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Best backup software for Windows - GFI Backup
Straight to the subject : you're here because you want to know which is the best software to backup your files. You're on the right page as we are going to talk about a free backup software that comes with a lot of features. His name is GFI Backup and it's probably the best backup software for Windows, surpassing other commercial programs. I am going to show you how to install GFI Backup, how to perform a small backup of my pictures folder and also how to restore the files. Keep in mind that this is only a simple example so that you can familiarize with this software before doing a backup of your files on your own computer. Let's get started, first you will need to download GFI Backup and then to open the setup file. The first window that we will see is this one, to continue click on the "Next" button :
The second window is the "Licence Agreement" window so make sure to read the licence agreement and then check the option "I accept the terms of the licence agreement" and click on the "Next" button.
Setup will install GFI Backup on the default folder and this is "C:\Program Files\GFI\*" You noticed that I entered the "*" symbol since at the time that I was writing this article, this was 2009 version so it may look different to you. If you want to change this location choose "Browse", otherwise please click on the "Next" button and you should wait a couple of seconds until the program will install.
If the program was successfully installed you should see the following window which informs us that "GFI Backup" has been successfully installed. To continue press on the "Finish" button and leave the "Launch the program after installation" option checked.
The installation process has ended and since the program has been launched, you should now see the program interface running for the first time on your computer, splited in four sections : Backup, Restore, My tasks and Sync. Let's say that I want to backup some files from my computer using GFI Backup. In this case we need to choose the first option called "Backup".
Right now we're in the first tab called "General" and we need to complete several fields. So I want to backup "MyPictures" folder from My Documents. As you can see only the first and the second field needs to be completed while the other ones are optional. I would suggest you to complete the "Description of Task" box so that you can remember later what you backed-up. I am going to choose the "Next" button.
We are now at the second tab called "Source" and we need to select the "Files and Folders", in order to do this click on the first option called "Files/Folders".
You should see another window opening that will allow you to explore your computer and it will let you to select the files or folders that you want to backup. As you may notice I selected "My Pictures" folder. Now we need to press the "OK" button.
Right under the "Files & Folders" we should see the drive that contains the selection of our files. Click on the "Next" button to continue.
We're in the third tab called "Destination" and this is an important step. As you can see in this image, by default the program will create a folder for your backup archive on the C: drive of your computer. On our example I won't change it but I want you to understand that you have several options for the destination of your backup. As you can see you can choose to save it on the local folder located on your hard-drive to "C:" or you can choose an external hard drive. It allows you to save the backup on your LAN folder, a removable disk device such as an USB stick, a CD/DVD or even to a remote location using FTP. As I said I will leave it as it is, I am not going to change something here so feel free to use the feature that you think it suits your needs. I am going to choose "Next" to move on.
Here at the fourth tab called "Options" you have several options which can be quite useful for many of you. You can choose to use Zip compression and Zip password protection and even the AES encryption. I am not going to change them so I will move on, "Next".
Here it is, another useful and excellent feature, we are now at the "Scheduler" tab and as you can see the program asks about the type of our backup. In most cases you will probably use the first option called "Run Manually" but it's a high chance to use the backup on Windows startup, on Windows shutdown or on a specified amount of time. As I said I will use the first option called "Run Manually" and move on - so press one more time the "Next" button.
Finally we are now at the latest tab called "Events" and here they are a lot of options that can lead to notifications or actions after the backup task's execution. I will leave everything as it is and I won't change them. Finally I will press the "Finish" button.
After pressing the "Finish" button you will see a small window called "Confirm" that will ask you one more time for your confirmation : "Would you like to run the Backup Task now ?". If you will press the "Yes" option, the backup process will start.
Now you should see the program while he creates the backup. At a first look it seems that nothing happened but once that the "Progress/Status" will be at 100 % you will receive a confirmation window. Please be patient, depending on your computer speed and the size of your backup it may take from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes.
Here it is the confirmation of your backup. If everything was in order you will see the notification window with the message "Backup Task Finished Successfully". Press "OK" to close this window.
We are not creating backups just to backup something right ? Sooner or later we will need to restore those backups so here is the restore operation. To restore something, open GFI Backup and choose the "Restore" operation.
There is a small window that asks about the restore type and we have two options here :
- restore an entire backup
- restore individual files or folders
In most cases you will probably use the first option or at least in this example I am going to use the first example. Press the "OK" button.
The restore window will show us the the date of our backup and several informations regarding the backup name, archive file/folder name, backup location and the description. If you're going to choose the "Restore" button it will restore the files on the original location. However if you need to specify the location manually you can choose the "Restore To..." button and it will allow you to choose a different location. In this example I am going to use the first option "Restore".
Since it was an example, it's normal to see this window which will notify me about the destination file. As you can see I am going to choose "Yes to All". You're probably why I choosed to overwrite those files when I could delete the content of that folder avoiding this confirmation window. I wanted so that I can show you why this is the best software for backup your files. The files are the same, the data was not modified and that means that you can trust this application even if it's free. There are several programs that will block your computer when attempting to overwrite files that already exists. I know that those are crap software but I wanted to show you that this is not the case here and it's safe to use.
After the files that exists on that folder were replaced with the ones from backup, again we should see a notification messaged that says "Restore Task Finished Successfully".
A lot of products coming from GFI but this is definetely the most useful for the regular home user and probably that's why it's called GFI Backup Home Edition and also the reason why we choosed this program. It's not because it's free and the best backup software available for Windows users, it's because this is a huge contribution for all of us that are looking for a solution to backup their files. It's easy, free and deserves a place on your computer's hard drive.