Paragon Backup & Recovery 17 Free

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Free and easy-to-use file fill-in
Full/incremental/differential backup rotation schemes
Backs up to virtual hard drives, including Microsoft VHD/VHDx

Cons

No bulldoze or partition imaging
Disaster recovery was unreliable

Our Verdict

Paragon's Backup & Recovery Community Edition is gratis and offers all the backup options most users demand. It too leverages widely supported ZIP compression and Microsoft VHDs every bit container files to facilitate universal browse and restore operations.

Paragon's Backup & Recovery 17 Customs Edition (CE) is the costless version (and teaser) of the company's masterful, simply somewhat misleadingly monikered Hard disk Manager software. (The latter is, of grade, a hard drive manager with the imaging capabilities CE lacks, but the proper name doesn't actually hint at its biggy fill-in capabilities.)

But while Backup & Recovery CE is free, it'south also extremely capable at file-level backup. It leverages common Naught compression (optional) and Microsoft virtual hard disks (optional) for storage so you lot don't necessarily need the plan to browse and restore your data.

Fifty-fifty meliorate, as far as I could tell, you're nagged to spend money only if you click on a feature that's exclusive to Hard Deejay Manager. And to be honest, it's more of a hint than a nag. Nicely low-central, Paragon. At present if only the disaster recovery had worked as advertised.

This review is office of our ongoing roundup of the best fill-in software. Go there for information on competing products and how nosotros tested them.

Paragon Fill-in & Recovery CE: Features and design

Backup & Recovery CE features i of my favorite interfaces. When yous're creating a backup chore, it steps you nicely through the process. That's hardly unique; still, one time y'all're through creating a backup, there are links to various settings in the fill-in summary shown the principal page. Sweet.

That said, while I described Backup & Recovery CE as easy, information technology doesn't hold your hand through the file selection process. It's either back up your entire computer (all internal drives), or select files manually. In other words, there's no automated pick of music, video, concern files, etc. as with other programs such as Genie Timeline 10 Home.

Later on yous've defined your backup, a handy summary with quick links to settings is displayed.

While the imaging and whole drive/partitions functions that are present in Hard disk drive Managing director are disabled, all the options the boilerplate user will need for file backups are active: compression, mail service-backup notification and verification, logging, fill-in retention policies (days, # of backups, out of room), likewise every bit full, incremental (all data since final backup), and differential (all data since last full backup) backups. You may too dorsum up to network locations, which is not always a given in the costless fill-in-software realm.

Uniquely, you can also set combinations of full and incremental/differential backups. This mimics the standard Information technology strategy of periodic full backups equally well as smaller incremental and differential backups. Ordinarily, one total backup a week with incremental or differential backups the other vi days.

The logic stems from full backups restoring faster, with incremental (really fast) and differential (fast) backups saving time during the backup phase, which occurs far more ofttimes than restoration (hopefully!), where they slow the procedure.

While Backup & Recovery CE doesn't do raw file backup (simply copying files to a new location), you can back up to a non-proprietary container format. In this example, the VHD/VHDX virtual hard drives that you lot tin can mount using Windows and a host of virtual machine programs running on only about whatsoever operating system. This assures that y'all'll exist able to restore your data far into the future—even if Backup & Recovery no longer exists.

Info about your drives is all you see. All imaging options are bachelor only in Paragon'south Hard Drive Director software.

Paragon also offers its own proprietary PVHD format, which adds features such every bit fill-in splitting, countersign protection, and the previously mentioned compression. Of course, you'll then need a Paragon plan for restore operations. Which format y'all choose, all boils down to whether you want efficiency/security or fool-proof compatibility. Your choice, or use both. (VMWare virtual hard disks are supported equally well, for fans/users of that format.)

Backup & Recovery CE uses the Windows Scheduler to run backups. I heartily approve. Many programs install their own scheduler, which to me just means another unnecessary program running in the background sucking up CPU cycles. Yep, nosotros accept processing power to spare these days, only using less of it is more. The minimum interval is daily, simply yous can as well back up each time yous log on or run the computer.

Paragon also provides a recovery disk, though y'all'll need to surf to Microsoft's site to download the Windows ADK and its Win PE improver to create the boot disk. Information technology's hardly rocket science, but information technology's non dead-easy for newcomers. The recovery disc booted fine (dissimilar with Genie Timeline 10 Home) but not everything proved hunky-dory. Read on.

Paragon Backup & Recovery CE: Performance

I had no complaints about the functioning of Backup & Recovery CE for plain file backup or restore. It was quick and didn't slow downward the host appreciably. I did not, however, appreciate information technology letting me really close the program while a fill-in was in progress without so much as a peep.

Oddly, you can shut the programme while a backup is in progress. The backup will continue, but there's no clue to that until you launch the program again.

Happily, the fill-in didn't stop, and the process was visible in Task Manager. Simply there was no warning, no minimized program window, and no arrangement tray icon to evidence that the procedure was nevertheless agile. Tech support labeled this a bug. Lesser line, the backup completed, and that's the important matter, so I'yard not sweating information technology.

What I am sweating is the failure of the disaster recovery restore. The recovery disc, which uses the same GUI and the aforementioned Windows PE, booted fine, and the restore process proceeded rapidly for the first couple of partitions, but so seemingly had issues creating the actual Windows partition, noting some sort of Windows error.

I'grand peculiarly harsh on backup software because it'due south mission critical. Nearly users never apply disaster recovery until they really demand it. That's a hell of a time to find out it doesn't work.

The data is still contained in the backup, and easily attainable by other means, just if yous feel a similar glitch, you'll take to reinstall Windows before recovering your data. It also ways reinstalling programs.

Last thoughts

Paragon Backup & Recovery Community Edition is complimentary, works exceptionally well for file fill-in, and supports a standard, widely implemented container format. It'south also non continually bugging you lot to upgrade. Had the disaster recovery functioned properly, the program would've have garnered an editor's choice.

Equally it stands, notwithstanding, I'thousand forced (happily) to recommend our actual Editor'south Choice, R-Drive Image, as the best choice for disaster recovery. It'south fast and extremely reliable, though non gratis. If you're interested only in file fill-in and intend to reinstall Windows in case of organisation failure (I quite often make this option), the Backup & Recovery Community Edition is a groovy choice.

Best Prices Today: Paragon Backup & Recovery Community Edition