Backing up is as necessary as it is boring, so it’s best to opt for a set-and-forget-type tool. Once everything is set up correctly, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. This is also the motto of MiniTool ShadowMaker: free backups, with system and file-level restore functions.
ShadowMaker Free
Price
Free
Language
English
OS
Windows 7 and above
Website
https://kwikr.nl/miniback
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Extensive backup options
- Recovery at partition and file level
- Creation of boot medium
- Negatives
- No network drives
- No differential backups
MiniTool ShadowMaker is available in both a free and commercial Pro edition. You can view the differences at the bottom of the page via https://kwikr.nl/miniback. As a home user, you can probably do without the extras from the Pro edition, such as support for ssl encryption and WinPE.
backup
By default, the app will suggest a full system backup right away, but don’t feel obligated — you might as well have other partitions and individual folders backed up as well. Unfortunately, you cannot select shared folders on a network drive. Direct backup to the cloud is not included either, but you can of course select a target location within the sync folder of a cloud storage service.
Also read: These are the 12 best backup programs for Windows
ShadowMaker also has a built-in scheduler that allows you to back up your documents on a regular basis. The free version does not have the option to start a backup based on system events.
In addition to a full backup, you can also opt for an incremental backup, where only new or changed data is added to the backup (a differential backup type is also available in the Pro version).
Options and Recovery
Each backup can be carefully controlled. For example, you can decide for yourself whether only the used sectors should be backed up, whether you want to split your backup files from a size that you can set or whether you want to protect the files with a password.
By default, a medium compression is applied to the backup, but you can disable this or change it to a high compression. It is also useful that an e-mail can be sent when the backup is ready and that you can have your PC switched off.
It is a good idea to let ShadowMaker create a ‘Media Builder’ on first use. You can still run the program (with a view to recovery) when Windows gives up. By the way, it is not necessary to restore an entire partition; when you mount that partition to your PC as a virtual drive, selective file recovery becomes possible as well.
Conclusion
The free edition of ShadowMaker does have some restrictions, but they don’t stand in the way of reliable and flexible backup operations. Much more than scheduled and incremental backups, with file-level compression, email notification, and recovery, you probably don’t need data—and peace of mind—after all.
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