Windows 10: Looking for a HD backup solution to local hard drive via USB & network

I have been using Windows 7 backup tool in Windows 10 Pro. I decided I need something a bit more powerful. I am asking for thoughts on backup solutions for backing up to a local hard drive through a USB connection and a network drive. Using Windows 10 Pro. 5 TB back up drive is the main drive. Other drives come and go. Not looking for online backup at the moment unless the solution connects to Google drive as well as local. But local is our primary focus. for $100 or less.

A big plus is if we can browse the backed up data without having to restore the data first and an even bigger plus if it's not in some weird super proprietary format that nobody else can ready if the software becomes inactivated.

Requirement is that the software be activated once and not be required to connect to the internet to check for activation. I don't want backup software suddenly becoming inactivated.

:)

 

Using network hard drive for backup

It depends what sort of backup you want to do. If you're happy just backing up regular files, then there are a bazillion (really, that many!) different bits of freeware to do that. There is a good list here:

Download Back Up Tools for Windows - MajorGeeks

and pretty much all of them can do network backups. Some even have fancy options like encryption. Really, the most useful thing is just being able to schedule them and know they ran OK.

You may also want to make a system image backup too, and you'll find that software in the very same list.

I don't have Windows 8 as yet, so I'm afraid I can't suggest any for that platform. Personally, I use Clonezilla for image backups.

 

Using network hard drive for backup

anyone know how to, or a program that will automatically backup my laptop (windows 8) onto my buffalo hard drive that is connected through my wireless network?

the hard drive is wired directly into the network, and can be accessed from any computer on the network.

 

Free hard drive backup/restore program?

I am looking for a free (freeware) program that will back up and restore a hard drive. I'm looking to clone a few external hard drives. If the program will backup the used space instead of the whole drive this will be awesome! Thanks for any suggestions.