5+ Best Free Backup Tools for Windows

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Windows Backup and Restore Center

All Windows 7 editions ship with an integrated backup and restore utility. Please find Windows 7 backup and restore including system imaging discussed in depth in Bright Hub’s article How to Use Backup and Restore in Windows 7.

If you are already familiar with Windows Vista Backup and Restore and first and foremost interested in what’s new in Windows 7 Backup then read this Bright Hub article.

Comodo BackUp -

• Protect yourself against ever losing those critical files that took hours to create
• Easily backup files or folders to local/network/virtual drives, FTP server or online storage
• Quickly restore data with a few mouse clicks
• Fully featured scheduler allows you to run backups at a time that suits you
• Send E-mail notifications to team members about the status of a backup job
• Synchronized backups mean you save a file and it gets copied instantly
• Security features include password protection and data encryption
• Multiple compression options allow you to save disk space
• One – click backup of important items like email accounts and Windows registry
• Step-by-step wizards take even novice users through the whole process

GFI Backup -

• Secure backup of all your important files for FREE
• Easy-to-use wizard-driven interface – perfect for beginners
• Restore your data in minutes using common ZIP format
• Back up to nearly any storage device
• Fast, efficient, full-featured backup solution

FBackup -

FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and commercial use. It protects your important data by backing it up automatically to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.

TrueSafe Personal Edition -

• Backup your email, pictures, music, documents, videos, and more.
• Easy to Setup- install and get protected in just 5 minutes.
• Hassle free- automatic operation frees you from backup drudgery.
• Backup to your USB hard disk, USB flash drive, network drive, and more.
• Zip Format – save in a convenient, non-proprietary Zip format file.
• Locked file support- backup files that are in use by other applications. Great for
• backing up your Outlook email.
• Disaster Level Protection- optionally backup your data offsite to another computer
• running TrueSafe.
• Host other user’s backups on your computer and help your friends and family
• stay protected.
• Laptop support- supports users on the go with suspend/resume awareness.
• Email Notifications- let you know when your backup has completed or is past due.
• Unobtrusive- runs in the background so you can keep working.

AceBackup -

AceBackup is a powerful tool to create completely secure backups of your data. Store your data on any local storage device, on CD, DVD or on your remote FTP server!

A special advantage of AceBackup is the possibility to backup single files and groups of files, for example for important or confidential documents. The program can also store different versions of your files. This can be useful if you would like to restore a certain version of your file at a later date.

Cobian Backup -

• Support for Volume Shadow Copy even in 64bit systems
• The user interface doesn’t ask for privilege elevation anymore on Vista or 7
• Simple masks can now be applied to FTP sources
• The timer schedule can now be limited in time
• The main application waits now for any mail to be send before closing
• The log file can now be send per task
• The log file level is now more granular
• The log file can now be splitted, one file per day
• The service and application control executes now depending on the UAC settings
• Fixed a bug when executing batch files with parameters
• The inclusion/exclusion masks way of work has been re-designed
• The backup now can be aborted if some event fails
• A post backup event can now be aborted if a pre-backup event failed
• Mirror tasks can now be created for uncompressed backups
• The type of the backup can now be included in the directory name
• The tray icon signalizes now if there are errors in the last backup
• Better mask support

Karen’s Replicator -

Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen’s Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.

Options include repeated copies at intervals as short as a few minutes, or as long as several months, copy only files that have changed, and the replication of folder and file deletions.