Note: iDrive even supports Windows Phone. Make sure the service you sign up for supports all of your platforms. OS and device support: Most services provide client backup software for the major operating systems (Linux, OS X, and Windows) and both Android and iOS. If you do intend to work online, we recommend that you maintain a local copy as backup, and a hedge against internet downtime. It’s very cheap per GB and uploads are free, but you’re charged for downloading-a service you hopefully will never need.įeatures: In addition to backup, you may want to share your files with others, work with them from mobile devices, or even edit them with office applications such as those available with Dropbox, Google, and OneDrive. For instance, Amazon’s Glacier is intended solely for backup and archiving. However, there may be additional charges or limitations on downloads. Aside from the free tiers available from a service like Dropbox, pricing is fairly consistent across services, though you definitely get more capacity for your money from some vendors, notably Backblaze. In many cases there’s a time limit.Ĭost: Nearly all online services charge for a maximum allowable amount of data, and generally uploads are free. Some services keep multiple versions of files, some don’t.

What to look for in free backup products Online storage and backup servicesĬapacity: Obviously, you’ll need as much storage as you have data, plus a little, or possibly a lot, more if you want to track changes and save previous versions of files. We installed the software and backed up the same 2GB data set to check for any major issues or glitches in the client software. Online services: The performance of online backup services will vary according to their location and the network equipment between you and the data depository. We also test the USB boot drives created by the programs. We then mount the images and test their integrity via the program’s restore functions. 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. How we test free backup software and servicesīackup software: We run each program through the various types of backups it’s capable of. It was only narrowly edged out of our number one pick for best free Windows backup because Perfect Backup has slightly easier to use data selection tools. While Microsoft has made some dubious decisions recently in regards to updates of the File History software, it still remains one of the best around. It makes backing up your data a no-brainer with its set-it-and-forget-it way of storing data and keeping automated backups. Windows File History is one of the easiest and cheapest (free) continuous data protection software for Windows.

Auto file and folder backup software