Back up everything you own with free set-and-forget utilities

(Credit: Amic Tools)

Data disaster can strike anywhere, anytime. If you're not making regular backups, you're asking for trouble. Trust me. In that spirit of doom and gloom, I've rounded up five free backup utilities for preserving different types of data. All of them are "set-and-forget" programs, meaning once you've installed and configured them, they'll do their thing in the background. Doesn't get much easier than that.

• Amic Email Backup This highly automated tool backs up most popular e-mail clients at scheduled times and can restore the library to another computer (great if you have to move to a new machine following some disaster).
• Comodo Backup This full-featured utility lets you archive specified files and folders to any number of destinations: external and network drives, blank discs, an FTP server, and so on.
• MozyHome One of my favorites, MozyHome offers 2GB of free online storage and a simple utility for choosing what to back up. Unlimited storage costs a reasonable $4.95 monthly. The service is available for both Windows and Mac systems.
• PIM Backup Windows Mobile device users get a backup every time they sync, but this utility adds phone logs, text messages, and other data to the mix.
• Yahoo Autosync An oldie but goodie, Autosync (formerly Intellisync) synchronizes your contacts, calendar, and other data to the Web. That not only gives you a backup in case of disaster, but also makes your info available from any PC.

Did I leave out your favorite backup utility? If so, hit the Comments and share your fab freebie with the world. In the meantime, get "backing." No more excuses!

[geolemon]

I use Mozy and love it. Navigating and restoring files is so easy, and you get to pick any instance of the file that was backed up, historically going back in time - you don't just have the option of "the last backup". It's very very impressive, and that feature right there has saved my @$$, realizing that *I* had made an otherwise irrecoverable error in a document over a week earlier. It's a backup system that covers you for more possibilities than just hard drive failure, because of that.

[vu3pji]

hi
i formeted my hard disk and lost my important data and i want that back now.
pls help me
thanks in advance

[Tergon]

There are a number of programs that'll let you get your data back. You'll want to mount the hard drive in another computer (you can even get a fairly inexpensive harddrive to usb adaptor). The programs will cost you between 50 and 500 dollars (US) While I'm not suggesting this exact program (that would be an uncouth thing to do) I did successfully retrieve my data using software from Runtime Software. The longer you wait or the more you rewrite to your harddrive the HARDER it's going to be to retrieve formatted data. The software company I mentioned allows you to see what data you can retrieve before you buy the program. Which is why I used it. NOTE I do not work for this company and I am not Advertising and I really shouldn't have replied at all but I can't help but help.

[digid]

Time machine from apple is the best I have seen yet! Get a life, get a mac!

[l0phat]

I tried Mozy. Great program and works like a charm, but it has one progblem. For those users that have a NAS box at home (I have an Infrant) it doesn't support backing up from network shares. For this you have to purchase the Pro/Business level which is significantly more expensive. iDrive allows this for the same cost of the Mozy home level. Remember "ALWAYS BACKUP"

[diverbuoy]

SyncToy from Microsoft is the single best all around FREE backup tool available. Currently in Beta 2.0 form. I have been using this tool in one version or another for many years now. It is set and forget, ultra simple to use (animated with icons). It supports all the most popular backup approaches echo, contribute, replace, delta etc I highly recommend it.

[loose_screw]

Gotta love those "get a mac" responses. I love Apple products, but let's get real, not everyone is going to switch to a mac. Telling people to get a mac is like recommending that they stop using computers.

[loose_screw]

SyncToy is not bad, also there is Toucan from portableapps.com, which can be put on a USB drive and ran from there.

[Shill Sycophant]

It is not the backup software that gets you. It is the restore software. My desktop with a 250gb hard drive crashed. So I bought a 160gb laptop temporarily. I put a 500gb hard drive into the desktop. I had an external 250gb hard drive for the desktop, which I had not backed up since 2007. But no matter what I try I can not get the files from the external hard drive to download back onto the desktop nor the laptop (even though I know they are there). I was able to resurrect some photos and music from the 250gb to the 500gb. I am trying to retrieve my stored emails. The hours go by. PC hell.

[mhinnewyork]

For another opinion on Mozy from a CNET blogger see:
Everybody likes Mozy--except me Part 1
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9752330-33.html

[mhinnewyork]

The Amic program website says: "Amic Email Backup works with the top 9 popular Email Clients such as MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, IncrediMail and PocoMail." They list 6 of the 9. Why are the other three programs not mentioned? Netscape Messenger was my email program for years but it hasn't been maintained in ages so I had to walk away from it. Where is Thunderbird? Eudora has undergone a huge architectural change and they don't say which version they support. In fact, they don't say which versions of any of programs are supported. I haven't used the program, but all this doesn't inspire confidence, and backup programs especially, require confidence in the vendor.

There is a portable version of Thunderbird. If you use any portable application, you don't need a backup program, just Windows explorer. For a portable email program, simply copying the folder where it resides copies your mail, configuration settings, the application itself, etc. etc. etc. Easy and simple -- and when it comes to making backups, easy and simple are very important.

Michael Horowitz

[mementh]

mozy is good.. and i am trying out the comodo backup..
Its ALWAYS good to have multiple backup options..