Simplest free backup software for Win7 & Win10

[Skyzoomer]

Helping a friend set up her first backup system. She's been running without doing any backups till now. She is a very novice user and has a Win7 HP laptop and just bought a new Win10 Acer all-in-one. Both PCs only have one internal hard drive.

Is there a free backup program that I can setup for her and thereafter all she has to do is enter the name of the backup and click start? She will only do entire hard drive backups every month. No incremental or differential backups. Only image backups, no clone backups.

She does not want to have to select options during the backup. She just wants to enter the new backup name (like "170427 Acer backup") and click START.

Thanks.

 

[balloonshark]

I use macrium reflect free but I don't think it's newbie friendly. Humble bundle has EaseUS ToDo BackUp Home in their $1 tier that includes two other programs. They also have a free version that you may want explore.

https://www.humblebundle.com/happy-pc-software-bundle

http://www.easeus.com/backup-softwa...urce=humblebundle_tb_product&utm_medium=liuye

Free version: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/personal.html

I have not used any EaseUS programs so I'm not sure how well it works. From the screenshots below it looks less complicate compared to what I use.

Screenshots: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/screenshots.htm

 

[Skyzoomer]

I use macrium reflect free but I don't think it's newbie friendly. Humble bundle has EaseUS ToDo BackUp Home in their $1 tier that includes two other programs. They also have a free version that you may want explore.

https://www.humblebundle.com/happy-pc-software-bundle

http://www.easeus.com/backup-softwa...urce=humblebundle_tb_product&utm_medium=liuye

Free version: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/personal.html

I have not used any EaseUS programs so I'm not sure how well it works. From the screenshots below it looks less complicate compared to what I use.

Screenshots: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/screenshots.htm

Baloonshark,
Thanks for your input.

Anyone using EaseUS ToDo or Aomei backup that can comment on what needs to be input for each image backup?

 

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

Helping a friend set up her first backup system. She's been running without doing any backups till now. She is a very novice user and has a Win7 HP laptop and just bought a new Win10 Acer all-in-one. Both PCs only have one internal hard drive.

Is there a free backup program that I can setup for her and thereafter all she has to do is enter the name of the backup and click start? She will only do entire hard drive backups every month. No incremental or differential backups. Only image backups, no clone backups.

She does not want to have to select options during the backup. She just wants to enter the new backup name (like "170427 Acer backup") and click START.

Thanks.

You can use windows backup. It comes with windows.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I prefer Macrium myself but for a simpler program, Veeam Backup is quite good!

 

[Skyzoomer]

You can use windows backup. It comes with windows.

Thank you for your suggestion. I want to get one free backup program rather than have her use a Win7 version and a Win10 version. Don't know if they are different or not. One free backup program would have the same interface and procedures for both of her PCs.
Thanks.

 

[Skyzoomer]

I prefer Macrium myself but for a simpler program, Veeam Backup is quite good!

I'll check out Veeam and see if I can find a video that shows the exact backup and restore procedures.
Thanks.

 

[Skyzoomer]

I use macrium reflect free but I don't think it's newbie friendly. Humble bundle has EaseUS ToDo BackUp Home in their $1 tier that includes two other programs. They also have a free version that you may want explore.

https://www.humblebundle.com/happy-pc-software-bundle

http://www.easeus.com/backup-softwa...urce=humblebundle_tb_product&utm_medium=liuye

Free version: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/personal.html

I have not used any EaseUS programs so I'm not sure how well it works. From the screenshots below it looks less complicate compared to what I use.

Screenshots: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/screenshots.htm

Balloonshark (or other Macrium Reflect Free users),

Can Macrium Reflect Free be setup so she can just enter the backup name and click START?
Thanks.

 

[balloonshark]

Balloonshark (or other Macrium Reflect Free users),

Can Macrium Reflect Free be setup so she can just enter the backup name and click START?
Thanks.

I do everything manually when it comes to my computers. If she or someone could set it up it should be able to do scheduled backups. With imaging you need to know a bit about which drive is your source and destination. You get those mixed up and you could be screwed. The next hardest part is changing any advanced options you may need. And then it asks about saving the backup template and its options. But as I said I always backup manually. I pick my source and destination partitions, change and advanced option or two (Like verify image) then run the backup and then tell it not so save or schedule the template. In her case a template may be useful but I'm not sure how it works if your partition letters would happen to change.

Honestly looking at the EaseUS software pics it looks super simple to use. It looks like she would need to chose a source, a destination folder, a name and other options if needed. That's about as simple as it's going to get. AOMEI looks like it would also be easy to use.

 

[corkyg]

You are right about the risk of mixing source and target. I have an easy way to prevent that. I give each drive a unique name.

 

[Skyzoomer]

I do everything manually when it comes to my computers. If she or someone could set it up it should be able to do scheduled backups. With imaging you need to know a bit about which drive is your source and destination. You get those mixed up and you could be screwed. The next hardest part is changing any advanced options you may need. And then it asks about saving the backup template and its options. But as I said I always backup manually. I pick my source and destination partitions, change and advanced option or two (Like verify image) then run the backup and then tell it not so save or schedule the template. In her case a template may be useful but I'm not sure how it works if your partition letters would happen to change.

Honestly looking at the EaseUS software pics it looks super simple to use. It looks like she would need to chose a source, a destination folder, a name and other options if needed. That's about as simple as it's going to get. AOMEI looks like it would also be easy to use.

OK, thanks. There won't be any partition decisions since I will have her just backup the entire internal drive. Selecting source and destinations are steps I hope to avoid since they will always be the same on each PC. Only the backup name would have to be unique, with proposed name as "Date-PCname-backup" as in "170428 HP backup" or "170428 Asus backup".

Hope an EaseUS or Aomei user will chime in with personal experience.
Thanks again.

 

[RLGL]

Good luck, I am still looking for a free lunch.

 

[13Gigatons]

Have her make the backup on the current HDD and then transfer it to her backup drive. It will ensure the schedule goes off without a hitch.

 

[mikeymikec]

Microsoft SyncToy? (freely downloadable)

 

[Skyzoomer]

Have her make the backup on the current HDD and then transfer it to her backup drive. It will ensure the schedule goes off without a hitch.

Thanks for that idea. Unfortunately she is an older and very novice user and is not inclined to learn about navigating folders and copying/moving them around. So with that in mind, learning how to do set backup procedure steps would be easier for her to learn. It took some convincing for her to do backups and she could hardly understand why she needed to do them. Just trying to minimize the backup procedure for her as much as possible.

Thanks.

 

[Skyzoomer]

Microsoft SyncToy? (freely downloadable)

Thanks for the suggestion. Want an entire hard drive backup solution where the restore on a new replacement drive will come back up as if nothing happened. The solution needs to create a "rescue/boot" CD or USB flash drive for the restore.

 

[Ketchup]

You could try something similar to what I do/did: Get a cheap computer, something running Vista or newer. My first one was actually giving to me. All that really had to be paid for was a nice-size hard drive. Put it on the same network as the other computers.

Set up Windows Backup and Restore (both 7 and 10 have it). It will do a full backup, then incremental backups thereafter. Once you set it up, she won't have to do anything. Totally automatic. The only thing you will need to do is clean up her backups every so often (depending on backup size and drive size).

The important things here are that:
1.it's a true backup on a different machine.
2. She won't have to do anything unless she needs a backup or she needs you assistance due to space issues.

 

[Skyzoomer]

You could try something similar to what I do/did: Get a cheap computer, something running Vista or newer. My first one was actually giving to me. All that really had to be paid for was a nice-size hard drive. Put it on the same network as the other computers.

Set up Windows Backup and Restore (both 7 and 10 have it). It will do a full backup, then incremental backups thereafter. Once you set it up, she won't have to do anything. Totally automatic. The only thing you will need to do is clean up her backups every so often (depending on backup size and drive size).

The important things here are that:
1.it's a true backup on a different machine.
2. She won't have to do anything unless she needs a backup or she needs you assistance due to space issues.

Thanks for taking the time to key in your suggestion. Interesting method. I know she won't buy a third computer though. Thanks.

 

[Ketchup]

Thanks for taking the time to key in your suggestion. Interesting method. I know she won't buy a third computer though. Thanks.

So what are you planning on having her backup to?

 

[Skyzoomer]

Helping a friend set up her first backup system. She's been running without doing any backups till now. She is a very novice user and has a Win7 HP laptop and just bought a new Win10 Acer all-in-one. Both PCs only have one internal hard drive.

Is there a free backup program that I can setup for her and thereafter all she has to do is enter the name of the backup and click start? She will only do entire hard drive backups every month. No incremental or differential backups. Only image backups, no clone backups.

She does not want to have to select options during the backup. She just wants to enter the new backup name (like "170427 Acer backup") and click START.

Thanks.

I think I found the free backup program that she will be able to handle. It's the Aomei Backupper Standard. I downloaded the user manual and the backup procedure is really simple with a clean interface.

• Task Name: She enters the name as "170429 Asus backup"
  
• Step1: Click and the internal and external drives are displayed. She selects Disk0.
• Step2: The external drive will already be selected. I'll let her store all backups in the root directory so she won't have to click Step2.
• Click "Start Backup".

So all she'll have to do is enter the name of the backup, click Step1 and select Disk0, then click "Start Backup".

Yes, it seems that there is a free lunch .
Hope this helps other novice users.

Thanks to all who contributed,
Skyzoomer

 

[John Connor]

I bought a slightly larger external HDD for clones using AOMEI Backuper. That is your best option and you are pretty much guaranteed that you can clone back to a new drive should the existing crash, etc.

I also keep the back up drive in a fireproof/waterproof safe.

 

[John Connor]

I should note I have successfully used the USB option of AOMEI to clone back an image to a netbook that had the hard drive replaced.

 

[Skyzoomer]

I bought a slightly larger external HDD for clones using AOMEI Backuper. That is your best option and you are pretty much guaranteed that you can clone back to a new drive should the existing crash, etc. I also keep the back up drive in a fireproof/waterproof safe.

I should note I have successfully used the USB option of AOMEI to clone back an image to a netbook that had the hard drive replaced.

Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your Aomei experiences.

I ordered two hard drives and a USB3 docking station for her.

• One 500GB HDD to hold an image backup of her HP Win7 laptop and an image backup of her new Asus Win10 all-in-one. I'll do both backups for her. She will store this HDD off site.
  
• One 2TB HDD. She will be doing monthly backups of both the HP and Asus PCs on it and keep this HDD on site.

Regarding doing monthly backups to the 2TB HDD:
Since BestBuy transferred the data from her laptop to her new Asus all-in-one when she bought it, both PCs currently have about 220GB of hard drive used space. Since image backups use compression, I'm estimating that she will be able to store about 6 backups on that 2TB drive. Then she will have to delete backups on a "first-in, first out" basis as she does continuous backups. I'll have to make instructions with pictures for her to do that. Even if she screws up the 2TB HDD, (or it just dies), the 500GB HDD will be the fail-safe fall back.

EDIT:
I should add that buying two hard drives as described above has an additional, very important benefit.
After I backup both PCs to the 500GB HDD, I'm going to do a restore of the Asus PC backup to the 2TB HDD. Then I'll boot the Asus PC from the 2TB HDD to verify that the backup and the restore work perfectly. No sense in doing on-going backups without verifying that the backup and restore software work flawlessly. --- After this test is complete, I'll do a quick format of the 2TB HDD to prepare it for her on-going monthly backups to it.

Thanks.

 

[PliotronX]

For image creation, I like EaseUS Todo and for file level backup, I like CrashPlan because it features four destinations for backups; directly attached storage, network shares, a "friend's" computer (with a unique invitation number), and not least of all the cheapest unlimited cloud backup storage I have found. If she does not have a huge collection of files and the storage is ample, I would just go with an image backup because "older novices" tend to pick up malware or let Veendows Supoort onto their computers and muck things up to the point where trying to rescue the Windows installation takes more time than just placing the image back on and most imaging tools will allow selective restoring of files in case just an old version of a file is needed.

 

[Skyzoomer]

For image creation, I like EaseUS Todo and for file level backup, I like CrashPlan because it features four destinations for backups; directly attached storage, network shares, a "friend's" computer (with a unique invitation number), and not least of all the cheapest unlimited cloud backup storage I have found. If she does not have a huge collection of files and the storage is ample, I would just go with an image backup because "older novices" tend to pick up malware or let Veendows Supoort onto their computers and muck things up to the point where trying to rescue the Windows installation takes more time than just placing the image back on and most imaging tools will allow selective restoring of files in case just an old version of a file is needed.

Yes, I will have her do image backups.
Thanks.