5 best backup software for Windows 10 [2021 Guide]

• If you handle critical data on a daily basis, backing up your files is not only a recommendation of healthy practice, but a necessity
• More advanced users, such as network administrators, might need more than just local backup software solutions, such as backup programs for servers
• If you have more specific needs, such as backing up Apps data from your Windows 10 PCs, here’s how you can perform this operation
• Check out our dedicated Backup Software section if you want to find out more

• Marvel
• Starwars
• National Geographic
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No matter how advanced it is, all today’s technology can potentially take a nasty turn. Hard drives, for instance, are notorious for crashing and today’s ransomware can make a computer’s content inaccessible.

With digital content becoming crucial for business and also for personal assets including videos, photos, and music, it’s obvious that protecting everything with backup software has become more important than ever.

Nobody really enjoys backing up their PC’s system, docs and media files, but doing this can definitely save you lots of pain. These five apps can take care of your system for you.

Best backup software for Windows 10

Acronis True Image

Acronis provides one of the best user-friendly and feature-packed backup programs for home users.

Its True Image Cloud service and the True Image software as well are both able to create full disk-image copies for the ultimate protection from disasters.

Check out True Image’s best features for protecting your system:

• The interface of this software is modern, friendly and straightforward.
• By default, this tool selects the Entire PC as the source of your backup.
• You will be able to change to specified drives, files, partitions, or folders.
• You will get an estimate of the space required for the selected backup.
• The program also comes with a tool for archiving and analyzing large files which has its own button on the interface.
• You also have the option of encrypting your backup with a password.
• After the backup is complete, you get two options, Recover PC and Recover Files.

Acronis True Image combines backup, disk-cloning, rescue-disk creation, and many more system utilities and disk tools. The program brings some unique capabilities to backup software including mobile backup and Facebook as well.

It comes with the most accessible interface, and on the other hand, it allows experts to dig into some really details backup options.

Get Acronis True Image

— Editor’s Note: If you’re interested in other backup software, check out our wide collection of guides.

Paragon Backup & Recovery Advanced

Paragon Backup & Recovery Advanced is a consumer-friendly tool , and it comes with Wizards to take you through the most common backup scenarios.

The company aggressively updates the backup tool so now it reached its Advanced version that supports Windows 10.

Take a look at the best ones of its features:

• The tool comes with huge improvements in usability and performance compared to previous versions.
• The program interface has been totally revamped, and now it’s easier than ever.
• The interface comes with three tabs, Home, Main, and X-View.
• Paragon Backup & Recovery Advanced also comes with more scheduling options for your backup: daily, on-demand, weekly and one backup.
• The software works really fast and it can backup 15GB in about 5 minutes.
• During the backup creation, you will get an estimated backup time.
• For the backup, Paragon creates a virtual hard drive with all the data .
• If you try to restore an entire system, the software warns you that it’s best to do this with external recovery media.

With this tool , Paragon finally created a backup utility that is accessible for home users. The software also comes with more advanced features targeted at enthusiast users, and these include Paragon’s powerful disk-management tools.

Get Backup&Recovery Advanced

Stellar Data Recovery

Stellar Data Recovery makes it easy to recover lost or deleted files from your computer’s hard drive or any other external storage device.

Here are its most important features:

• Recover deleted files (including multimedia files)
• Efficient file search (it allows you to search for files by name, type, target folder or target folder on a logical drive while checking the option Erased files / Existing files)
• Supports over 300 file types
• Two levels of scanning: fast and thorough. If the tool cannot find the information sought after the quick scan, it automatically goes into deep scan mode
• Recovering files from portable devices (provided the data is stored on the memory card)
• Data recovery from damaged hard drive
• Data recovery from CF cards, flash cards, SD cards (mini SD, micro SD and SDHC) and mini disks
• Custom sorting of files
• Email recovery

• User account recovery
• Restore admin passwords
• Extended OS compatibility

AOMEI Backupper Professional

AOMEI Backupper is one of the best backup software available on the market which aims to protect your important files as well as your operating system.

Here are its most important features:

• Backup and restore system, partition, hard drive, files
• Clone your hard drive or partition
• Manage incremental backup and automatic backup

You should know that AOMEI is constantly improving its services and products, offering you with each new version more advanced and more effective features. Here are the latest:

• Possible to choose a network drive as destination and simultaneously select multiple files on NAS as a backup source
• Resume computer from sleep/wake mode to perform scheduled tasks
• Optimize the calculation method of the Run once a day option to synchronize the calculation time with the computer time
• Optimizing the USB connected window when the system is in high resolution
• Optimize the backup scheme to automatically delete old backups according to the defined parameters

• Disaster recovery solution
• Real-time file&folder syncing
• Supports Windows 10, 8.1/8, 7

FBackup

FBackup is a backup solution that easy scheduling and simple modes. Even though it hasn’t many features, like other backup tools from this list, it is a pretty capable backup utility.

Here are the most important FBackup features:

• Exact copies of files using “mirror backup”
• Protection against ransomware
• Easy to use interface with helpful wizards
• Run actions before/after backup
• Multiple backup destinations, including external drives, CDs/DVDs, online.
• Backups in the cloud directly to Google Drive or Dropbox
• Backup plugins
• Backup open files
• Backup and restore wizards
• Backup catalog file

You’ll be able to back up your files in no time with the help of the Where/What/How/When backup wizard that will make things way easier, so it’s perfect for beginners.

Get FBackup

These are the five best backup tools for Windows 10 , and every one of them packs useful features for protecting your data and saving you lots of effort in case of potential disasters.

Install either one of these programs and save copies of your most important photos, music, and more files either to the cloud or a separate hard drive.

You won’t regret the outlay because it’s quite a small price to pay for your peace of mind and your data ’s protection.

The best Windows backup software

The best programs for keeping your data and Windows safely backed up.

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Freelance contributor, PCWorld |

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We need backup software for our PCs because our storage drives won’t last forever. Backup software ensures we’re covered when the day comes that our primary drive up and dies.

It would be nice if Microsoft itself provided Windows users with something like Apple’s Time Machine: an effective, set-it-and-forget-it, total system recovery and backup solution that requires little interaction or thought on the user’s part.

Instead, Microsoft delivers a mishmash of restore points, recovery discs, file backup, and even the un-retired System Backup (Windows 7), which was probably originally put out to pasture for its propensity to choke on dissimilar hardware. Online backup services are another option, but desktop clients tend to offer far more flexibility.

Plenty of vendors have stepped in with worthy alternatives, and while none are quite as slick or transparent as Time Machine, some come darn close—and many are free. Read on for our top picks.

Updated on 12/21/20 to include our review of the newest version of Acronis True Image. Like its predecessor, the latest True Image remains our pick for best overall backup software. You won’t fine a more feature-rich package. Read more about it below. And scroll to the bottom of this article to see links to all our backup software reviews.

Best overall backup software

Acronis True Image 2021 is a comprehensive backup and security solution with no equal. If you want everything tied up in a neat package, this is it. But if your needs are minor, this is overkill.

There’s a reason True Image is renowned in the world of backup software. It’s capable, flexible, and rock-solid reliable. Indeed, it’s easily the most comprehensive data safety package on the planet.

Besides offering unparalleled backup functionality that’s both robust and easy to navigate, True Image integrates security apps as well, which protect against malware, malicious websites, and other threats using real-time monitoring. Read our full review.

Best free backup software

With faster backups and a glitch-free interface, this free imaging and backup program would’ve garnered another half-star. Still, with real-time syncing and all the features most users need, it came darn close.

Among the free programs we tested, Backupper Standard wins primarily because it has the most features, including imaging, file backup, disk cloning, and plain file syncing, plus multiple scheduling options (see our full review). Sure, its bitmapped interface may be retro, but the layout and workflow are intuitive. And though it’s on the slower side for backing up sets of files, it’s the fastest software we’ve tested so far for backing up full disks and partitions. Its CPU usage during backup is also commendably light.

What to look for in backup software

As with most things—don’t over-buy. Features you don’t need add complexity and may slow down your system. Additionally, if you intend to back up to a newly purchased external hard drive, check out the software that ships with it. Seagate, WD, and others provide backup utilities that are adequate for the average user.

File backup: If you want to back up only your data (operating systems and programs can be reinstalled, though it’s mildly time- and effort-consuming), a program that backs up just the files you select is a major time-saver. Some programs automatically select the appropriate files if you use the Windows library folders (Documents, Photos, Videos, etc.).

Image backup/Imaging: Images are byte-for-byte snapshots of your entire hard drive (normally without the empty sectors) or partition, and can be used to restore both the operating system and data. Imaging is the most convenient to restore in case of a system crash, and also ensures you don’t miss anything important.

Boot media: Should your system crash completely, you need an alternate way to boot and run the recovery software. Any backup program should be able to create a bootable optical disc or USB thumb drive. Some will also create a restore partition on your hard drive, which can be used instead if the hard drive is still operational.

Scheduling: If you’re going to back up effectively, you need to do it on a regular basis. Any backup program worth its salt allows you to schedule backups.

Versioning: If you’re overwriting previous files, that’s not backup, it’s one-way syncing or mirroring. Any backup program you use should allow you to retain several previous backups, or with file backup, previous versions of the file. The better software will retain and cull older backups according to criteria you establish.

Optical support: Every backup program supports hard drives, but as obsolescent as they may seem, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are great archive media. If you’re worried about optical media’s reliability, M-Disc claims its discs are reliable for a thousand years, claims that are backed up by Department of Defense testing.

Online support: An offsite copy of your data is a hedge against physical disasters such as flood, fire, and power surges. Online storage services are a great way to maintain an offsite copy of your data. Backup to Dropbox and the like is a nice feature to have.

FTP and SMB/AFP: Backing up to other computers or NAS boxes on your network or in remote locations (say, your parent’s house) is another way of physically safeguarding your data with an offsite, or at least physically discrete copy. FTP can be used for offsite, while SMB (Windows and most OS’s) and AFP (Apple) are good for other PCs or NAS on your local network.

Real time: Real-time backup means that files are backed up whenever they change, usually upon creation or save. It’s also called mirroring and is handy for keeping an immediately available copy of rapidly changing data sets. For less volatile data sets, the payoff doesn’t compensate for the drain on system resources. Instead, scheduling should be used.

Continuous backup: In this case, ‘continuous’ simply means backing up on a tight schedule, generally every 5 to 15 minutes, instead of every day or weekly. Use continuous backup for rapidly changing data sets where transfer rates are too slow, or computing power is too precious for real-time backup.

Performance: Most backups proceed in the background or during dead time, so performance isn’t a huge issue in the consumer space. However, if you’re backing up multiple machines or to multiple destinations, or dealing with very large data sets, speed is a consideration.

How we test

We run each program through the various types of backups it’s capable of. This is largely to test reliability and hardware compatibility, but we time two: an approximately 115GB system image (two partitions), and a roughly 50GB image created from a set of smaller files and folders. We then mount the images and test their integrity via the program’s restore functions. We also test the USB boot drives created by the programs.

All of our reviews

If you’d like to learn more about our top picks as well as other options, you can find links below to all of our backup software reviews. We’ll keep evaluating new programs and re-evaluating existing software on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for our current impressions.