Given the fact I was working from a clean slate, I thought I would try a new back up program. Don’t get me wrong, Easeus To-Do Backup did exactly what I needed it to do. I just like to see what else will work. Enter Paragon Backup and Recovery.
Backing Up Options
Differential Backup
What caught my eye was the differential back up. If you aren’t sure what this is, the easiest explanation is it backs up only the files that have changed. This is a must to schedule every couple days or every week. That way you will have minimal loss of information if something happens.
Full Backup
This is what you expect it to be. It makes a backup of the whole drive or area you ask it to. This is great for the initial back up and the occasional full back up. If you choose to, you can have it make an exact copy of your hard drive or partition, OS and all.
Add to Archive
The add to archive feature is pretty neat. It allows you to add a file to a backup archive even though it wasn’t part of your back up.
Cyclic Backup
The cyclic backup feature allows you to have a revolving back up. There are two settings, basic and differential. The basic backup will make multiple base images, where the differential backup will make one base image and the other(s) will save any compared to the info in the base image.
Restore
Restoring has equally as many options as backing up does. Having a multitude of ways to restore is helpful for those times you may not need a full restore.
Bootable Disc or Drive
Making a bootable drive feature built in is super handy. With a lot of the computers coming sans optical drive, having a USB drive with your OS on it is a huge timesaver if the need ever arises. I made a test backup in a couple minutes and was easier than the one I recently used.
Partial Restore
Being able to restore only a portion of your saved file is a feature you don’t think you will need until you accidently delete an important folder or have a corrupt file. You don’t need to replace everything, just the part that’s messed up.
Full Restore
A full restore would be used when disaster strikes and you need to revert back to a point where everything was working. It is good practice to have a full backup at least monthly if not more frequently.
Partitions
Paragon gives you the ability to create, hide, format and delete partitions. In many cases you would need an extra piece of software to do this.
Personally, I am impress with Paragon Backup software as it comes with plenty of useful features not found in other software. The basic version is free and should suffice for general usage, but if you are looking for more sophisticated features like copying the whole partitions/HDD, disk wipe etc, there is a premium version that you can purchase ($69.95) What is your go-to free backup tool?
