Can I back up to CD or DVD without a subscription?

Yes. Burn by Zaweba is free software for Windows that writes backups to your own CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. It works offline, needs no account and stores nothing online, so your files stay on discs you hold in your hand.

Cloud backup suits many people. It isn't the only way, and some people prefer not to pay every month or hand their files to a service. Discs are an old idea that still does the job well.

What an offline disc backup gives you

The main thing is control. A backup on disc doesn't depend on an internet connection, a login that still works, or a company still being in business years from now. You can put it on a shelf, give a copy to a relative, or keep one at work. Nobody else has a copy unless you give them one.

Write-once discs have another benefit. Once a DVD-R or BD-R is burned and finalised, a mistake or a bad program on the PC can't change it. A photo deleted by accident on the computer is still on last month's disc.

How Burn by Zaweba handles it

The Backup Assistant is the front door of Burn. You make a backup set: the folders to keep safe, whether to include every kind of file or only chosen kinds, any kinds to leave out, and the disc size. Hidden and system files are left out. Burn plans how many discs it will take and burns them, asking for each disc in turn if the backup needs several.

Every file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint before burning, and after burning every file on every disc is read back and checked against it. You see each file listed as passed or failed, and a disc that fails can be burned again. Saved sets appear as chips on the home screen, so the next backup is one click, and you can choose to back up only the files that changed since last time.

When you need files back, put any disc of the set into any PC with Burn and open Restore from backup discs. The index on every disc shows the whole backup as a tree with tick boxes.

Things to weigh up

Discs need a writer. Many laptops no longer have one, though plug-in USB drives are common. Burn's Drive information page shows what your drive can read and write and at what speeds.

Discs also need looking after. Store them upright in cases, somewhere cool, dry and dark, and away from the computer they protect, so a fire or theft doesn't take both. Making a fresh backup every so often is better than relying on one old disc for many years.

And a disc backup is only as recent as the last time you made one. The backup log in Burn records the date, set, discs used, number of files and check result for every backup, and can be exported as CSV, so it's easy to see when the next one is due.

For many households and small offices, a set of discs made every month or two, checked by the program that wrote them, is a backup they fully own. Burn by Zaweba is free under its EULA, with no subscription to keep up.