Windows 10: In search of free backup software

Few months back I lost all my favorites in Microsoft Edge. Some great folks here recommended I try a program called Recuva from the same folks that make Malwarebytes. Although I tried the program I was never able to recover my favorites file. So, I've learned my lesson and would like to find a fairly decent free backup program. I'm just starting a work at home business, I just can't risk not having a backup program any longer!

Just to "cya" myself, I'd like some tips on best options for doing backups to memory sticks, nas, or even cloud options. To further cover my bases, I'd also like to apply this to doing restore points for Windows as well.

:)

 

Now that I have Windows 10, I want a new hard drive!

Do a web search for: best free backup software 2015

 

Windows 10 Backup missing files

Actually, no. I currently use a file compression program (7-zip) for backing up, because I was teaching myself how to write simple scripts and that program is easy to include in a script.

Before that I was using Backup4All which is everything a good backup program should be (in my
opinion) but it's not free. Good backup software means a lot to me so I don't mind paying for it.

Nevertheless ... there are great free backup programs that you can find by searching the web with this search term: best free backup software 2017.

 

Macrium Reflect Free. Hands down. *Smile
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials
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Agreed - best option by 8 5ths of a kilometre .

 

AOMEI Backupper which is linked in my sig works very well as well. There are a number of them out there, just have to find the one that works for you.

 

+1 for Macrium Reflect Free

 

There are also some small programs with which you can choose to backup just some folders and file, like this one for instance: Download Backup+ - MajorGeeks if you don't want to backup everything but just certain files.

 

There are several commercial programs with free versions. They all seem to do the job. Aomei backupper, macrium, paragon backup and recovery, easeus,etc.

Ther are some differences in functionality and ease of use. Depends on your preference. Windows system imaging is included in win10 and is also good.

 

You mentioned loosing your edge favorites......same thing happened to me a while back.......

I found this small FREE program that has since served me well dealing with Edge Favorites, makes it easy to backup them up and restore them to other systems or get them back after a fresh install......Manage Edge Favorites

 

Nothing better out there then Macrium Reflect, and it can Create Differential and / or Incremental backups, or make a complete image backup, also has a few more features. Click on the link that simrick posted earlier.

 

It's been 16 years since I took my A+ course so I could some help deciding which type of backups I should be doing. To begin with, I can really see the need to be doing restore point more often. Since I'm just starting out with my work at home job, my budget is really tight. The only affordable, external storage space would be an USB flash drive. How large is a typical restore point?

As for doing the backups and where to store them is my next concern. I will admit I'm not sure which route is best for me. I don't want to be spending money on the wrong equipment. As of right now, if my system fatally crashed, the only resource for me is the Windows 10 iso I made back in July last year. I assume a full backup of my entire system would be rather large. I know backups compress the data being store, but still I have 200G used as I just checked via file explorer. Microsoft offers 5g with OneDrive, and Google offers 15G via Drive. Would I be safe in saying that besides restore points I should only be concerned about backing up personal data, like Favorites, Quckbooks files, any Office files not currently synced with OneDrive. What are my alternatives, until I can either build or buy a nas that I can attach to my router?

 

USB external hard drive:
300GB - 500GB, Desktop External Hard Drives, Hard Drives, Components - Newegg.com

$70 or so for 500GB. Or if you have an available internal SATA port and mounting point for a second hard drive, you can just install a permanent internal hard drive for backup storage.

The problem with internet cloud storage is two-fold. The first problem is connection speed. How long is it going to take you to upload and then download a multi-GB image? The second concern is restoring in the event of a total system storage (hard drive) failure. What are you going to use to connect to the internet and the cloud storage location to retrieve the backup from and then install it on the computer?

 

Well, here is another option and it doesn't cost anything. Start IE and make sure all your favorites are up to date and working the way you want them too. Then copy those favorites to a USB stick or a temp folder for safekeeping. Then when Edge loses your favorites, copy your backup back to the favorites folder for IE, and then Start Edge and then do an import of IE favorites from Edge. Works like a charm...not only that, if Edge won't load a page, fire up IE and try it from there.

 

NavyLCDR...... Assuming the worst has happened, and my drive is totally dead. I would then buy new drive, before using the Windows 10 ISO to reinstall the OS. After doing that, I'd probably have a huge batch of patches to install-reboot-install-repeat for Windows. Would I not be able to then restore my backed up personal files? Other wise it doesn't makes sense to do full backups, just your personal files. Then I got to thinking.... I thought I had seen somewhere that I didn't need the iso. So I did a quick search and came up with this....

How to do Windows 10 Full Backup and Restore? - Technig

The only thing the article didn't mention was, what if you've upgraded drives? Say my current 500G dies, and I do some savvy shopping and find a 1 or 2T drive on sale or heck even an SSD. How does restore handle the drive size or manufacture differences?

Play2mefish.... I can't use IE. When I first upgraded Windows 8.1 to 10, I did use IE as I was unfamiliar with Edge. But I had several critical crashes doing so. That's actually why I became a member of this forum. After ruling everything else out, it was determined IE and Windows 10 on my system just didn't want to work and play well together. Ever since then (a year now)I haven't crashed once. Although I had a hiccup of sorts that caused me to loose all my favorites, that's the only thing that I lost, but that was due to a virus issue.

I did hear that either Chrome or Firefox does a backup of your favorites automatically. I need to look into that, then I can do something like you suggested by importing files back and forth.