Over a span of probably 3 decades I tried a lot of solutions, Acronis, Iomei, Paragon, Macrium.

Reliability is the most important thing.
But reliability is NOT what a software promises.
The WORK ETHICS behind a company decides, if it was created and really tested under all imaginable bad circumstances. Forget all these sunshine promises - when your system does no longer boot, or your HD is encrypted? Sorry, too bad for you, the software was not intended for that very, very, very special case - and of course - no "review" had ever mentioned it...

Just like they sell you external HDs with hardware encryption - without mentioning, that if you need to access the data in pre boot, you might be screwed. Or if the HD-controller dies, that your data may be lost forever... But hey, it has 256-bit AES hardware encryption and you can feel really safe...

That means it must offer a proprietary boot-software, so that you have a compartmentalized restore system.
And then you are on extremely thin ice, if you are using Chinese or some less well established software:
You never know, if MS or the BIOS company changed anything in the meantime. Good luck with Iomei and other programs for sunshine days.

What is also important:
Not a shallow good first impression counts. Forget any promises. Test, how the software behaves under the worst circumstances possible!

Your computer is secured with Bitlocker? Updated the BIOS since making a system backup?
I had learend it the hard way and landed at Paragon.

But after Paragon was sold and its GUI was overhauled, it has become buggy mess, I knew I had to find an alternative.
Acronis: nothing had changed. It became an even worse American bloatware and resource hog. Once I had encountered a restore problem and the facts of being a bloatware did not restore trust.

So Macrium Reflect was the only remaining option.
And after more than 10 years, I can say that reliability is as good as the old Paragon, but with newest features.

For example it even allows to run full backups as a virtual machine.
I revcently opened a Live 7 project in WinXP (restored the old computer from a Paragon backup - created a Macrium backup - ran the backup in a VM).
I could save old plugin settings and exported a Kontakt 2 instrument. Live even plays back perfectly in that machine.

Or another amazing thing:
The new Asus notebook had Win11 on it. Made a Macrium backup of the old Acer notebook with Win 10.
And transferred the backup to the new hardware, activated the mechanism of Windows to ingore all drivers and let the amazing MS HAL (hardware abstraction layer) do its job...
Long story short: all software and +3000 plugins working flawlessly...
(well, except the need of a new registry key had popped up sometimes, obviously if the CP was triggered due to the changed hardware IDs).

 

Last edited: Nov 23, 2025 at 3:07 PM

I quite like Synchredible. Get a big old NAS and just back up your work drives to that now and then.
Don't sweat about it too much - if something is absolutely precious, then back it up immediately. But yeah - have a back up but don't spend your life going insane about it.

 

Yeah, don't be afraid if your backup software is unrealiable garbage and half your life's work might be lost forever...

 

windows 11 has a built in feature for doing backup copies. no third party needed.

 

Bottom line
Built-in Windows 11 backup tools are better than nothing and fine for casual users who:

• Use OneDrive anyway, or
• Just want to be able to reinstall Windows and their apps quickly

They are not "good" in the sense of being a robust, set-it-and-forget-it solution for protecting large amounts of personal data against drive failure, ransomware, theft, fire, etc.

Most power users and IT pros still recommend at least one third-party tool (Macrium Reflect Free, Veeam Agent Free, or even just good sync software like Synctoy/FreeFileSync) + external drive + cloud for critical stuff.

So yes, you can survive with only built-in tools… but I wouldn’t bet my family photos on it.

 

For your use case, backing up folders and data, I use a small but handy program called fast copy.

Fast Copy let's you very easily and reliably copy or sync data from one location to another. I use it half-yearly to backup all my music related data to an external backup drive. The sync (mode "newer" or "Size/Date") let's you very easily only sync files again that had been changed since the last backup. Therefore, the program will not copy all data every backup but only the files that had been changed since or are generally new. It will also look at the destiny folder and mirror it to the target location - you won't end up with duplicate files.

It's very easy to use - no nonsense! There is a also a good and helpful help section.

 

@ArticStorm
Yes its a good solution but a bit long to learn. I gave but i'll try again i think.

 

I just saw that there is also Rescuezilla, which is simpler and has a graphical interface.
https://rescuezilla.com/

 

What is wrong with Nova Backup? It isn't obsolete, has bunch of options. Why do you want to change something if it works for you?

 

Scooter Beyond Compare. releases available.

 

I use an old version of freefilesync.
But anything rsync like is cool.
Fast copy is great or total commander.
Sometime I put stuff in winrar archives.
Whatever you do: kiss, 'keep it simple stupid'.
Did the solution you chose exist 15 years ago?
Would it restore something from back then without hassle?
For system drives I use paragon Harddisk manager on a Windows pe stick.
Using that for 20 years now. (it was a bootable CD back then)

 

I am running the Business Edition 17 version which they no longer do and want me to pay again to upgrade to I think now v25

My current version started to play up on Windows 11 when adding the backup file to do a restore it now comes up with an error message saying the backup file is not compatible even though its the backup file Nova created (the same backup file loads fine on my Windows 10 machines), because I use a passcode to unlock the backup file I cant just extract the single proprietory file using something like 7zip.

So because of this I wanted to find something different and something which isnt tied to one piece of software and what I found which is fab and gives me different options on what to do with the created backup file is BackUp Maker Pro.

 

I just wanted to point out that additional costs will be incurred!

Question: Does this item include free customer support?
Answer: Purchasing the full version includes 24 months of free technical product support.

Question: How long is the free update entitlement for this item?
Answer: You receive free updates for this item for 24 months.
After that, you can purchase an extension of the update entitlement at a discounted rate.

Source FAQ: www.ascomp.de/de/shop/show/group/8

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2025 at 11:41 AM

Sure but 24 months isnt too bad for what I got.

Also the backup it creates doesnt need the software to access the files within the backup, sure the software has a restore option which you import your created backup but should the software stop working, become end of life I can still access the data within the backup file so long as I dont encrypt the backup from within BackUp Maker Pro.

Anyone interested in this software currently for Black Friday they are doing "suggest your price" discount where you type what you want to pay for the software.

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2025 at 11:59 AM

A definite plus. It's good that they reiterate that encryption usually causes major problems.

A great tip for saving money.

I use this one: Backup Pro 27 = €25 one-time fee www.ashampoo.com/en-us/choose-license/2759?currency=usd

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM

I did try this one as part of my testing and did like it but wasnt to fussed on the GUI and you couldnt amend the encryption or compression on a job after you had created it, you had to create a brand new job.

 

I only ever do one full backup of my C:/ drive, about every three or six months. I used to use Norton Ghost and successfully restored my C:/ drive three times after virus attacks, Trojans, and a frozen boot screen.

With Acronis (the paid version), the backup process simply stopped without any warning. I threw the CD-ROM in the trash, and spent three weeks reinstalling and configuring Windows. After that, I bought Ashampoo because I like their products.

 

Last edited: Nov 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM