Personal Backup is a free Windows program for backing up personal files and folders to local drives, removable storage, network shares or FTP servers. It organizes these copies as reusable tasks, with separate choices for which data to include, how to store it and when to run the backup. Its focus is file recovery; it is not intended to back up a complete Windows system.
Choosing what Personal Backup copies
A task can contain several source folders and their subfolders, or selected individual files. Personal Backup lets you exclude particular branches of a folder tree and narrow the contents by file type, name, age, size or attributes. Filename filters can also use regular expressions. A file preview shows what the filters select before the task runs, so a folder containing working documents and temporary files does not have to be copied indiscriminately.
The destination can preserve the original folder hierarchy, with separate directories identifying the source drives. Keeping those drive identifiers also allows the restore function to derive the original locations later. Tasks are saved as files and can be run individually or together from the control panel. An Explorer context-menu command can back up a selected folder using the settings from a chosen default task.
How backed-up files are stored
Personal Backup can leave each backed-up file as a direct copy, compress files individually using gzip or ZIP, or collect them into ZIP archives. Archives can cover the whole task or be divided by folders, and a size limit can split the output into smaller archive files. Date and time placeholders in destination paths and archive names allow separate backup sets to be kept without manually naming each run.
In the default Update mode for separate files, the program copies files that are new or have newer modification timestamps than their destination copies. Other comparison settings can include differing timestamps or file sizes. By contrast, a ZIP archive is created anew when its backup runs; it is not updated through the same timestamp comparison.
AES encryption can protect the saved contents. ZIP encryption uses a WinZip-compatible format, but the optional encryption of filenames changes how recovery works: Personal Backup’s restore tools are needed to recover the original names and directory structure. The password remains necessary to recover encrypted data.
Version retention and synchronization
Updating a backup does not have to discard the preceding copy of a changed file. The security-copy options can rename older destination versions or move them into backup subfolders. You can retain a chosen number of versions and set an age limit, rather than letting every revision accumulate indefinitely.
Synchronization is a separate option in Update mode. It removes destination entries that no longer exist at the source, with controls for how excluded files are treated. This can also propagate an accidental source deletion. Personal Backup can instead rename or move those affected backup files into security-copy folders, preserving a recovery path while updating the main backup tree. Synchronization is unavailable for backups collected into ZIP archives.
For an alternating backup cycle, the program also supports full, differential and incremental modes for separate-file backups. Differential runs retain changes since the full backup; incremental runs reset the archive attribute after copying, so subsequent runs collect later changes. These modes use separate destination sets, and the included PbRestore tool can search the cycle for the latest version of each file relative to a selected date.
Backup triggers
Saved tasks can run at logon, logoff or scheduled times on selected days. Personal Backup also provides a wizard for Windows Task Scheduler, while command-line options allow tasks to be incorporated into batch files. Programs or scripts can run before and after a backup, with settings to wait for completion or cancel the backup when a preceding command reports an error.
The included PbWatchdog companion handles more frequent updates by monitoring selected directories and collecting file changes between backup runs. It uses an associated Personal Backup task for the destination and filters, then copies the changed files at an adjustable interval. This monitoring method supports local and network destinations, with files stored separately; it does not support FTP destinations or encryption. PbWatchdog must remain running to observe changes.
Restoring and verifying backups
The restore dialog selects backup files, a recovery destination and rules for overwriting existing files. Filters can restrict recovery by filename or age, and the program displays a selection list before copying begins. Saved compressed or encrypted files are unpacked and decrypted during restoration. Recovering to a different folder also allows the backed-up directory tree to be recreated elsewhere.
Direct restoration from FTP is available for backups stored as separate files. ZIP archives on an FTP server first need to be copied to local storage before their contents are restored. PbRestore can also work independently of the full application, including restoring files from alternating backup sets.
Personal Backup offers verification during copying, using checksums or integrity checks suited to the storage format. Logs record backup and restore actions, and email reports can include the log as an attachment. Reports can be sent after each run or only when errors occur.
