We then mount the images and test their integrity via the programs restore functions.

Best Online Data Backup Free Online Backup

A host of companies would love to give you free online backup or free backup softwareand perhaps surprisingly, nearly all of them are quite competent.

Of course these companies arent really in it for the satisfaction of knowing your data is safe.

Their free versions usually only provide enough storage for essential data, or are lacking some advance features that pros would employ.

They hope youll love the program or service so much, or find it so useful that youll eventually fork over some cash for additional storage or those advance features.

But wait, you say: I have free online storage through Apples iCloud or Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.

The issue with all those services is that theyre not necessarily true backup, but syncing.

That is, when you delete a file from any device or online, its deleted from every device.

Lord help you if you make a mistake and dont realize it in time.

True backup means retaining data indefinitely no matter whats happening with the data elsewhere.

Read on for our top picks in free online backup and free backup software, and of course the reasons we picked them.

You can get the skinny on paid backup software and online backup services by clicking those links.

Online, local, sync, snapshots, shipping hard drives to you for quicker recovery.

Not the cheapest service, but easily the most comprehensive.

The free basic plan with 5GB of storage retains the features of the pay plans.

Mozy is the only close competitor weve reviewed so far, and worth an honorable mention.

The iDrive service comes with backup clients for nearly every PC and device, including Windows Phonea rarity these days.

The company provides additional storage for syncing all your devices and PCs, allows sharing of files with anyone, and has the ability to back up to a local drive.

Still, with real-time syncing and all the features most users need, it came darn close.

Sure, its bitmapped interface may be retro, but the layout and workflow are intuitive.

Best Online Data Backup Full Disks And

And though its on the slower side for backing up sets of files, its the fastest software weve tested so far for backing up full disks and partitions.

At the bottom of this article youll find links to our reviews of all the mentioned services and software.

How we test free backup software and services Backup software: We run each program through the various types of backups its capable of.

This is largely to test reliability and hardware compatibility, but we time two: an approximately 115GB system image (two partitions), and a roughly 50GB image created from a set of smaller files and folders.

Best Online Data Backup For Mac