TechRadar Verdict
Comodo Backup is powerful, but installation requires additional steps and the interface isn’t as friendly for beginners as some rivals.
Pros
- +
Free cloud storage
- +
Built-in scheduling
- +
Malware scanner
Cons
- -
Free cloud storage is only a trial
- -
Could be more beginner-friendly
- -
Tweaks required after installation
Why you can trust TechRadar
Edit as of December 2024: Comodo no longer develop or distribute consumer-grade backup software.
Many people have a big flaw in their backup plans: they store the backup in the same place as their computer, and that means if something terrible happens – a domestic disaster, perhaps, or a break-in – they might lose both the original data and the backup of it. Wouldn’t it be great if you could store your backups in space instead?
Where to download: https://www.comodo.com/home/backup-online-storage/comodo-backup-registration.php
Type: Backup software
Developer: Comodo
Operating system: Windows
Version: 4
Comodo doesn’t quite do that, but it offers the next best thing: 10GB of online storage for your backups, which is good for 90 days and then US$7.99 (about £6, AU$11) thereafter.
Even if you don’t plump for the online storage option Comodo is a powerful backup suite. You can backup to local or network drives, removable/writable media or an FTP server, and it can create a perfect copy of an entire drive if you want to be able to restore an entire system and have it just so.
You can schedule backups to happen at specific times and even tell the program what to do if a particular backup time is missed, and in a nice touch you can scan for malware and junk files so you don’t backup anything you don’t want to resurrect.
User experience
Comodo Backup is a very powerful and customisable program, but unfortunately that means it’s less user-friendly for beginners than many of its rivals. If you know exactly what you want and what you’re doing you’ll like it a lot, but if you’re new to this backing up malarkey you might feel that the interface is intimidating and the included help isn’t as helpful as it might be.
There are also a few things you’ll need to do to make it work fully: it doesn’t run with admin privileges by default (which you need for system backups) and you’ll need to install the Windows Automated Installation Kit to make drive images.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.