How to Automatically Backup Your Files

Ever accidentally deleted a file, not saved your changes, lost a disk or broke your project? It is important to do regular backups to prevent the loss of data.

Microsoft Windows includes the Backup and Restore feature to backup files automatically. This feature is no longer a maintained feature on Windows 10. You can still use it, but in the future, the company may decide to remove this tool completely. You can find this feature in Control Panel.

There are many third-party utilities to backup files. In this guide, I will show you how to use “Cobian Backup” software to backup your files.

Cobian Backup is a free multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories in the same computer or another computer on your network. The FTP backup is also supported in both directions.

Install and use Cobian Backup

1. Download Cobian Backup software from CobianSoft website.

2. Install and run Cobian Backup software.

3. To create a new task click on the plus button or from the Task menu select New task (Ctrl+A).

4. On the General tab, type a name for the task.

5. In the Backup type section, check Full (Backup all selected files). Or,
– Incremental: Backup all the files that have been modified since the last backup.
– Differential: Backup all the files that have been modified since the last full backup.
– Dummy: Use the task as a scheduler to execute events.

6. On the Files tab, add a source (Files, Directory, or FTP) to the backup task.

7. Add a destination (Directory or FTP) to save the backup files.

8. On the Schedule tab, select when you want the task to be executed (once, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or on a timer basis).

9. By default backup files will be stored in a directory, but on the Archive tab, you can compress (zip or 7zip) and encrypt (set a password) them.

10. On the Filter tab, you can include or exclude specific files based on name, directory, format, date, and size.

11. On the Events tab, you can add a pre- or post-backup event like running a program or shutting down the computer.

12. Click OK to save the task.

13. Select and run (play button or Ctrl+D) the task.

This is the output (both directory and zip files):

The default format for backup file names is “yyyy-mm-dd hh;nn;ss”. To change this, go to Tools → Options → Advanced → Format settings → Date/Time format for the file names. Colon (:) is not allowed in the file name.

Cobian Backup other features:
– Multiple task list
– Multiple task groups
– Log all errors and events
– Mail log files
– Decrypter
– Decompressor
– Encoder
– Remote manager
– Supported languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, French, Czech, Portugues, Russian, Svenska, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

Other tools:

• Windows 10 File History (External drive)
• Cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive
• MiniTool ShadowMaker
• EaseUS Todo Backup Free
• Paragon Backup & Recovery
• FBackup
• Everyday Auto Backup
• Handy Backup
• AOMEI Backupper Standard
• Macrium Reflect
• FileFort Backup
• BackUp Maker
• COMODO Backup