E-Volution IT

Having a backup of your important files can be essential should your computer fail and result in data loss. Backups that take a long time or are difficult to perform can lead to them them not being done as often as one should.
There are various backup solutions I recommend to my IT clients. The most common advice I give these days is to use a USB 2.0 Key Stick or a USB 2.0 portable external hard-drive. With 2GB capacity USB Sticks now at relatively low prices, and 4GB not far behind them this is, for many small business owners and home users, a viable backup option when your data does not exceed this limit. I’ve found that for most small business that simply use a computer as a work tool for Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Emails, attachments, PDF files, etc., seldom is 4GB exceeded when it comes to their data.

To those clients that do have larger amounts of data I recommend getting a small external hard-disk. Capacities in excess of 400GB can be achieved at a relatively low cost. The advantage of these two options is speed and convenience.

Saying goodbye to tapes: Tapes have always been the traditional back-up method for many years now. I’ve always found them slow, tedious, an cumbersome. The advantage that tapes always had was their high capacity and relatively low price for the capacity achieved. This advantage is not really an issue any more because you can pick up a high capacity external hard-drive for less than the cost of a tape backup system.
Other options: CD-R and DVD-R have become a common alternative to tapes in recent years, but these two are relatively slow and require the management of media.
Once you have the appropriate hardware (an external hard-drive or a USB Memory Stick), the next step is finding an application that will handle your backups for you. There are a number I recommend to clients, some of which are free. These are listed below. This list will expand and evolve over time.

SyncBack

2BrightSparks | SyncBack Freeware

SyncBack is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive.

RDComp EzBack-it-up - Freeware

EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.

Features:

• Fast. Compares over 3500 files in less than 3 seconds! (1.2 GHz Athlon under XP)
• Efficient. Incremental style backup - only backs up files if they were created or modified since the previous backup.
• Full logging. Detailed logs provide you with peace of mind about your data’s safety.
• Scheduler. Built-in scheduler allows for scheduled backups. Command-line switches give additional flexibility.
• Free. No nags, no registration, just free.
• All Windows platforms. 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP
  Note: Windows 95/NT4 requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

Cobian Backup - Freeware

Cobian Backup

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).

Many other options

This website lists many other free backup applications that would be worth taking a look at if the above mentioned does not suit your needs.  The link is: http://www.hsinlin.com/software/backup.html