BackupOnShutdown saves the folders you choose — client folders, project folders, Documents, Pictures, or Desktop. That is a file backup, not a system image of the whole PC. A restore copies those files back onto a working Windows PC. It does not bring back Windows or your installed programs.
What does BackupOnShutdown back up?
You choose the folders. Select Documents, Pictures, or Desktop if they appear. Use Add folder… for any other folder, such as a client folder or a project folder. None are selected by default. Set up your first backup walks through that step.
Each run copies the selected folders to every backup location it can reach, such as an external drive. Later runs save what changed, and you can restore an older saved version of a file.
A file that another program locks so that nothing else can read it is included only when you start BackupOnShutdown as administrator. Otherwise it is skipped and listed after the run; other files are still saved. Open or locked files explains that case.
What does it not back up?
Windows itself, the programs you installed, and a bootable copy of the drive are outside this backup. BackupOnShutdown does not create a disk image, and it cannot restore a PC that will not start.
Restore files… copies files back onto a working Windows PC. If a folder you add is an entire drive, the restore still returns the files from that drive. It does not return a working Windows installation or the programs that were installed there.
Which folders should you choose?
Choose the folders that hold work you would miss: client folders, project folders, and Documents, Desktop, or Pictures when your files are there.
Programs often keep their data outside those folders. Check where an email program stores its data file, or where an accounting program writes an export, and add that folder with Add folder… if those files should be in the backup. The program itself is not copied. Only the files in the folders you selected are copied.
What happens after a disk failure or on a new PC?
You need a working Windows installation and BackupOnShutdown before a file can come back. Set up Windows and install BackupOnShutdown. Install the programs you use as well, so you can open the restored files; they are not part of the backup. Connect the drive that holds the backup. On the dashboard, choose I already have a backup. That opens Open an existing backup, where you select the folder the backup is kept in. When the backup is listed, choose Restore files… and copy the files into a folder you can check before you rely on them. Restore files from a backup covers this PC and a new one.
Keep the backup on a different drive from the files. A copy on the same drive is lost with that drive.
When do you also want a system image?
Use BackupOnShutdown when you need the files in the folders you chose. If the PC also has to start again, or you want Windows and your installed programs back as they were, keep a system image with a separate tool. File backup or a disk image sets out when an imaging tool fits and when a folder backup is enough.
Download BackupOnShutdown and try the 14-day trial on your own folders. No account or card is required. BackupOnShutdown runs on Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit, and on macOS 13 or later with Apple Silicon.