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Both businesses and individual users must have some form of backup for all documents and data devices or risk losing everything due to hard drive corruption.
While there are generic cloud backup services such as iCloud and OneDrive available, it is best not to rely on individual backup solutions. And ideally, any solution that appears to be local (such as an external hard drive) will support cloud backup.
Today, you can quickly and automatically set up different backups when you need them, and there are many software solutions designed to do just that. In some cases, this is simply a matter of new files being copied immediately after they are saved; in other cases, regular backups are made at specific times.
Then, here are our recommendations for the best backup software.
Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image is a full-featured backup solution that promises never to lose a file.
The software sends data to both local disks and cloud storage solutions. Cloning and mirroring operations can be performed for system disks with just two clicks. There is also an anti-ransomware feature that can detect and even reverse unauthorized encryption of hard drives to protect data from increasingly common attacks. Mobile devices can also benefit from backup services. The downside is that all these backup operations do take up some system resources and even extend boot times, but the effort for security is worth it.
A single device license does not include any cloud storage space, or you can pay for a subscription plan at the same price (per year) and will receive 250GB of cloud storage space and the ability always to upgrade the software to the latest version.
EaseUS ToDo Backup
EaseUS has been in the competitive market for over a decade, offering packages for businesses, home users, and even service providers for Windows (XP and higher) and macOS platforms.
For home and business plans, ToDo Backup can handle incremental or full backups of up to 16TB of data, including managing multiple partitions, hardware RAID, and also supports cloud backup.
Although available for free, the Family package has a very inexpensive one-time cost. It adds advanced features such as support for portable Windows USB drives, transfer to another computer, email notifications, backup and restore of Outlook emails and more.
Paragon Backup & Recover
Paragon Backup & Recovery provides a flexible solution that simplifies complex data backup processes. With the Create Backup Job wizard, you can quickly get a guide on what to back up and where to store it.
The software covers all regular backup processes and makes it easy to create complex task schedules (e.g., automatic backups.) WinPE Recovery Disk is an excellent feature that can save even unbootable computers in the worst-case scenario. With bootable USB flash memory, you can salvage important files, fix boot problems and even perform recovery operations to get your system up and running immediately.
NovaBackup PC
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NovaBackup PC is a reliable backup solution that can be purchased as a subscription and is perfect for performing basic backup tasks locally on a computer's hard drive.
Adequate for the average user but falls a little short in operator interface, support for platforms other than Windows and Linux, and more advanced tasks.
Another drawback is the high cost, as it is sold as a subscription-only, but includes all future upgrades and updates and supports backup of data to cloud providers (including OneDrive and Dropbox).
Security is probably the most outstanding feature, as this software runs locally, sends data to the local media drive, and is not connected to the Internet.
Also, you can perform backups using AES 256-bit encryption for added security.
Genie Timeline Home
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Genie Timeline Home promises easy protection for all your files and can be configured in three steps.
A free trial version is available for Windows XP and higher, but not for other platforms.
The software focuses on backing up computer files to a media drive. The developers offer different solutions for other situations, including Android backup and cloud backup needs, so Genie Timeline Home is not a huge family bucket.
For those who hate being disturbed, this software has a game/movie mode that automatically blocks all annoying pop-ups to ensure that it doesn't harm your gaming or movie watching experience.