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Best backup software for Windows 8.1?

9

996GT2

Diamond Member
As many of you probably know, Windows 8.1's built in file history is not a substitute for a standalone backup program which can back up everything. When I was on Windows 7, Norton Ghost was my favorite program for doing incremental backups every week. However, Norton Ghost does not run on Windows 8.1.

What alternatives are out there? My biggest requirement is that it be able to make incremental system backups on a scheduled basis.
 
My favorite backup solution is Acronis True Image, basically the spiritual successor to Ghost (RIP). It will make incremental backups on a user-created schedule. I don't need the latest versions but you might for Win 8.1.
 
You can get acronis "free" on both Seagate's & WD's sites. It will backup.
Of corse, it requires a seagate or WD drive... you can mix & match.
 
Symantec system recovery 2013 r2, the successor to and practically identical to ghost. expensive but they had offered chunky discounts for ghost 15 users. ???

Macrium Reflect- good product with great support. Version 6 is due any day.

Acronis Backup for pc, not acronis true image. expensive also. sometimes discounted. expansive professional backup, wizard-less, the fastest in my experience. if Macrium's new "modern interface" blows chunks i'll probably revert to this.

that's all I'm familiar with.
 
Elixer said:
You can get acronis "free" on both Seagate's & WD's sites. It will backup.
Of corse, it requires a seagate or WD drive... you can mix & match.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it seems that the WD version does not support incremental backups (from some quick googling).

Will look into Macrium Reflect also, thanks guys.
 
Last edited:
Acronis free from WD has limited functionality (no file backup). The same applies to Macrium Reflect free edition.
I use FreeFileSync for folder/partition backups.
 
Are you trying to backup some important files or the Windows installation itself? If you're just looking at files, I recommend FreeFileSync.
It's basically like WinMerge but it supports long directory paths. I stopped using WinMerge because it was limited to 255 characters for the path.

If you're really hard core about using as little drive space as possible, read the instruction manual for 7-zip. It's possible to create a batch script to do incremental backups in the form of 7z files. I did one of these at work about a year ago. Backing up certain file types is incredibly easy once you know how to do it. 300+ CAD drawings spread across dozens of folders can be backed up by double clicking a .bat file. It's awesome.
 
996GT2 said:
Will look into Macrium Reflect also, thanks guys.
Click to expand...

The free version is great, but it requires manual backups. The pay-for version adds scheduling, which is nice because once you make the main image, you can do a quick incremental nightly backup automatically on a schedule so it's completely hands-off. It's $45 for the personal edition:

http://www.macrium.com/personal.aspx

The Pro version ($59) adds dynamic disk support (like for MS software RAID) & ReDeploy (clone to new hardware, including P2P, P2V, and V2P). ReDeploy is handy if your comp dies and rather than replacing parts, you want to just buy or build a new one & copy your stuff over. I've been using Macrium for years (free, pro, server, etc.) & it's one of my go-to tools, it's awesome!
 
I always had problems with Acronis, and they could never fix them. I finally got Storagecraft's Shadow Protect, and I love it.
 
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