Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Review

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free can take full system backups of your computer, which can later be restored.  It’s completely free for personal use, and runs on all the latest editions of Windows.

The Paragon main screen.

Editor's Rating:
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate It Now
User Rating:
Rating: 2.0/5 (3 votes cast)

Pros

  • Free
  • Easy to use
  • Can back up entire hard disks

Cons

  • No incremental type backups
  • Can’t restore to different hardware

The Bottom Line

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free has a simple interface, with powerful full disk imaging features to back up your entire computer.

Backing Up

From the main screen, you can backup individual partitions or a complete hard drive with just a few clicks.

Click the Backup button, and you’ll be guided through the Backup Wizard.  It will ask you which hard drive you want to back up, and where you want to store it.  Users can also select to change the backup settings, or just leave them at the defaults.

Paragon's backup wizard

Paragon’s backup wizard.

You can choose to save the backup to local/network drives, or burn it to CD, DVD, or Blu-ray.

If you want to run the backup job now, you can.  Paragon Backup & Recovery Free also lets you schedule it on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The software will automatically skip certain system files, such as your hibernation file.  This ensures only your important data gets backed up.

Restoring

Since Paragon Backup & Recovery Free creates a “full disk image” of your hard drive, you need to boot into recovery media to restore your system.  You can create recovery media on a blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive.  The software does a pretty good job of guiding the user through this process.

Once you’ve booted into it, you can restore your computer, transfer files, and configure your network access (for backups stored on network drives).

The Paragon recovery environment

Booted into the Paragon recovery environment.

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free successfully restored my computer in just over an hour.

Recovery complete.

Recovery complete.

Features

Transfer Files

This can extract files from your backup images.  It can also copy data on your computer from one place to another.

Backup Capsule

This is a secure partition where your backup is stored.  It’s safe from most viruses and other malware, because the only thing that can access it is the Paragon software.

Advanced Mode

By activating the Advanced Interface, users can gain access to differential backups, a tool to check archive integrity, scheduled tasks, and scripts.

Support

There’s a user manual available on the Paragon website.

For technical support, Paragon gives priority to paid users.  For Paragon Backup & Recovery Free, their website states the time to get a response could be anywhere from 7-28 days.

Specifications
Product Name Paragon Backup & Recovery Free
Version 10.1.19.16240
License Freeware
Price Free
Operating Systems Window
Backup Types
Files and Folders no
Full Disk Image yes
Incremental no
Differential yes
Backup Destinations
Hard Drive yes
Removable Media yes
Network Shares yes
Blu-ray yes
CD/DVD yes
FTP no
SFTP no
Online Storage no
Features
Compression yes
Encryption yes
Email Notifications no
Error Handling yes
File Versioning yes
Priority Setting no
Scheduling yes
Speed Limiting no
Synchronization no

Geoff Akerlund

Geoff Akerlund

Geoff Akerlund is the founder and editor-in-chief of BackupReview.com. He enjoys attending music festivals, whitewater kayaking on the American River, and board game nights in his free time.

Geoff Akerlund