Zinstall FullBack review: Backup with a unique migration feature

Best Prices Today: Zinstall FullBack

I’m always up for a new take on the all-important backup chore, and that’s what you get with Zinstall’s FullBack. Actually, that’s a white lie — it’s the program’s restore function, which can transfer your data and apps to a new OS installation that’s particularly unique.

I’m calling my claim close enough and sticking with it — with the addendum that you pay rather dearly for the fresh-take aspect. Also, the restore process is a bit convoluted and not particularly speedy.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best Windows backup software to learn about competing products.

What are Zinstall FullBack’s features?

FullBack backs up your entire system, but it’s not imaging. While you can of course retrieve individual folders and files at any time and to anywhere, the full (files, apps, and settings) restore functionality is purely migratory — i.e., it transfers your apps and data to an existing OS installation such as what exists on a new machine. If you’re restoring to the same hardware, you’ll need to reinstall your OS first.

The migratory restore is a two-step process. First you download FullBack onto your new computer/installation and use it to mount the backup as a virtual drive. You then download another Zinstall product — Migration Kit Pro. Normally a $190 purchase, you get a license with FullBack, though there’s a soft one-month moratorium on using it so unscrupulous types don’t cheat by renting FullBack for a month just to save on Migration Kit Pro.

How exactly Zinstall can enforce this is somewhat of a mystery, but they told me they aren’t heartless and if for some reason your PC actually did die right after subscribing, they’ll cut you some slack. To me, they’re taking a real chance on human nature.

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While everything on your computer is selected by default, you can use FullBack’s exclusion filters to back up only select data. This is a more tedious process than simply just choosing a folder or two that you want backed up, but hey, if that’s all you want to do, there are cheaper options such as Windows own freebie File History.

As you can see below, you can also set backups to go off every hour or so, daily, or weekly. Hourly is the continuous backup the company advertises, though generally I’d like to see something involving parts of an hour before using that term. I’m being picky.

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As far as destinations, FullBack supports the gamut, including network locations and online storage services. These are limited to the biggies such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon S3, and BackBlaze B2, but they’re biggies because a huge number of folk use them.

Even nicer, you can define multiple destinations for your backup. A good thing as there are no “jobs” as such, just drives listed that you can back up. Think of FullBack as one all-encompassing job that you can turn on and off. There’s an on/off switch. It’s large. You can’t miss it.

If you’re using a less mainstream online storage service, check out our roundup of cloud managers. One of these will let you use nearly any service with just about any backup program.

How much does Zinstall FullBack cost?

Now it’s dampen-the-parade time. FullBack is available for $14.90 a month, and that’s it. No perpetual license or yearly discount is offered, so we’re talking almost $180 ($178.80) a year. And once you start, it could be a lot of years.

I’ve already mentioned the sales conundrum Zinstall faces. The company’s main focus is installation migration and if you wish to use other backup software that can create a VHD, Zinstall’s separate $190 Migration Kit Pro and $130 WinWin programs are options.

Either way, it’s a fair amount of cash, even if it does buy you the unique ability to migrate your apps to a new installation. But migration is likely something a lot of users might prefer, and Zinstall’s products do it well.