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Tom's Guide: Backup Your PC With These Free Programs

By - Source: Tom's Guide US | B 14 comments

Check out Tom's Guide's latest story on data backup programs.

Backing up your data isn't exactly a thrilling task, but it's definitely a necessary one. Though boring, protecting your data from harm is actually very easy, and there is a wealth of programs that will help you do it. Heck, some of them you just need to input a few settings and it'll run itself. Still, it can be hard to know which program is right for you. After all, the casual user and power user have very different needs. Check out Tom's Guide's 'Save Your Data: Backup with These Free Programs,' for a full round-up of the best backup tools.

Keeping a backup of your data can often feel like an unnecessary chore...until disaster strikes and you lose years of work, pictures, or media due to hardware failure or a system crash. your precious data need not be overly complex or expensive, and you certainly won't begrudge the effort if disaster strikes. Here are 11 great and free tools for safeguarding your electronic treasures. Whether you're a power-user that needs to protect your data or a casual surfer looking for some extra peace of mind, there's a program in here to suit your needs.


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  • 1 Hide
    bison88 , November 10, 2012 2:21 PM
    Backing up is easy, restoring can often be a PITA. Make a plan to test the backup every X amount of backups otherwise they are useless.
  • 3 Hide
    weierstrass , November 10, 2012 7:48 PM
    rsync, do we need more?
  • 0 Hide
    egilbe , November 10, 2012 8:18 PM
    I periodically use windows backup to create an image of my drive. It sees to work, although it's slow.
  • Display all 14 comments.
  • -1 Hide
    apache_lives , November 10, 2012 9:54 PM
    robocopy -- its built into windows (just not XP) just make a batch telling it what to include/skip

    even has features like inter-packet gap to stop network/internet lag and a lot more

    try it some time
  • 0 Hide
    digiex , November 10, 2012 11:42 PM
    Build a NAS with RAID10.
  • -1 Hide
    apache_lives , November 10, 2012 11:55 PM
    digiexBuild a NAS with RAID10.


    this is about SOFTWARE to backup TO devices, not the devices themselves
  • 1 Hide
    egilbe , November 11, 2012 12:27 PM
    Quote:
    Build a NAS with RAID10.


    I hope you were joking. Raid 0 is not backup and it's more prone to drive failure.
  • 0 Hide
    _Cosmin_ , November 11, 2012 12:53 PM
    apache_livesthis is about SOFTWARE to backup TO devices, not the devices themselves


    FreeNAS is a software.... i know, i use it !
  • 1 Hide
    _Cosmin_ , November 11, 2012 12:55 PM
    egilbeI hope you were joking. Raid 0 is not backup and it's more prone to drive failure.


    RAID10 is not RAID0... read again !
  • 0 Hide
    _Cosmin_ , November 11, 2012 12:57 PM
    So, the news on tomshardware is that on tomsguide there is a new post... REALLY ?
    STOP DOING THAT - JANE !
  • 0 Hide
    meghanadoshi21 , November 26, 2012 3:35 AM
    Backup software are computer programs used to perform backup; they create supplementary exact copies of files, databases or entire computers. These programs may later use the supplementary copies to restore the original contents in the event of data loss.http://www.vertexonlinebackup.com/cms/
  • 0 Hide
    gindan , December 19, 2012 1:10 PM
    people need to use MyPC Backup it is safe and easy.

    http://track.mypcbackup.com/?hash=a41d619b
  • 0 Hide
    Kitylucy , May 22, 2013 11:58 PM
    Why not review Vibosoft free Data backup software, I used it for one years, easy to use and powerful. It can completely make a copy of system partition, backup all partitions of your portable devices and clone entire hard disk or USB drive. What’s more, it can also effectively and selectively backup various of data types, like: photos, videos, audios, office document and software application. I'm a user, I just hope you can shhare more userful app for people . Vibosoft is what I want to recommend to you. Here: http://www.vibosoft.com/free-data-backup-windows.html
  • 0 Hide
    Vasco , September 4, 2013 11:36 PM
    I really like Argentum Backup (www.argentuma.com) as a Windows backup tool. Found it to be very fast and easy to use, even for a beginner like me.