AOMEI Backupper Standard v7.2.1

A Full Review of AOMEI Backupper Standard, a Free Backup Software Program

By
Tim Fisher
Photo of Tim Fisher, Lifewire GM and Writer
Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University

Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.

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Updated on April 20, 2023

AOMEI Backupper Standard is free backup software that supports backing up files and folders, hard drives, and even the system partition.

The program interface is probably the easiest we've used in a backup program, even though we'd consider the program pretty advanced.

This should definitely be a contender when choosing a good backup program. The interface is easy to work with for anyone, and it's packed full of great features.

What We Like

  • Easy to use.

  • Can back up system partition on a schedule.

  • Backups are stored in a single, easy-to-manage file.

  • Can't encrypt the backup.

  • Lets you clone a hard drive.

What We Don't Like

  • Restoring window can't be resized; too small to select what to restore.

  • Forces original folder structure when restoring data.

  • Can't pause the backup, just cancel.

  • Missing options found in other backup programs.

This review is of AOMEI Backupper v7.2.1, which was released April 20, 2023. Please let us know if there's a newer version we need to review.

AOMEI Backupper: Methods, Sources, & Destinations

AOMEI Backupper Standard v6 backup tab

The types of backup supported, as well as what on your computer can be selected for backup and where it can be backed up to, are the most important aspects to consider when choosing a backup software program. Here's that information for AOMEI Backupper:

Supported Backup Methods

Full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup are supported.

Supported Backup Sources

It's able to back up individual partitions, specific files, and folders, or an entire hard drive.

Even the partition that Windows is installed to can be backed up with AOMEI Backupper. This works by using the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which allows a backup to run without having to shut down the computer or close open files.

Supported Backup Destinations

A backup is created as an AFI file and can be saved to a local drive, network folder, or external drive.

You can also back up files and folders to AOMEI Cloud.

If you're performing a partition or disk clone instead of a regular backup, the only destinations available, of course, are another partition or hard drive.

More About AOMEI Backupper

  • It can be installed on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP
  • Can be installed on an unlimited number of computers in a commercial or home setting
  • You can exclude custom subfolders and file types from a backup using wildcards
  • A backup can be encrypted and password protected
  • You can quickly exclude hidden files, subfolders, and/or system files from being included in a backup
  • Managing backup jobs is simple because you can view jobs created today, this week, or any other custom date
  • When creating a partition or hard drive backup, you can choose to back up only the actual data or make an exact copy by including unused sectors as well
  • It's easy to run a full, differential, or incremental backup on an existing job in just a couple clicks
  • Backups can be restored with ease because you can clearly see the date and backup method used before starting a restore
  • AOMEI Backupper is able to restore certain files or an entire backup to any location, including the original folder
  • The AOMEI Centralized Backupper (ACB) tool is supported so that you can use one computer on a network to start, schedule, start, and monitor backup jobs on the computers that are running the program
  • Scheduling backups work with any backup method and source, even for the system partition
  • Email notifications are supported, which means you can get backup status alerts when a backup has completed successfully and/or when it fails, which includes information about when the backup started and stopped, the path of the backup, and any error messages
  • A backup can be scheduled to run daily, weekly, monthly, or on daily intervals
  • USB devices can be backed up automatically when plugged in
  • A system image backup can be restored to a different computer with different hardware. Read more about this procedure at AOMEI's website
  • Backups can optionally be compressed with a normal or high compression level
  • Can automatically restart, hibernate, or shut down after a backup task has completed
  • Supports command line cloning and restoring
  • Lets you execute commands or scripts before and/or after a backup
  • Comments can be added to backups to give more information about what's included or what the backup is used for
  • A backup can be split into smaller pieces for easier storage using a custom size or a predetermined one, like 700 MB for a CD or 4 GB for a DVD
  • A bootable disc can be created to use AOMEI Backupper for restoring a backup or cloning a partition/hard drive without booting into Windows
  • While running a backup, if the program finds that the destination doesn't have enough disk space to hold the files, it will prompt you to clean up the drive and then continue with the backup
  • A Linux bootable disc lets you restore data from a backup and clone partition/disks to other drives, though backing up a partition, disk, or system drive isn't allowed

More advanced features, like merging incremental backups and using batch scripts to run a backup, are available in the paid version.

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