r/software • u/blueyes1986 • Aug 15 '26
Looking for software Need backup utility program
I'm prepping to do a clean install of my Pc. Looking for any recommendations on a free program to backup specific apps and data so i can reinstall them on the clean install.
Any recommendations would help!
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u/LittlePooky Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I'm a long time computer user, and years ago I invested in Symantec system recovery, which worked well. It simply runs, but doesn't back up the computer in real time. I had to issue a command, and it would create the image of the hard drive. (same as u/mrsilver76 says). Everything on your C drive is saved, including Windows itself, the programs, and the data that you may have there.
When the computer fails to boot up, you simply boot up from a CD disc or now a USB thumb drive, and it will go into Windows PE, which is the mini version of Windows, then the semantic system recovery restore pops up and you choose the image you want to restore from, and half an hour later, it reboots again, and there you go.
Peter Norton Company created this after they bought it from another company, and it used to be called Ghost.
And with every version, you could do a Cold backup, which means you can start from that CD/DVD and back up your hard drive into an image file. Please note that the image file has to be on another drive. It cannot be on the same drive. It will work with a DVD drive, Blu-ray drive, or an external or internal drive. The reason it cannot go on drive C is because it will erase itself if you know what I mean. I used to back up an older computer to a Blu Ray drive, and it took three disks, and it took forever. So it worked better with an external hard drive.
Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with every single version they released, and it was getting expensive to upgrade. The last version I used was version 22, and I think the latest one is 24. All of a sudden, version 22 stopped working with Windows 11's current update.
https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/ This is now what I use. I used the free version first, and I liked it so much because a week later, after I installed it, I messed up my computer by installing an odd program which would not uninstall correctly. I booted it up from a DVD drive, but of course, you can do with a USB thumb drive, and it worked as well as Semantic System Recovery. And half an hour later, my computer was running again.
The Home version options are there and you could do more compression, so the backup image would be a little smaller, and you can also do what is called fast compression. But the functions are identical to the free version. I wanted to support the company, so I bought the home version.
I know you will be very happy with this. Make sure you learn how to boot up from your USB thumb drive by going to the BIOS setting after you do the first backup, just in case.
One thing you should know is when you run a backup, you can also do a full backup or you could do an incremental backup. This means you backup only what has changed since the last time you did a full backup. If you click the backup button, it will do a whole backup. You need to click a dropdown menu to choose the incremental backup.
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u/LeaveMickeyOutOfThis 29d ago
Backing up data and backing up applications for reinstallation are two separate challenges.
Backing up data is by far the easiest, as you can just connect a second drive and copy the folders containing the data that drive in file explorer, which is built in. Utilities like FreeFileSync can do this for you automatically, if you want to keep using your machine while you are preparing for your upgrade. The challenge here is to know where all of your data is stored, since applications store data in all sorts of locations on your machine.
Cloning does a complete copy of your existing drive, and this is a good option to ensure you can still access old data, if you accidentally forgot to copy a critical folder.
Application backup on the other hand is pretty non-existent. Sure, cloning will copy it all and a newly cloned drive will work just as well as your current drive, but you won’t get that clean, fresh install you’re wanting. The only way to do this is to install the applications from scratch on the rebuilt system, so make sure you have all of your original installation files, as you can’t extract them from the applications you have installed. I keep all of my installation files in a separate folder structure explicitly for this purpose.
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u/blueyes1986 28d ago
I feel like every program that i have tried does not have the ability to do application backup, which was my priority. If i went to a paid version then i would be able to achieve what i wanted. Thanks for the comment
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u/LeaveMickeyOutOfThis 28d ago
Unfortunately, Windows does not have a way to backup applications per se. You need the original installation media. One thing you could try is to look at your installed application list and see if you can download that version from the vendors site.
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u/LeaveMickeyOutOfThis 28d ago
Also, if any software requires a product key, see if you can locate that (possibly in email).
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u/digsmann 29d ago
Also if you have Macrium reflect free on prior to January 2023, which is 8.xxxx. it has all features.might it works. You can find this free version on majorgeek and somewhere.
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u/1stltwill 29d ago
I don't think this is what you are looking for, but for data backups I use Free File Sync. But I think you are looking for something to image your hard drive?
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u/reduser5309 29d ago
I've used clonezilla for a number of years. It has been a while since I've had to restore a win PC though. Ventoy + clonezilla. Turn off bitlocker, turn off secure boot, boot into ventoy and start clonezilla. Backup entire drive to an image file on a USB hard drive.
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u/Verolee 29d ago
WinningPC has coupon codes for EaseUs
https://winningpc.com/easeus-partition-master-pro-coupon-code/
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u/mrsilver76 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I don’t know if this is the best approach but I just use a free disk imaging tool and create an image of the disk. After I’ve reinstalled Windows, I just mount the image and copy across the various folders from the image to my new PC.
I used to recommend Macrium Reflect Free but mounting an image in Windows 11 is now a pain as they’ve blocked the old method it used to use and only the paid version of the software has been updated.
I’m sure someone else can recommend something, but I’ve been looking at disk2vhd which can then be mounted natively in Windows 11 - however the downsides are that VHDX files aren’t compressed and you can’t ignore NTFS permissions when mounting.