back up software alternatives to use with my external hdd....options??

so i am sick, tired & frustrated with the wd smartware that i use & came with my western digital hard drive. What software is everyone else out there using?? And what suggestions do you guys have for either preferibly free software or even to buy, i will pay to have to best & easiest to use back up software, but if there is a fantastic free one out there, that be great too. Thanks to all in advance

I personally use SyncbackPro but it's not free.

A good free (and simple to use) piece of software is Microsoft's 'SyncToy'

I use Acronis for all my backups.

Which OS? SuperDuper on OSX is what I use.

GJim wrote in post #11563126
I use Acronis for all my backups.

Ditto. Acronis True Image. Wouldn't use anything else.

I use SECOND COPY, and I LOVE it!!! It looks what change and simply makes a second copy of what I have. It only copies the new things or the changed things. If I delete something, I also have it set to archive it on the backup (like a recycle bin).

Acronis to image my C:\ drive. SyncToy for my images/libraries/catal​ogs. The latter is free and works well. I see no reason to use anything else.

Anke wrote in post #11563133
Which OS? SuperDuper on OSX is what I use.

My Hackintosh Quads both use SuperDuper on an internal duplicate drive and with Time Machine to a USB drive on my network. My two windows machines back themselves up with Norton Ghost.

I was unhappy with Acronis - I think if I recall, it had difficulty backing up to network drives. And support was severely lacking promising fixes then charging for the bug fixes as upgrades. I ran away.

Settled on Shadow Protect Desktop. Expensive at $80-90, and not easy to setup. But once configured, runs amazingly well and in the background and does everything including bare metal restore. Worth a look. And very decent support online that has solved any issue I have had in a day or so.

~Bob

i am running windows 7, 64 bit

I'm also running Win 7 64 bit. I use AISBackup, I've been using it for years. It's incredibly versatile, you set it to run how you want it to. I run it in such a way that only the new stuff gets backed up. It'll backup to internal drives, externals, CD/DVDs, network drives.

The support could well be the best in the world (no joke). Barry, the guy who wrote it originally and still writes the updates is the one who responds to your requests for support or new features. And he updates it frequently. Updates are free, the program costs (I think) $35. You download it free and use it for 30 days to see if you want to keep it.

I've used AISBackup many, many times to do partial restores (sometimes even just one file) and several times to restore my entire system after a crash. Used it on Win98, XP, and now 7, on 3 different computers. The documentation is out of this world! Tons of PDFs and videos to show you how to set up, backup, and restore.

Thanks everyone fro your input so far. Soooooo many choices to choose from......How can I ever decide?

Dustman wrote in post #11566049
Thanks everyone fro your input so far. Soooooo many choices to choose from......How can I ever decide?

Start with the free downloads and go from there. Use them all at first and see which ones you hate to go back to.

Macrium Reflect at www.macrium.com

I just downloaded Microsoft's SyncToy, and really love it so far, seems very simple to use, with lots of options, and has a link which explains every option in detail as to what it does.

How come I never heard of it before? It seems to me & a few buddies I spoke to, Microsoft does not seem to market this software in anyway, as per advertising. Also why would they not include such a function buildt into the Operating Systems when you buy them? Why make you search for it, and downlaod it from there website. Actually how can you search for it, if you don't even know it exsists.

Well thanks to everyone who posted, I appreciate it!!