Free Backup Software

Constantly backing up is important because computers are not always perfect, and thus can crash, fail, and malfunction without a warning. Therefore, valuable information such as work documents, pictures of families, and videos that you've been working hours on can be lost.

Currently, many operating systems already have pre-installed backup programs that are sufficient for a home user. As in the case with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft has pre-installed a backing up utility which can be found by going to: Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and clicking Backup. This utility utilizes the system backup point. Although Windows will automatically store a backup point from time to time, this command tells Windows to backup once more at the time that you wish. Nonetheless, if such pre-installed backup applications do not meet your needs, there are also high quality free backup applications available in the market.

Summary of Free Backup Applications

In today's market, there are numerous quality free and paid backup applications that can backup your information so that even if the hard drive failed, your valuable information will still be alive.

AMANDA

Amanda.org also known as the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup utility not only available for Microsoft Windows (using SAMBA), but also Unix operating systems too. This software allows a network administrator to create a backup only server where other networked computers can backup to via LAN.

Cobian Backup

The Cobian Backup software is an advanced utility that can even schedule backup times and backup to other drives in the same computer or to another computer through network connections and even through the FTP. What is interesting about this software is that there are two different versions of it; there is an application version and a service version. It is quite a lightweight program that runs in the background and keeps up with the schedule that you gave it. It will periodically copy your files in an original or a compressed mode with numerous compression types in a secure and encrypted format.

EZBack-it-up

EZBack-it-up is a very easy to use backup software that can be used by anyone. Unlike many backup utilities, the EZBack-it-up is not a tool that backs up your data by compressing all your files in one. Instead, it just copies your data to another directory or a destination of your choice, where you can easily access any particular backed up files at any time you wish. This relatively fast backup software also includes important features such as a built-in scheduler, command line switches, and a logging functionality. It is currently compatible with all Microsoft Windows platforms.

IceMirror

IceMirror is a unique, one of a kind free backup software that backs up your files exactly as it is. It will compare the original and the copy and fix any differences in the copy. Also, IceMirror is an extremely fast because it performs incremental updates, which is updating only the files that have changed. Also, as it is a native Unicode application, any files in any languages can be backed up without any errors.

Freebyte Backup

Freebyte is yet another freeware backup utility for Microsoft Windows systems, the Freebyte Backup software is extremely useful for backing up or filtering numerous files and folders into one designated backup directory. Especially the filtering feature is useful as it can even be told to backup a certain type of files using the extension filtering. For example, only .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .png files could be backed up if you wish.

SyncBack

The SyncBack backup tool from 2BrightSparks is a very simple to use but extremely powerful backup tool. Nonetheless, this surprisingly compact software is free and can still conduct a normal backup along with synchronization for Windows. Despite being small, it still supports many mediums such as CD-ROMs, flash drives, and even an FTP server.

Conclusion

There are many free backup software beyond the above list that can get the job done very efficiently. What is important though is that these backup software, whether pre-installed in the operating system or a freeware from the Internet, should be frequently used to keep your data safe.