Paragon Backup & Recovery Free can take full system backups of your computer, which can later be restored. It’s completely free for personal use, and runs on all the latest editions of Windows.
Pros
- Free
- Easy to use
- Can back up entire hard disks
Cons
- No incremental type backups
- Can’t restore to different hardware
The Bottom Line
Paragon Backup & Recovery Free has a simple interface, with powerful full disk imaging features to back up your entire computer.
Backing Up
From the main screen, you can backup individual partitions or a complete hard drive with just a few clicks.
Click the Backup button, and you’ll be guided through the Backup Wizard. It will ask you which hard drive you want to back up, and where you want to store it. Users can also select to change the backup settings, or just leave them at the defaults.
Paragon’s backup wizard.
You can choose to save the backup to local/network drives, or burn it to CD, DVD, or Blu-ray.
If you want to run the backup job now, you can. Paragon Backup & Recovery Free also lets you schedule it on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
The software will automatically skip certain system files, such as your hibernation file. This ensures only your important data gets backed up.
Restoring
Since Paragon Backup & Recovery Free creates a “full disk image” of your hard drive, you need to boot into recovery media to restore your system. You can create recovery media on a blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive. The software does a pretty good job of guiding the user through this process.
Once you’ve booted into it, you can restore your computer, transfer files, and configure your network access (for backups stored on network drives).
Booted into the Paragon recovery environment.
Paragon Backup & Recovery Free successfully restored my computer in just over an hour.
Recovery complete.
Features
Transfer Files
This can extract files from your backup images. It can also copy data on your computer from one place to another.
Backup Capsule
This is a secure partition where your backup is stored. It’s safe from most viruses and other malware, because the only thing that can access it is the Paragon software.
Advanced Mode
By activating the Advanced Interface, users can gain access to differential backups, a tool to check archive integrity, scheduled tasks, and scripts.
Support
There’s a user manual available on the Paragon website.
For technical support, Paragon gives priority to paid users. For Paragon Backup & Recovery Free, their website states the time to get a response could be anywhere from 7-28 days.
| Specifications | |
| Product Name | Paragon Backup & Recovery Free |
| Version | 10.1.19.16240 |
| License | Freeware |
| Price | Free |
| Operating Systems | Window |
| Backup Types | |
| Files and Folders | |
| Full Disk Image | |
| Incremental | |
| Differential | |
| Backup Destinations | |
| Hard Drive | |
| Removable Media | |
| Network Shares | |
| Blu-ray | |
| CD/DVD | |
| FTP | |
| SFTP | |
| Online Storage | |
| Features | |
| Compression | |
| Encryption | |
| Email Notifications | |
| Error Handling | |
| File Versioning | |
| Priority Setting | |
| Scheduling | |
| Speed Limiting | |
| Synchronization | |
Geoff Akerlund
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