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Time Machine clone for Windows?

is there anything similar to Time Machine on OS X for Windows? i.e. running seamless backups that doesn't require user to do anything at all? my friend runs windows vista home edition

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marked as duplicate by Bruce McLeod, TheTXI Aug 31 '09 at 22:34


Possible Duplicate: superuser.com/questions/21390/time-machine-clone-for-windows –  EvilChookie Aug 31 '09 at 20:28

5 Answers 5

I recently setup DeltaCopy on my windows machine... it is a windows wrapper for rsync:


there's another called rdiff but I haven't used it:


what's nice about these kind of tools is that they don't just do a full backup, they only send only the changes (and I mean, it will literally send only the section of a file that has changed, not the entire file)... but the backup result is a full file-tree just like the users computer... so if they want to get a backed up copy, they can just navigate to their backup drive and copy it to their computer like they would anything else. no special tools needed.

so it runs quick and it's easy to do restores... I've been pleased

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+1 for rdiff, my friend he's wont be able to run that though, it's too much he's really novice, thats why i'm looking for something like time machine where it has 0 involvement from user –  alexus Aug 31 '09 at 21:00

For free solutions, see the article "Best Free Backup Program" on Gizmos' Freeware. It lists : GFI Backup, FBackup, Cobian Backup, FileHamster and Toucan.

For commercial solutions, I recommend Acronis True Image Home 2009, but see the article on "Acronis True Image 9 comparison" for its a comparison with other products.

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I used Macrium Reflect instead of the software shipped with Windows 7. Macrium Reflect has even a 64 bit version, does intelligent backups (it doesn't include in the backup system files like swap file, hiberbation file). There is a free edition for the home user.

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i'll give it a shot, thanks –  alexus Aug 31 '09 at 20:59

Windows Home Server will run full backups automatically on all your computers with no user intervention at all. If you put your computer to sleep instead of shutting it down it will even wake it up, run the backup, and then put it back to sleep.

The restore process is extremely easy with only a few mouse clicks required. I run this on all my machines at home and it has saved me from losing important files many a time

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The equivalent Windows feature is called Shadow Copy, and it's been a part of every Windows release since 2003, including Windows Vista.

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not quite, shadow copy just gives read only access to an open file. Time machine snapshots the file system (to an external) and keeps different dated versions. –  Martin Beckett Aug 31 '09 at 20:33
Sorry brainfailed - I was thinking of VSS –  Martin Beckett Aug 31 '09 at 20:38
