those files on my hard drive. And on the hard drive of any other machines I sync (for instance I used to have a laptop and a desktop, so yet another copy). But anyway, I weigh up the odds of Google Drive losing my files and my hard drive failing at the same time, and take a chance accordingly. YMMV ;-)

stevemcol

SyncBack free is very good.I have it scheduled to back up to cloud and a NAS drive once a week. Works invisibly.

forgotmyname

Just installed a NAS, Still learning on what it can do.

Seems ideal so far, phone uploads photos to dropbox which i then save to my NAS. Need to stop dropbox caching the old files though?