3 Great Free Backup Programs You NEED to check out!

The holidays are coming and if you read my previous post about "When a backup isn't a backup!" you know that many people (yes, you too) don't back up their precious family photos, documents, and other files very often (or correctly).  In fact, I heard yet another story today from a colleague of a person who lost a whole lotta' stuff due to hard drive failure and NO backup.  You simply can't trust machinery.  Computers break down.  Components fail.  Often without any warning whatsoever.  You usually can't avoid disaster, but you can prevent the lasting effects.  If your computer dies and you lose very little if any data due to having good backups, then all you've lost is a computer.  Computers are a easily replaceable, files and memories are not.  So...let's take a look at 3 programs that can help you keep your life's work and memories intact.

Cobian Backup

Right now, honestly, as I write this post I am using Cobian Backup 9 to backup all my photos to an external USB hard drive.  Cobian was a cinch to set up and get started with.  Simply install it, create a backup task and you're off!  You can also create some pretty complex backup tasks complete with file exclusions and pre and post scripts (useful to turn off and start services prior to and after a backup job).  You can install Cobian as a service, an autostart for certain users or all users, or to be launched manually.  You can get started quickly with Cobian Backup and get started with backing up your files.  Check out Cobian Backup here!

Comodo Backup

Like Cobian Backup, Comodo Backup is also very simple and easy to use.  Simply install it, create a backup job, and voila!  You're off and running!  Comodo features an extensive set of tools, but not to the extent that Cobian does.  However, for the most part I feel that Comodo is an excellent choice for the average computer user...particularly home users.  It's simple and effective.  If you're looking for a great backup program that can help you get your files under control and keep those backups on a schedule, then Comodo is definitely worth a look.  Now, despite everything I've said here, the Comodo site sums it up perfectly...

Comodo BackUp is suitable for both beginners and experienced users alike and is completely free of charge. Features of free Backup Software include complete file and folder duplication to local / network drives, FTP servers and CD/DVD re-writers; intelligent incremental backups; e-mail reporting; extensive report logs; real time back ups with 'synchronization' mode; advanced rule-based filtering; flexible scheduling of backups; space-saving archiving capabilities and more.

Find out all the cool things about Comodo Backup here!

Bonkey

Silly name and silly mascot, but Bonkey is an excellent backup program for both Macs and Windows.  Bonkey has a lot of great features. It supports email, FTP, and Amazon S3, compression, encryption, scheduling, and synchronization. It'll even back up MS SQL server databases.  Bonkey makes it easy to backup easily to FTP, Windows shares, an Amazon S3 account, and even a MySQL database!  If you're looking for an alternative to the backup program that requires you to buy a MobileMe account for your Mac or you're looking for a good Windows backup solution with good network backup features then check out Bonkey!
Learn more about Bonkey here!

Share your backup stories and solutions in the comments!