A Handy List Of Free Data Backup Software

I have tried to compile A Handy List Of Free Data Backup Software which are better than many others. Of course, these are free so may have some drawbacks but these are better than many. You will find many of these software are better than paid data backup software.

It might be I have missed some free but good data backup software or I do not know about that. You can inform me about missing but good data backup software.

AceBackup is a powerful tool to create completely secure backups of your data. Store your data on any local storage device, on CD, DVD or on your remote FTP server!
A special advantage of AceBackup is the possibility to backup single files and groups of files, for example for important or confidential documents. The program can also store different versions of your files. This can be useful if you would like to restore a certain version of your file at a later date.
* AceBackup projects may have several volumes with different target locations – simultaneous backup on remote FTP servers as well as on local storage devices (hard disks; floppies; ZIP, JAZZ or MO drives; folders in local network or other writable units)!
* Store your data on CD or DVD!
* Different compression levels for an AceBackup project !
* Both strong encryption of file content and encryption of file name (up to 128 bits)!
* Manage several backup volumes in a project file!
* Explorer Integration: You can now add files to AceBackup directly from the Windows Explorer
* Easy to handle user interface!
* To store and restore files as in the Windows Explorer!
* Automatic backups with integrated scheduler!
* External applications that should be executed before or/and after processing an AceBackup can be specified!
* Multiple versioning backup of similar files!
* Wizard to import and verify projects!
* Restore files in the original folder or in any other folder!
* Filter to eliminate certain file name extensions or to store files with the requested file extension!
* Detailed report which can be sent by e-mail!
* Integrated Update Manager keeps your software up to date!
* Many other program options can be configured individually!
* Detailed help, tutorial and manual in pdf format!
Download
http://www.acebackup.com/

DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives. Image creation uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe “hot images” even from drives currently in use. Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup! Restore images to drives without having to reboot. DriveImage XML is now faster than ever, offering two different compression levels.
*  Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
* Browse images, view and extract files
* Restore images to the same or a different drive
* Copy directly from drive to drive
* Schedule automatic backups
* Run DriveImage from WinPE boot CD-ROM
Download
https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Ocster Backup Free is really easy to use and requires no technical knowledge at all. With the software’s scheduled automatic backups you simply select what to back up and when and that’s it. The software will automatically keep your data safe!
* Creates fully automatic backups of your data
* Easy to use
* Can store backups on hard disks and USB sticks (free and no strings attached)
* Can store backups on Ocster Secure Storage
o Stores the files in professional data centers
o Much safer than using hard disks or USB sticks
o The backups are protected against fire, water damage, lighning, theft, hurricanes, …
o Multiple copies are kept in different locations
o The data is transmitted to the data centers via a highly secured internet channel
o Available for a small subscription fee.
* Backups are strongly encrypted and protected with a user password
* Backups are compressed intelligently to save space
* Backups are performed automatically at scheduled times
* Backups can be stopped and resumed. This is handy when the computer needs to be shut down, for example.
* Incremental backup: after an initial full backup only the changes to the previous state are stored. This saves space and reduces transfer times.
* Supports backup of:
o files and folders(also files that are in use)
o hard links and symbolic links
o compressed, encrypted and sparse files
* Backup are encrypted with AES (256 Bit)
* High compression rates, even with many small files
Download
http://www.ocster.com/ocster-backup-free/en

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload). Cobian Backup exists in two different versions: application and service. The program uses very few resources and can be running on the background on your system, checking your backup schedule and executing your backups when necessary. Cobian Backup is not an usual backup application: it only copies your files and folders in original or compressed mode to other destination, creating a security copy as a result. So Cobian Backup can be better described as a “Scheduler for security copies”. Cobian Backup supports several methods of compression and strong encryption.
Download
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Backup software designed to automate all your backup, synchronization, and archiving tasks.
*Automate Backups of your important files and folders.  The backup set is created in standard ZIP format.  This allows flexibility in restoring the data using any zip software to unzip the backup set.
*Transfer your backup set to a remote location via Ftp or Email it to your mail server.
*Scheduler software is very easy to use, yet has very powerful scheduling, tasking and automation capabilities.
*Email Notification of task failure based on task exit code.
*Local directory monitor allows you to backup data when a file/folder change is detected.
*Zip files and directories using wildcards on schedule.  Can append date/time to filename for archive purposes.
*Copy files and directories using wildcards on schedule.  Can append date/time to filename for archive purposes.
Download

Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency. At the NCHC’s Classroom C, Clonezilla SE was used to clone 41 computers simultaneously. It took only about 10 minutes to clone a 5.6 GBytes system image to all 41 computers via multicasting!
* Free (GPL) Software.
* Filesystem supported: ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux, FAT, NTFS of MS Windows, and HFS+ of Mac OS. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows and Intel-based Mac OS, no matter it’s 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla.
* LVM2 (LVM version 1 is not) under GNU/Linux is supported.
* Multicast is supported in Clonezilla SE, which is suitable for massively clone. You can also remotely use it to save or restore a bunch of computers if PXE and Wake-on-LAN are supported in your clients.
* Based on Partimage, ntfsclone, partclone, and dd to clone partition. However, clonezilla, containing some other programs, can save and restore not only partitions, but also a whole disk.
* By using another free software drbl-winroll, which is also developed by us, the hostname, group, and SID of cloned MS windows machine can be automatically changed.
Download
http://clonezilla.org/

It basically allows you to select a set of files / directories to back-up, choose where and how (as a simple file copy, as a zip archive, …) they will be stored, and configure post-backup actions (like sending backup reports by email or launching custom shell scripts)
* Archives compression (Zip & Zip64 format)
* Archives encryption (AES128 & AES256 encryption algorithms)
* Storage on local hard drive, network drive, USB key, FTP / FTPs server (with implicit and explicit SSL / TLS)
* Source file filters (by extension, subdirectory, regular expression, size, date, status, with AND/OR/NOT logical operators)
* Incremental, differential and full backup support
* Support for delta backup (store only modified parts of your files)
* Archives merges : You can merge contiguous archives into one single archive to save storage space.
* As of date recovery : Areca allows you to recover your archives (or single files) as of a specific date.
* Transaction mechanism : All critical processes (such as backups or merges) are transactional. This guarantees your backups’ integrity.
* Backup reports : Areca generates backup reports that can be stored on your disk or sent by email.
* Post backup scripts : Areca can launch shell scripts after backup.
* Files permissions, symbolic links and named pipes can be stored and recovered. (Linux only)
Graphical User Interface :
* Archives content explorer. (including a ‘find file in archives’ feature)
* Archive description : A manifest is associated to each archive, which contains various informations such as title, date, description, and additional technical data.
* File version tracking : Areca keeps track of your files’ history (creation / modifications / deletion). Each version can be selectively viewed and recovered.
* Backup simulation (check whether a backup is necessary)
* User’s actions history : Areca keeps an history of all user’s actions (archives deletion, merges, backups, recoveries).
Command-Line Interface :
* Areca comes with a command-line interface which can be used for backup automation.
Download
http://www.areca-backup.org/

Absolutely free! No strings! The only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.
* Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
* Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
* Built in scheduler.
* 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
* Industry leading compression levels and speed.
* Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
* Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista.
* HTML log files.
Download
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Personal-Backup is a program to save personal data to any destination folder. This folder may be located on a local fixed or removable drive, on a windows network server or on a FTP server. It runs under Windows 98/SE/ME, Windows 2000/XP, Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows Vista. The program configuration is stored for each user individually.

You can configure and store as many backup tasks as you want. The selecting of the file sto backup is made on folder basis. All subfolders are included automatically. But the user can exclude any subdirectories from backup by selection or by filter. Additional criteria are the selection by file types, file age and/or file name filter.

At the destination folder the original drives (C:, D:, etc.) look like subdirectories named LwC, LwD, etc. The original directory structure remains unchanged beneath these folders. All files may be compressed using GZip or in total or separated by subfolders as Zip files. Optionally alls data can be encrypted by the AES algorithm.

Performing the backup can be done manually or automatically. During the backup the programm checks wether the file to be saved is newer than the backupped file or not. Only files with newer timestamps are saved. An alternate criteria is the archive bit of the files.

The automatic backup is started on login, at a selectable time of day, on logout or on shutdown (not under Vista). You can make a scheduled backup with dayly or weekly changing destination paths.
For individual schedules it is easy to start a backup using the windows task scheduler using the comman line options of the program.