Uranium Backup Review

Uranium Backup is freeware, but it also had a paid version.  The free version is “feature limited” meaning some features won’t work – for those you have to pay for the full version.  I prefer my free backup software to not have any restrictions, so I can’t really recommend this.

This review covers the free version, although I mention the paid version where appropriate.

Uranium Backup logo

Editor's Rating:
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
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User Rating:
Rating: 3.4/5 (9 votes cast)

Pros

  • Free version backs up files and folders
  • Paid version can do tape backups, MySQL backups, and others

Cons

  • Free version has most features removed
  • No built-in restore feature for file/folder backups

The Bottom Line

Although the full version is quite powerful, the free version of Uranium Backup is severely limited.

Backing Up

The first thing I noticed when using Uranium Backup is that most of the features have been removed in the free version.  You can’t add a drive image backup, backup to tape, and other advanced tasks.

Clicking “Create new Backup” will create a new backup set, which you can then add items to.

The items you can add are:

  • Add files/folders to the backup set
  • Add a destination folder

That’s about it.  All the other features are only available to the full version.

Uranium Backup main screen

The Uranium Backup main screen. Unfortunately most of this stuff doesn’t work in the free version.

Uranium Backup schedule backup

Scheduling a backup.

After defining a backup set, Uranium Backup quickly backed up my files to an external hard drive.

Restoring

There is no built-in restore feature for backups on an external hard drive – you have to manually copy files.

Oddly, Uranium Backup can restore from tape, optical media, and a zip file.

What I Liked

Although I don’t need them, Uranium Backup has a lot of features for business users: SQL backups, drive images, virtual machine backups, etc.

What I Didn’t Like

The free version of Uranium Backup can’t backup open/locked files, so you’ll want to keep these excluded from your backup set (or set the option to ignore them).

I also didn’t like how complex the software was.  It was hard to sort out the difference between the functional freeware options and the non-functional “paid” options.  I found myself diving into menus that don’t even work.

Why Uranium Backup chooses to name folders based off the MD5 hash is beyond me; a much easier solution is to use the date and time (like all other backup software).  How am I supposed to know what backup I’m looking at?  Luckily this can be changed.

Summary

With an emphasis on tape backups, Uranium Backup is clearly not for the average home user.  The free version is too complex for home users yet lacking features needed for business use, which makes it practically useless.

Upgrading to the full version is the only choice then, assuming you need tape backups.

Specifications
Product Name Uranium Backup
Version 8.7.3
License Freeware
Price Free
Operating Systems Window
Backup Types
Files and Folders yes
Full Disk Image no
Incremental yes
Differential no
Backup Destinations
Hard Drive yes
Removable Media yes
Network Shares yes
Blu-ray no
CD/DVD no
FTP no
SFTP no
Online Storage no
Features
Compression yes
Encryption yes
Email Notifications yes
Error Handling yes
File Versioning yes
Priority Setting yes
Scheduling yes
Speed Limiting no
Synchronization yes

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