free disk partition software for windows 10

FTP can be used for offsite, while SMB (Windows and most OS’s) and AFP (Apple) are good for other PCs or NAS on your local network. Backup to Dropbox and the like is a nice feature to have.įTP and SMB/AFP: Backing up to other computers or NAS boxes on your network or in remote locations (say, your parent’s house) is another way of physically safeguarding your data with an offsite, or at least physically discrete copy. Online storage services are a great way to maintain an offsite copy of your data. Online support: An offsite copy of your data is a hedge against physical disasters such as flood, fire, and power surges. Imaging is the most convenient to restore in case of a system crash, and also ensures you don’t miss anything important. Image backup/imaging: Images are byte-for-byte snapshots of your entire hard drive (normally without the empty sectors) or partition, and can be used to restore both the operating system and data. Some programs automatically select the appropriate files if you use the Windows library folders (Documents, Photos, Videos, etc.). Seagate, WD, and others provide backup utilities that are adequate for the average user.įile backup: If you want to back up only your data (operating systems and programs can be reinstalled, though it’s mildly time- and effort-consuming), a program that backs up just the files you select is a major time-saver.

Additionally, if you intend to back up to a newly purchased external hard drive, check out the software that ships with it. Features you don’t need add complexity and may slow down your system. How to pick a backup softwareĪs with most things-don’t over-buy. We also test the USB boot drives created by the programs.

We then mount the images and test their integrity via the program’s restore functions. This is largely to test reliability and hardware compatibility, but we time two: an approximately 115GB system image (two partitions), and a roughly 50GB image created from a set of smaller files and folders. We run each program through the various types of backups it’s capable of.

Free disk partition software for windows 10