Updated: 17 Aug 2011

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Introduction

Specialist software can back up your computer with ease. We tested 13 programs for Windows 7.

Backing up data is essential, but is often boring, time-consuming and confusing. A backup software program can do most of the work for you. But do you have to pay for a good program?

Our test of 13 includes Windows 7 Backup and 6 other free programs.

Programs we tested

This report contains test results and recommendations for the following backup software programs:

How we tested

We tested each backup program using PCs running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. We used two sets of files, each approximately 5GB. One set contained small files and one set large files.

We replicated a typical user experience by creating sporadic and scheduled backups, and restoring the backed up files to the PC.

If a program isn’t easy to use, chances are you won’t use it. We looked at ease of use including the user interface, automation, wizards and any other built-in help. We also assessed how easy it was to select and back up data, schedule a backup, and restore the backed up files, using each available restore option.
 

Checklist

If you’re thinking of choosing backup software, here’s what to consider.

Why back up?

Hard drive failure is consistently the commonest fault reported in our annual computer reliability surveys. If you don’t back up your computer, think how much content you would lose. Documents, letters, emails, photos, movies, audio tracks and more would disappear, with a lot of personal content irreplaceable.

Why use backup software?

Backup programs offer many advantages over simply copying your files from one location to another. Good software can also:

• Assist in scheduling regular backups.
• Help restore data to your computer.
• Offer the option of data compression, meaning it takes up less room on your destination storage medium.

Backup types

• Full backup – saves all the data on your hard drive. While a full backup can take longer than other types to complete, it's an important task as it ensures you have a secondary copy of your data on hand in case of a hard drive crash or accidental file deletion.
• Incremental backup – saves every change made to files and folders since the last backup, allowing you to restore old copies of files that have become corrupted or misplaced. Incremental backups are quicker than full backups.
• Differential backup – saves only the latest versions of files and folders altered since the last full or incremental backup, replacing older data in the process. Differential backups are a much easier restore solution than incremental backups, as they require only the latest differential backup after a full restore.

Features

Here are some of the features of backup software, and what they mean:

Restoring
Restores data to a computer. Our test results include ratings on ease of restoring the backed up data using each program.

Scheduling
Allows you to specify a period for your software to start an automatic backup. Schedules can be set up as a one-off event or as a regular occurrence and are a handy time-saver.

Compression
Compresses the size of the backup data, conserving space on the destination media. However, using compression can take longer depending on the power of the PC's processor.

The degree to which files and folders can be compressed also depends on their content – data that is already in a compressed state (such as JPEG image files) won't compress as much as Word documents, for example.

Imaging
Takes a snapshot of the contents of your computer's hard drive, allowing you to restore a drive to a previous state. This is useful if your computer is no longer working correctly or you would like to transfer all your data to another computer.
 

Tips for backing up

Once you’ve set up a program, backups should occur regularly without further intervention. Here are some tips to help make the most of your backup routine:

Tidy up first
Before your first full backup, go through your files and dump any old files no longer needed. There’s no point backing up something you won’t use. If you like to keep your data organised, it can also help to clean up your desktop and move files to folders.

Schedule smart
Set your backup schedule to fit in with your computer habits. If you work on the computer all day, do your backups at night. If you play games at night but don’t use the PC much in the morning while you’re at work, set the backup to run then. Look for an option to back up your computer then automatically shut it down or put it to sleep to save power.

Archive old data
Some backup programs give you the option to archive old data. This puts it on another backup media such as DVD and removes it from the backup set, freeing up space but keeping a copy of the data.

Perform a regular full backup
A weekly, fortnightly or monthly backup makes it quicker and easier to restore your files in the event of a disaster, as there’s less incremental data sets to sort through for restoration.

Have multiple backups
Ideally, you should have at least two backups of your data – because even a backup can fail. This also lets you keep one copy offsite, such as at the home of a friend or relative. In the event of theft, or a natural disaster such as fire or flood, an offsite backup means you will have a recent full copy of your data.

 

Report by Marc Wendelborn.