Programs for archiving and system recovery. What programs should I use to backup data on my computer? Basic operating principle and operating options

It would seem that there is nothing difficult in creating a backup copy, but many users often forget how important it is to take care of the safety of their data in a timely manner. After all, you may lose important files due to a technical failure, theft, or infection of your computer with a virus.

But where to start? Of course, you can always manually copy important files to a free drive. However, to simplify the process, it would still be more logical to turn to professional programs that will help you create a backup copy with minimal expenditure of your time and effort.

In addition, creating backup copies is extremely necessary for small business owners if it involves the collection of personal information about clients. Thus, in accordance with the recently introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, any company that gains access to users’ personal data is obliged to protect this information. Personal data includes the user's name, email and residential address, as well as IP address.

In the settings of the backup program, you can always choose how often and which files from which folders need to be copied. In addition, you can also select files that will require the maximum level of protection. When choosing such a program, you need to pay special attention to how protected your data will be and how easily you can access it in case of a critical situation.

This list will help you get acquainted with the most common, easy-to-use and, importantly, free programs for creating backup copies.

EaseUS Todo Backup Free

This program represents a perfectly balanced balance between automatic protection and manual control:

Various types of backup

No difficulty in setting up

Automatic smart backup system

With EaseUS Todo Backup Free, you can back up individual files, folders, and drivers. It is also possible to create a backup copy of the entire system. In addition, the program offers a “smart” feature: it remembers which folders you most often copy files from. However, you can also save the created copies in cloud storage.

The program allows you to choose from several backup modes: full, incremental, differential backup and scheduled backup.

Some functions are available only in the premium version, however, the free version of EasusUS Todo Backup provides a sufficient number of options for comfortable work.

The free version of EaseUS Todo Backup provides access to almost all the features found in the paid version. For example, you can set up scheduled backups. However, in the free version you won't be able to perform trigger event backups, which is definitely not a necessity for most users. You also won't be able to access command-line copying, Outlook mail backup and recovery, or computer-to-computer transfers. In fact, these features may be useful, but they are certainly not critical for most people.

During installation, you will be prompted by default to install the Chrome browser and Bing search engine, so if you do not need this, then simply uncheck the appropriate boxes before clicking “Next”.

Review of the best data backup programs. Download the best free and paid programs for data backup.

Everyone knows that it is necessary to constantly back up our data. Most often, we postpone this procedure “for later” and sometimes find ourselves in a situation where valuable photos and documents are impossible or extremely expensive to restore. I suggest you spend 5 minutes reading my article and another 10 minutes installing one of 5 backup programs to set up a backup of your data to an external hard drive or the cloud. You will never regret spending 15 minutes of your life, because such a short time will guarantee the safety of your photos and important data. Undoubtedly, you can manually save the necessary data to an external drive, but why not entrust this routine procedure to a program? Moreover, many of the backup programs mentioned in the review are absolutely free.

Best Backup Software

EaseuS Todo Backup Free

Acronis True Image

Acronis products are extremely famous in our country. The program is good in everything, perhaps, except for the somewhat high price. In all other respects, it is an excellent program for careful backup of your data or operating system.

• Full backup of a disk or selected area.
• Universal Restore— the ability to restore a copy of the operating system even to a computer with a different configuration.
• Incredibly fast backup and recovery.
• You can restore the entire image or specific folders or files

Price: 1 device - 1700 rub.

R-Drive Image

R-Drive Image is a small but feature-rich program for on-the-fly disk backup. The program can restore both entire disks and individual files. You can also easily clone disks using R-Drive Image. In general, the program has many small but successful functions, but its price for the Russian market is somewhat frightening, given the dollar exchange rate.

Price: 1 device – $44.95

CrashPlan

Quite often, free backup programs have limited functionality, but not in this case. The free version of CrashPlan has everything you need to regularly create backups to various media, including a unique feature that backs up your data to a specific computer on your network (for example, a friend's computer).

• Available for Windows, Mac and Linux
• Saving backups to other computers
• Saving a backup to an external drive
• Automatic daily backups
• 448-bit file encryption

Overall, a very interesting backup program that deserves attention.

Aomei Backupper

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a free data backup and recovery program that is functional and easy to use. The program contains all the necessary tools for backing up and restoring the system, disks, partitions and disk cloning. Thanks to the support of VSS technology, AOMEI Backupper can make a complete backup of your system and any data even while the OS is running, without interfering with running processes in any way.
Even though this program is at the end of the list, I recommend paying close attention to it. The program is really good, and I can’t count how many times the Universal restore function has helped me out.

P.S. Universal restore - allows you to restore and run a copy of the system on a computer with different characteristics.

Price: free

Action Backup

The last place (but not in quality) in our selection is occupied by the development of domestic programmers - . The program is actively developing and has several of its own features that distinguish this product from foreign competitors. Before purchasing, you can download a 15-day trial version of the program.

Here are the main features of Action Backup:

• Easy to set up and use: the program is extremely easy to understand, especially since there are instructions in Russian on the website. After the initial setup, the utility will backup the necessary data on a schedule, relieving you of worries about data safety.
• Rich functionality: Action Backup really does a lot - it can make backups to a remote FTP server and network drives, to external hard drives, “cut” data onto optical drives, create “shadow copies”, work as a service 24/7 365 and much more!
• Unpretentious: Action Backup consumes extremely few system resources and can work even on weak machines. This is especially true for budget organizations, many of which cannot boast of a modern fleet of equipment.
• Excellent compatibility: Action Backup works perfectly on any modern version of Windows: 7, 8, 10, Server and supports 32 and 64 bit editions.

Price: from 560 to 960 rub. depending on the number of licenses purchased. You can use the program completely free for 15 days!

So, today we got acquainted with the best data recovery programs. Yes, there are only 5 of them, but why make the top 10, 20, 30 - after all, the functions of all these programs are almost similar. I recommend you the free AOMEI Backupper Standard program. If you are confused by the lack of Russian language in this program, pay attention to Acronis True Image. All the best, I hope my article helped you choose a data recovery program.

Every computer user probably knows that no system is immune from errors and even critical failures, when it is not possible to restore it using ordinary means. For this purpose, programs have been developed for and including utilities that allow you to create backup copies of hard drives and logical partitions. Let's look at the most popular utilities of different levels of complexity.

Programs and data recovery: feasibility of use

Some users have a bit of a misconception about how powerful these types of utilities are. Unfortunately, they mistakenly believe that the simplest option would be to simply copy user files to other logical partitions other than the system one. There is another category of users who believe that they can copy the entire system partition to another location, and then, in case of failure, from this copy. Alas, both are wrong.

Of course, this technique is applicable to user files, but not everyone wants to clutter another logical volume with a bunch of information or constantly keep on hand an external drive like a USB HDD, a bunch of disks or flash drives, the capacity of which is clearly limited. And with large volumes of data, you should also take into account the time it takes to copy from one volume to another. Backup and recovery programs for both the system and partitions work somewhat differently. Of course, in most cases you will need removable media, but the created backup copy will take up much less space.

Basic operating principle and operating options

As a rule, most of today's well-known and widely used utilities mainly use the principles of creating images and compressing copied data. At the same time, images are most often used specifically to create copies of the operating system, which allows you to later restore it after an unexpected critical failure, and utilities for copying partitions or user files require archiving-type compression.

As for reservation options, there can be two of them. In principle, almost any system backup program suggests using external media (DVD, flash drive, etc.). This is only due to the fact that when restoring the system, you will have to boot not from the system partition, but from removable media. The image in the logical partition will not be recognized.

Another thing is disk backup programs. In them, you can save the necessary information in other logical partitions or, again, use removable media. But what to do if the used hard drive capacity is hundreds of gigabytes? Nothing will allow you to record this information even in compressed form. As an option, you can use an external HDD, if it is available, of course.

As for choosing the right utility for saving user files, the best solution is a scheduled file backup program. Such a utility is capable of performing this operation without user intervention, saving all changes made over a certain period of time. New data can be added to the backup copy, as well as old data can be deleted from it. And all this in automatic mode! The advantage is obvious - after all, the user only needs to set the time interval between copy points in the settings, then everything happens without it.

"Native" Windows backup program

So, first, let's focus on the native tool of Windows systems. Many people believe that the Windows backup program built into the system does not work very well, to put it mildly. Basically, they don’t want to use it only because the utility spends too much time creating a copy, and the copy itself takes up a lot of space.

However, she also has enough advantages. After all, who else but Microsoft specialists would know all the subtleties and nuances associated with the components that are essential for correct Windows recovery? And many users clearly underestimate the capabilities of the tool built into the system. It’s not for nothing that such a backup and recovery program is included in the main set of the system?

The easiest way to access this utility is from the standard “Control Panel”, where you select the backup and recovery section. There are three main points you can use here: creating an image, creating a disk and setting up a copy. The first and second do not cause any difficulties. But the third one is quite interesting. The system will offer to save a copy on removable media, having previously identified the device itself. But if you look at the parameters, you can save a copy on the network, which is perfect for local locations. So in some cases, such a system backup program will be a good tool for creating a backup with the ability to subsequently restore Windows from this copy.

Most popular utilities

Now let's look at the utilities that, according to many experts, are the most popular among users today. Let us immediately note that it is simply impossible to consider all backup programs, so we will dwell on some of them, taking into account the level of popularity and complexity of their use. An approximate list of such utilities may look like this:

• Acronis True Image.
• Norton Ghost.
• Back2zip.
• Comodo BackUp.
• Backup4all.
• ABC Backup Pro.
• Active Backup Expert Pro.
• ApBackUP.
• File Backup Watcher Free.
• The Copier.
• Auto Backup and many others.

Now let's try to look at the top five. Please note! At the moment, backup programs are being considered, mainly used for workstations (user computers). Solutions for server systems and networks will be considered separately.

Acronis True Image

Of course, this is one of the most powerful and popular utilities, enjoying well-deserved success and the trust of many users, although it is an entry-level program. Nevertheless, she has enough opportunities.

After launching the application, the user is taken to the main menu, where several action options can be selected. In this case, we are interested in the backup and restore section (there are additional utilities in the menu, which for obvious reasons will not be considered now). After logging in, the “Wizard” is activated, which will help you create a backup. During the process, you can choose what exactly you want to create a copy of (the system for restoring from scratch, files, settings, etc.). In "Copy Type" it is better to select "Incremental" as it will help save space. If the media volume is large enough, you can use full copying, or differential copying to create multiple copies. When creating a copy of the system, you will be prompted to make a boot disk.

Here's what's interesting: the utility shows fairly high performance in terms of backup copy creation speed, time, and compression. So, for example, it will take an average of 8-9 minutes to compress data of about 20 GB, and the size of the final copy will be just over 8 GB.

Norton Ghost

Before us is another powerful utility. As usual, after starting the program, a “Wizard” starts, helping you go through all the steps.

This utility is notable for the fact that it can be used to create a hidden partition on the hard drive where a copy will be stored (and both data and the system can be restored from it). In addition, you can change many parameters in it: read control type, write type, compression, number of points for simultaneous access, etc. As for performance, the application compresses the same 20 GB to a size of just over 7.5 GB, which takes about 9 minutes. In general, the result is quite good.

Back2zip

And here is a scheduled backup program. It differs in that its installation takes only a couple of seconds, and once launched, it automatically creates a new job and begins copying data, assuming that user files are stored in the “My Documents” folder. Unfortunately, this is the main disadvantage.

When starting, the task must be deleted, and then the original destination folder must be selected. There is no “wizard” in the usual sense; everything is done from the main window. In the scheduler, you can set the copying interval from 20 minutes to 6 hours. Overall, the simplest solution for entry-level users.

Comodo BackUp

We have before us another very interesting utility that can compete even with commercial products. Its main feature is the presence of as many as five operating modes and a huge number of settings.

Interestingly, the utility is able to respond to changes in the files included in the backup in real time. As soon as the source file is modified and saved, the application immediately creates a copy of it, adding and replacing the final element in the backup. Not to mention the scheduler, you can separately note the start of creating copies either at the start or at exit.

Backup4all

Finally, let's look at another free utility that allows you, so to speak, to make backup copies for everything that may be needed in the future at the same time, so to speak.

This utility is interesting because it allows you to save copies not only on external or internal media, but also on networks, or even on FTP servers. There are quite a lot of editable parameters and settings, among which are four copying methods, as well as support. In addition, the interface is very simple, and the display of folders and tasks is presented in the form of a tree structure similar to “Explorer”. The user can also divide the copied data into categories such as documents, drawings, etc., and assign each project its own label. Naturally, there is also a “Task Scheduler”, in which you can specify, for example, the creation of copies only at times of low processor load.

Solutions for server systems

There are also specialized backup programs for server systems and networks. Among all this diversity, three of the most powerful can be identified:

• Symantec Backup Exec 11d System Recovery.
• Yosemite Backup Standard Master Server.
• Shadow Protect Small Business Server Edition.

It is believed that such utilities are a good backup tool for small businesses. In this case, restoration “from scratch” can be performed from any workstation located on the network. But the most important thing is that the reservation only needs to be made once; all subsequent changes will be saved automatically. All applications have an Explorer-type interface and support remote control from any terminal on the network.

Instead of an afterword

It remains to add that not all data backup/recovery programs have been discussed here, allowing you to create backups of both systems and files, and then restore them from the created copies. However, it seems that even brief information about the above programs will give many people an idea of ​​how it works and why all this is needed. For obvious reasons, we leave the question of choosing the appropriate software open, since it already depends on the preferences of the user or system administrator.

Content

People who actively work at a computer, regardless of their age, social status and area of ​​professional activity, actively use a wide variety of electronic documents. The programmer creates the source code for the programs, the secretary types out orders and memos, and the photographer processes his photographs. Even a small, unintelligent child has a lot of important documents on his computer - game save files.

Documents that took months or years of painstaking work to create can be lost in a matter of seconds, and this can happen at any time, for reasons beyond your control. Restoring important data takes a lot of effort, time, and health. Unfortunately, most often, the user begins to think about creating backup copies only after losing valuable information.

A smart and inexpensive way to protect your important data from destruction is to perform regular backups. For such purposes, there are special programs that take care of the safety of information.

This guide will look at programs that allow you to operate with folders and specific files. The general principle of work for all review participants is identical - you create a task in which you include the most important documents, and then plan a schedule for its launch. You can read about the features of the programs in the text of the guide.

After the first start of the program, you are greeted by a Wizard who offers to immediately organize a backup project.

During the first step, you enter a project name, after which you proceed to the procedure for specifying the files and folders involved in the backup. You can set separate filtering rules for file lists so that you don't have to specify each item individually. As a next step, you can specify exclusion rules. This list filtering system allows you to flexibly specify which specific files need to be archived. For example, excluding files with the *.bak extension from backup can be considered a very logical solution.

The next step is to specify the location of the archive files. You can specify not only the local file system, but also FTP resources, local network, and optical drive partition. The last solution is not entirely intuitive. Yes, the program allows you to create backup copies on CD and DVD media. In such cases, this is emphasized by a separate group of options that ensure correct configuration of the drive operation.

After selecting the backup purpose, you are prompted to configure additional program options. And finally, during the last step of the Wizard, you can familiarize yourself with all the items of the current project, after which the program will recommend creating a separate shortcut responsible for calling the current document. As mentioned earlier, the program does not have its own scheduler, and backups can only be started manually, unless you resort to third-party products.

You can add new files to the project at any time, change the current rules and filters. In addition, there is a separate group of options, the controls of which apply to all opened projects.

Firstly, you can choose a compression algorithm for archive files. You can choose a ZIP archiver, but this sets a limit on the archive size, 2GB. Using the CAB format allows you to remove this limitation. The archive can be self-extracting, access to it can be protected with a password, and encryption can also be used.

Active Backup Expert Pro has built-in tools for creating a remote connection with your provider. Backup files can be transferred offline via modem.

The program contains quite powerful data backup mechanisms, but its concept itself is not entirely familiar; it goes against the traditional structure of products of this class.

Official site:
Size: 8046 KB
Price: $29.95

Backup4all successfully combines broad functionality and ease of use. Creating new backup projects is carried out using a Wizard, which breaks down all operations into several steps. Inside the application's working window, you can view the tree structure of the current project, highlighting the various states of files - changed, new, excluded, and others. As predefined examples, you are offered a backup of the My Documents and My Pictures folders, as well as Internet Explorer Favorites.

All tasks can be represented in a tree structure based on groups. By default, you only have one Samples element. If you create additional task groups, their list will be displayed at the top/bottom of the sidebar. Just click on the element's title to switch to the current group.

Creating a new backup task begins by specifying its name, selecting a group, and a unique icon. You are also given the opportunity to immediately select a set of predefined settings. Each task can be accompanied by a text description.

You can specify a local file system, network, or FTP server as the backup destination. If you are going to store copies on hard drives, you must additionally specify the destination folder. However, you can immediately select the logical drive of the optical drive, after which the program will offer to specify several additional options unique to burning discs. Backup4all uses its own module that works with burner drives. It is possible to specify an arbitrary recording speed, and the ability to force rewritable disks to be cleared before recording. You can also use the UDF file system in combination with DirectCD/InCD, which makes it possible to transparently add files to media, without the hassle of creating new sessions or importing old data. Using FTP as a backup destination allows you to connect to servers directly or through a proxy, using authentication, SLL encryption. You can strictly limit the speed of receiving and uploading data.

Backup can be of four types - full, incremental, differential, and mirror creation. Depending on the percentage of differences between the current backup and the original archive, the program can automatically replace intelligent backup methods by creating a full copy. Backup4all supports several archive encryption methods, and also allows you to block access to the backup with a password.

If you selected several folders when specifying the source files to be backed up, then most likely not all of the data needs to be saved. You can work with two types of filters – include and exclude. As a result, unique rules for including and excluding files can be specified depending on the specific situation.

The next step allows you to describe some additional aspects of the backup procedure. For example, what criterion should be used to determine whether a file has changed or not? The program allows you to select many parameters for assessing the state of the data. Various file system attributes, checksum, indexing, and many other parameters can act as factors that determine whether a file has changed or not. The backup may be associated with some third-party action, for example, with the launch of an application. Backup4all offers to assign similar actions to be performed before and after the backup. The completion of a task can be accompanied by sound signals, as well as sending a completion notification to a random email address.

And finally, the last stage of the Wizard’s work is a description of the scheduler’s work. Backup4all allows you to use the built-in Windows tool, but also has its own scheduler. The program has a large number of options for backup scheduling rules. For example, a workstation may wait for a period of low CPU usage to complete a task with minimal disruption to system operation. Another example is that if the program detects that the computer is not running on electricity, but on batteries, then creating a backup copy must be postponed.

Any project can be saved to your hard drive as a separate shortcut. For example, you decide to use the built-in scheduler. When setting up the task, specify the Backup4all project shortcut to run. When an event occurs, the scheduler will automatically call a third-party backup tool.

The program allows you to clearly monitor the backup status. Using a group of filters located on the toolbar, you can specify criteria for the displayed data, which allows you to visually track all file changes. Backup4all can display detailed statistics for each project, as well as export data to CSV files.

Before restoring data, you can specify specific versions of files, and also perform unpacking into an arbitrary directory (not on top of the original data).

Backup4all has one interesting feature called One Touch Backup. Its essence lies in the program’s ability to detect connected USB devices and, if successful, immediately offer to start a backup. In the program settings, you just need to specify the source folder or select a predefined task. The backup is started with one click, hence the name - “backup at the first touch”.

Backup4all has high-quality localization, which allows the program to be used even by those who are not familiar with the English language. This program cannot be called the most powerful and functional in the entire market sector. Backup4all is aimed at those who value not only broad functionality, but also ease of use. You can flexibly change the appearance of Backup4all (customize panels, change their layouts) based on your own preferences. This may not be so important for a program that performs backups, but even when performing purely technical operations, you want not to lose beauty, convenience, and clarity. With Backup4all you can back up in comfort.

About FBackup

FBackup has a simple interface and friendly wizards for setting up reservation profiles, which will prompt you to define:

• Where You want to store backups (purpose).
• What You want to reserve (objects).
• How You want to back up your data (using full copying followed by archiving into zip files, or you want an exact copy of the original data without packing it into an archive).
• When You want to perform backups (You can schedule tasks to run automatically, or run them at your discretion).

Once you have configured a backup profile, you can run it manually by clicking the Run button (or F6), or, if you have added it to the scheduler, according to a schedule. FBackup allows you to easily back up data from local drives (including those connected via USB) to other USB/Firewire drives, or connected network resources. It is possible to create standard zip archives (when using the full copy mode), or exact copies of the source without packaging (using the mirror backup mode).

Key Features

The program is free for personal and commercial use.

FBackup is a backup program that is free for use at home and in the office. This means you save money instead of paying for another data backup program.

Automatic reservation.

You create a backup profile, set it to run automatically, and you'll never remember about it again. FBackup will automatically create copies of data at the appointed time, which gives you not only confidence in the safety of your files, but also additional free time.

zip packaging of backup copies.

When backing up the full type, the source files are archived using the standard zip algorithm. FBackup uses ZIP64 compression, which allows you to create archives larger than 2GB. Moreover, you can protect archives with a password, which will be requested when extracting data from them.

Testimonials

I"ve tried many backup applications over the years. Cobian, Comodo to name a couple. Though those are very good, freeware solutions. I must admit that after trying FBackup, this one is the best I"ve ever used. It is also very powerful and unique as far as backup software is concerned.

DarrenWalker (Fileforum)

Very useful piece of software for any user. Simple to use and easily backups your files and protects from corruption. I recommend this to anyone looking for a simple and easy to use software for backing up their important files. It"s free so it means you don"t pay for anything.

Raidenzxz (Download.com)

Have used this software both for back up and more importantly for restore. It worked as advertised. It was simple and worked well. It has saved me now twice when a bad motherboard took out the hard drives in raid mirror setup. I like the better package now due to the greater range of ability.

Breebree (Fileforum)

Easy to use and able to specify just what is to be backed up. I have it set up to do 7 different jobs, Videos, Documents, Music, Desktop, Outlook and Photos. Options of "zip, mirror and full" backup formats provide flexibility when capacity constraints are a factor.

HjHarris (Download.com)

A complete, easy to use, reliable and versatile backup application at last. I was impressed by FBackup after trying (and uninstalling) so many others. FBackup does all the things I want to be done, so it"s here to stay. Recommended!

Nicholas (Fileforum)

Amazingly full-featured for a free program. Broad capabilities, including all the "standard" backup options, but with many more features that the competition holds out for paid upgrades only. It took awhile to find FBackup among all the tools out there, but it was worth the extra searching.

Kfitzharr (Download.com)

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