EaseUS ToDo Backup Review

One of the quickest and easiest methods for creating any new backup set is to simply select a set of files and then set them to be backed up on a fixed schedule (e.g., automatically backed-up once per day, week or month as required). In this first section of my review, I am going to focus on the file-level backup capabilities of ToDo Backup and highlight the process required for creating such backups.

This work begins by clicking on the orange “Create Backup” button found on the app’s homepage to enter the new backup wizard, as can be seen below.

One of the first tasks here is to choose the type of backup we want to make (a file level backup in this particular case) before then choosing the corresponding icon in the middle of the configuration page to continue with said backup type.

NB – As is pointed out in the image above, note that we can at this point also change the name of this new backup set to something more meaningful right from the start (as I, myself have already done).

With the new backup set named and the “File” backup type chosen, the next page in the configuration process is where we choose which files and folders are to be included.

As can be seen above, selecting all necessary files and folders to be included in the backup is as simple as checking these items using the built-in file selection tool. With all items to be included now selected, clicking on “OK” will take us to a summary screen where we can start running the backup set straight away.

As can be seen above, EaseUS make it really easy to get a new backup set running with default settings already in place, the only real thing to consider on this above page would be the destination for storing the backup files as the default location chosen by the software might not be correct in all cases. In my example I am not going to make use of these default settings, instead, I will click on the “Options” button (highlighted above) in order to fine tune these backup settings further.

Under the “Backup Options” tab (seen above), we have a good series of options available for which we can fine-tune regarding our new backup set. This starts off with us being able to specify the backup mode, the compression settings, the data transfer speed (should we want to limit this) and the backup splitting options (which could be useful if this backup is to be written to multiple CD/DVDs or other fixed size media at a later date).

The next important setting to take note of is that of backup encryption. This can optionally be turned on or off and, when enabled, applies strong, zero-knowledge AES 256-bit encryption to any resulting backup files (meaning they are afforded a very high degree of security should they ever find their way into the wrong hands).

The next two settings available (as we go down the list of available options) are the “Custom Commands” setting (which allows applications or “scripts” to be run as a part of the backup operation) as well as the “Offsite Copy” setting which allows a copy of the backup to be automatically stored upon an external FTP server (in addition to the regular storage location).

The final three settings found under this tab include the “File Settings” section (where we can choose to maintain file security settings), “Disk/Volume” Settings and the “User Account” settings where we can optionally run the backup under a different Windows account (e.g., Administrator) should this be required.

With all options under the “backup Options” tab now configured, the next part in configuring this new backup set is to (optionally) define a fixed schedule for running this backup set automatically as required.

NB – ToDo Backup also provides use of the “Smart backup” scheduling tool which will provide a high degree of automation relating to the scheduling process. I will, however, be looking at the regular scheduling options (available on both Free and Home editions of the software) in this section and covering Smart Backup later on.

As can be seen above, ToDo Backup has a very powerful scheduling engine available with options for creating daily, weekly or monthly backups alongside one-time runs and backups which trigger when certain events happen such as users logging into the system. For my own backup set I will be looking at the daily option as this not only allows a single backup to be run at a set time each day, it also allows for backups to be run at regular intervals (e.g., once per hour) throughout the day as well.

Before moving on, I feel it is important to point out (as can be seen above) that ToDo Backup also supports an “Image Reserve Strategy” on the scheduling page which helps to manage the number of historic versions being kept for this set. This is not only a good way of ensuring that the backup set doesn’t get too big in size, but by being able to specify (for example) that only a certain number of previous days of backup are kept, the software makes it easier for us to specify how much historic versioning we will have in place (I have set my backup to keep 30-days of historic versioning in the example above, but this could easily be changed as required).

Moving on and, as can be seen above, the “Backup Filter” tab is where we can optionally configure that the backup set ignores certain files and file types. By default, the software is automatically populated with common unwanted items such as the systems recycle bin and any “.tmp” files, but we can add whatever files, folders and file types we might want excluded on this page.

The final tab to be configured is that of the “Backup Notification” tab. In this tab we can (optionally) configure that backup notification be sent to an email address, although this does (unfortunately) mean specifying our own SMTP server settings here in order to use this feature.

Finally, I am going to specify a location for storing this backup which is different to the default location suggested by the software. This begins by clicking the destination option (seen earlier on in the setup process) and then selecting from one of the four available storage options (see below).

NB – Above we see the ToDo Backup “Security Zone” showing as a storage location, I will be looking at this feature in more detail when looking at disk and system image backups later on in this review.

Having chosen the “Local Drive” option in my example (which is useful for backing up to an external hard drive as well), we can now specify the exact drive and folder for storing these backup files.

With the location now specified, we will be returned to a backup summary page with an overview of the new backup set showing. Clicking on the “Save” backup will save the backup set and we can then set it running from the next page straight afterwards.

Once running, this new backup set can be monitored from the main backup overview page. As can be seen below, we can see the progress of the backup including an estimation of the completion time and the speed at which data is being transferred.

And with this, the new file-level backup set is both configured and has now been run as well. As per the schedule I set earlier on in the set-up process, this set will continue to run every hour and will keep 30-days of historic versions as was also specified.

NB- Historic file versioning is one of the most important components of any backup and is what allows retrieving older versions of files (other than that of the latest one backed-up). Historic versioning is also one of the best methods for protecting valuable data against malware and ransomware attacks with at least 30-days of versioning recommended to provide a good baseline of protection. Be sure to read my guide on How Backup Software Can Help Protect Against Ransomware for more details on this particular topic!