If you haven’t started backing up your files; you should start now. There’s nothing worse in the computer world than losing all of your hard work – like your documents and projects – or your collection of fun – like your music and movies. You can do a lot to protect these files of course, but sometimes hard drives do fail. In those moments having a backup is crucial.
PC owners have a wide variety of options when it comes to backup software. We’ve documented most of them in the past, but they’ve never been compiled in a singlelist. Most of the solutions listed here assume you have an external hard drive to back up your files to. The following are top 11 backup solutions that might be useful for your home or small office (in no particular order) :
In the Backup space, Comodohas two main offerings: Comodo Backup, a sync based solution to the problem, and Comodo Time Machine, which offers an all-encompassing solution similar to Time Machine on a Mac.
Which of these solutions you want depends largely on whether you want a single backup of your files – in which case you should go with Comodo Backup, or an all-encompassing backup of your system including software, in which case Time Machine would be the better fit for you.
While not strictly intended to be a piece of backup software, Dropbox does a pretty good job at making sure all your current projects are safe. All your files will be synced to every computer you’ve installed Dropbox on. It will also be synced to the Dropbox servers. This means your current work is instantly backed up to all your machines as well as to the cloud the second you save it.
So while Dropbox may not be a complete backup solution, it can make a great supplement to an old-fashioned hard-drive backup. Check it out at Dropbox.
If you’re looking to backup not only your documents but also the settings and plugins you use for a few specific programs (ie Firefox) you should checkout FBackup. This solution allows you to utilize plugins capable of locating the settings of a variety of different programs in addition to backing up your documents, and is worth considering for this reason.
If you’re looking for an easy way to synchronize two folders, please investigate FreeFileSync. This free program will scan two folders and make up the difference for you; a great way to update your external hard drive backup without re-copying everything. It will even inform you of the amount of data it needs to transfer before doing so. This solution may not be automated but it’s pretty solid.
This solution can save you from hard drive failure but it isn’t perfect. If your office is flooded, it’s likely your computer’s hard drive as well as your external hard drive will be destroyed. For this reason many people prefer their backups be offsite. There is no free cloud-based backup solution.With Crashplan, however, you can make use of other computer for your backup. This gives you an off-site backup for free. The good things is that this software works on Mac, Linux and Windows.
If you want to back up everything on your hard drive, consider Clonezilla your go-to tool. This exceptional software can make a complete clone of your hard drive, operating system and all. This is perfect for preserving not only your documents but everything about your computer in terms of software. However, one caveat here is that it’s obviously not an automated thing – you’ll need to boot the CD every time you want to use it. But if you’ve spent hours setting up your computer exactly the way you like it, having a fail-safe to fall back on is always a good thing.
This is another synchronization option, and it’s always good to have options. PureSync can sync any two folders. These folders can be local, external or networked – even cloud-based folders can be utilized. It’s fairly easy to use and free.
Hinx is another great backup service. Like most of the programs here you can automate your backup, unlike most of the options listed here, however, Hinx is a Java program. This means you can run it on just about any computer utilizing JAVA platform, however, it also means it will not be the fastest software you have used. It is worth your time to check out if you want the same backup program on Windows as you use in OSX and Linux.
This is another tool for local synchronization, though this one also supports backing up to an FTP server. Another feature that sets Syncback apart is the ability to leave out certain filetypes (ie MP3) or folders (ie C:/Documents/pron). It can be automated to backup in the background or you can use it manually.
This cloud-based backup service typically costs money, although there is a free trial version with 2 gigabytes of storage space. Your network person will decide which files are backed up, and the program is good about telling you how much quota you have left.
Like Dropbox, the free version of Mozy probably isn’t good if it’s your only backup; it is however, a great instant supplement to a regularly scheduled full backup.
If you have Vista or Windows 7, your you’ve already got fairly decent backup software – both of these operating systems come with a built-in solution. If you’d rather not download a piece of software this is always something to keep in mind, although realize you can only use it to sync to an external or local network drive.
