Backing up your data is very important because history has shown a computer crash and/or malware infection does not warn you before hitting you on your head. That is why dotTech has a review of best free backup programs for Windows. If you don’t like the programs we suggest in our review, then there is Tenorshare Data Backup for you. Let’s see if it is worth your time.

What Is It and What Does It Do

Main Functionality

Tenorshare Data Backup is a drive-level image backup program that lets you backup and restore your hard drive(s) and partition(s), including system partition.

Pros

• Backs up and restores any partition or drive you desire — including your operating system partition, external and internal drives, USB flash drives, etc.
• Lets you pick if you want to compress backups
• Can copy the contents of one disk to another disk and copy the contents or one partition to another partition
• Allows you to restore backups to a different hard drive on the same computer (this is not restoring to dissimilar hardware)
• Has the ability to create bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB
  • NOTE: Because I was unable to create the bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB (see Cons section below), I was unable to test it and its features
  • NOTE: Because I was unable to create the bootable/reocvery CD/DVD/USB, I don’t know if it is Linux-based or WinPE-based, and the developer provides no information in the Help file or their website either
  • NOTE: If you are coming from GOTD and reading this, please take note your GOTD doesn’t have the ability to create bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB but Tenorshare Data Backup itself normally has it
• Easy to use

Cons

• Cannot restore to dissimilar hardware (i.e. backups can only be restored on the computer they were created on)
• Cannot password protect or encrypt backups
• Cannot selectively restore files from backups — either restore the whole backup or restore nothing
  • NOTE: I realize that this is a drive-level backup program and the whole idea behind a drive-level backup program is to backup and restore whole drives/partitions. However, rival drive-level backup program give users the option to selectively restore, if desired, so I don’t see what Tenorshare Data Backup shouldn’t.
• Is buggy:
  • I was unable to successfully restore a backup I made. The backup was very simple — it was of a non-operating system USB external drive — so if Tenorshare Data Backup isn’t able to restore that backup, I don’t have confidence the program can restore more complex backups.
  • Creating bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB is buggy; wouldn’t do anything when I hit the Burn button. However, there is an ISO file in Tenorshare Data Backup’s Program Files folder which is probably the bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB if anyone wants to manually burn it.
• Prompted me with a weird “would you like to repartition this disk” message before restore. It isn’t entirely clear what that message means or why Tenorshare Data Backup needs to “repartition” anything before restoring a backup.

Discussion

Tenorshare Data Backup does the basics required of drive-level image backup; it lets you backup and restore drives and partitions, including your operating system, with support for compression of backups. Plus it has the added bonus ability of letting you copy drives/partitions to new drives/partitions. However, what is the point of having a bonus non-core function when the program doesn’t even have all the necessary core features.

You see, Tenorshare Data Backup cannot password protect or encrypt backups, it does not allow for selective restore from backups, nor can it restore to dissimilar hardware. Although Tenorshare Data Backup should have the feature since other similar programs have it, not allowing for selective restore can be excused because, as I mention in the Cons above, the whole idea behind this type of program is to backup and restore whole drives/partitions. However, not being able to password protect or encrypt backups is not excusable; even freeware backup programs can do this. And not being able to restore to dissimilar hardware significantly hurts the usefulness of this program.

Why does not being able to restore it dissimilar hardware hurt the usefulness of this program? Simply because restoring to dissimilar hardware is the major reason to purchase a shareware drive-level image backup program. There are dozens of freeware drive-level image backup programs that allow you to easily and successfully backup and restore whole drives/partitions, but pretty much none of them can restore to dissimilar hardware — you need to shell out cash if you want that feature. Tenorshare Data Backup, on the other hand, is a shareware program that doesn’t have that feature… so why get it over freeware programs? I don’t see any major reason.

On top of that, Tenorshare Data Backup is not 100% bug-free.

First of all, I was unable to create Tenorshare Data Backup’s bootable/recovery CD/DVD/USB. Whenever I hit the Burn button to create it, nothing happens. On the bright side, there is an ISO file in Tenorshare Data Backup’s Program Files folder which you can manually burn, if you like, but there is no excuse for the program not being able to do it.

Secondly, I was able to successfully create a backup but not restore it. My plan was to test Tenorshare Data Backup in two ways; one test would be a simple, non-operating system drive/partition backup while the other test would be a more complex, operating system backup. Unfortunately, I never got the the second test because Tenorshare Data Backup failed the first test.

When trying to restore the backup of a USB drive, Tenorshare Data Backup first prompted me with a message asking if I wanted to let Tenorshare Data Backup repartition the disk or if I wanted to repartition the disk manually. This message thoroughly confused me because I had no idea why the drive had to be repartitioned — I was restoring its own backup made just a few minutes prior — and it wouldn’t let me proceed with the restore until I did the repartitioning. However, I decided to let Tenorshare Data Backup do the repartitioning. I waited a while to let Tenorshare Data Backup do its thing but its little green circle kept spinning and spinning without actually doing anything. After waiting for what I considered to be long enough to repartition + restore a small 16 GB drive, I decided to stop the procedure… only to learn clicking the Stop button did nothing. I ended up forcefully closing Tenorshare Data Backup, never successfully restoring my backup.

Conclusion and Download Link

Tenorshare Data Backup does not impress me; in fact, I expected better from Tenorshare, a company who’s other programs I’ve used. Even if you ignore the fact that Tenorshare Data Backup is not 100% bug-free, it just doesn’t have the features to justify purchasing it. True, $24.95 is not a lot to ask when compared to other shareware drive-level image backup programs… but you also aren’t getting the features expected of a shareware backup program.

More specifically, Tenorshare Data Backup cannot restore to dissimilar hardware (among other things). Restore to dissimilar hardware is the biggest reason people opt to purchase shareware drive-level/image backup programs because freeware drive-level/image backup programs can do everything else. Without that one feature, there really isn’t any major reason to get Tenorshare Data Backup.

My recommendation is to save your money and get freeware drive-level backup programs instead of Tenorshare Data Backup. Read dotTech’s review of best free backup programs for Windows to learn more.

Price: $24.95

Version reviewed: 2.0.0.0

Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8

Download size: 33.1 MB

VirusTotal malware scan results:

Is it portable? No

Tenorshare Data Backup homepage