Best free backup software

Looking for opinions on good free backup software. I've been recommending Karen's Replicator for the past few years, but recently I helped one of my personal clients replace a failing hard drive and wasn't able to boot from the backup. I verified the main partition was flagged as bootable, then ran startup repair and tried messing with bootrec when that failed. Eventually had to re-install Windows 7 along with updates, drivers and all his software.

Ideally I'm hoping to find something that can create a 1:1 backup that preserves permissions, timestamps, hardlinks, etc. so there won't be a problem booting from the backup if the original fails.

 

You rarely get two ppl here to agree on 'best' but two free imaging programs that do work well are Easeus Todo Backup and Macrium Reflect. If you have a Seagate, Maxtor or WD hard disk then there is also a cut-down free version of Acronis True Image available HERE.

The reason Karen's hasn't worked is that it does not pick up either the MBR (Master Boot Record) in track 0 or the Windows boot files in C. Karen's is good for backing up data but no good for recovering your entire system. For that you must use an imaging program.

 

Agree with Earthling, imaging is what you need to "create a 1:1 backup that preserves permissions, timestamps, hardlinks, etc"
I use Paragon Backup & Recovery Free but the company does make you jump through some hoops to get it, registration number sent by email and most recent updates available through your Paragon account.
But, with Paragon it just takess a few clicks to create the Rescue Media on a flashdrive rather than a CD etc this is very handy for those people with Netbooks, Ultrabooks (no CD drive) or who travel with Notebooks. The last time I checked the other companies didn't offer flashdrive Rescue Media.
Probably done about 20 image installs and Paragon has never failed me

For quickly backing up files (docs, photos etc) in between images I use FreeFileSync, it's easy to use, fast and still being actively developed. You can easily create a Batch File for any backup job.

A recent Paragon image installed then installing the latest version of the files (docs, photos etc) FreeFileSync backed up means only a few updates might be necessary to be back to where I was. Just like it never happened :cool

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Sorry, no MajorGeeks link that I can find
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

FreeFileSync
http://majorgeeks.com/FreeFileSync_d6588.html