Budgie Backup - Simple File & Folder Backup App for Windows

Updated 7th September 2026 by Simon Fearby · Budgie Backup (alpha)

What is Budgie Backup?

Backing up your data should be boring. It should happen quietly, then get out of your way. Budgie Backup is a suite of six small Windows apps, and each one does a single job well. It copies the folders and files you choose to a primary drive, and to a second drive if you have one.

A quick look at Budgie Backup. Nothing plays until you press play.

Budgie Backup Suite Overview

Six small apps, each doing one job. Pick the one you want to know more about.

Create a Budgie Backup File

CreateBudgieBackupFile.exe

Choose what matters, then save it as a reusable .budgiebackup plan file.

Start here

Backup your data with RunBudgieBackupFile

RunBudgieBackupFile.exe

Open a plan file and run the backup, using shadow copies so locked files still copy.

See how it runs

Budgie Backup System Tray Application

BudgieBackupSysTray.exe

Quick access to the other apps, your logs, recent backup files and run stats.

What sits in the tray

Update Budgie Backup

BudgieBackupUpdater.exe

Updates every app in the suite together, and shows the change log before you commit.

How updates work

Backup to the Cloud with BudgieBackupSync

BudgieBackupSync.exe

Optional. Syncs a local backup up to a Backblaze B2 bucket that you own and control.

Cloud, on your terms

Budgie Backup Screen Saver

Budgie Backup.scr

A screen saver showing when the last backup ran, what is protected and what failed.

See the installer inforamtion

Budgie Backup Installer

Setup*.exe

Read about the installer

See the screen saver

Links

Get in early and help drive development

Budgie Backup is unfinished alpha software, this alpha version may have bugs that unintentionally delete your data. this software may delete every build has a built-in expiry date to ensure you update to get more recent versions. Never rely on this alpha version to backup your data and always test that backups are accessible.

Download Budgie Backup

Free while in alpha. Windows 11, 64-bit.

Alpha

Small or full installer, with SHA-256 and MD5 hashes so you can check what you downloaded before you run it.

Get the installer

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions people actually ask

What gets backed up, why it needs administrator rights, where your files end up, and what the alpha expiry means.

Read the answers

Release notes and small print

How to install Installer, bug report, uninstall Change Log Features Roadmap Known Bugs Readme Privacy Disclaimer

What is Budgie Backup

Budgie Backup is six apps (Create, Run, Quick Access, Update, send it offsite, stay informed).

Keep three copies of your data on two different types of media and keep one of them offsite. That's the three, two, one rule, and it's the first reason this suite exists. The second is cost. Two of those copies live on drives you already own and cost you nothing a month. Only the offsite copy touches the cloud, so you're not renting space for everything you own, forever.

Set it up once, then back up.

Call to Action

Nobody loses their photos on a day they were expecting to.
Your kids' first years live in one folder, on one drive. That's not a memory, that's a single point of failure.
You won't get a warning. You'll just go looking one day, and it won't be there.

Pick that folder. Back it up tonight and relax.

Why create Budgie Backup?

It was written for a friend who owns a perfectly good external hard drive and almost never copies anything to it. His files are scattered all over his PC and doing it by hand takes an evening. If that sounds familiar, Budgie Backup is for you. This Friend breeds budgerigars shown in this software suite.

The Author do have automatic backups of his Windows petition using the Acronis True Image software and Backblaze Personal Backup program.

Budgie Backup copies the folders that matter to you onto a second drive in your PC, and then onto a removable drive you can unplug and carry away. You pick what to back up once, save it as a file, and from then on backing up is a double-click. An optional Sync of local backups to a Cloud Backblaze bucket is in the works. This is free, it runs entirely on your computer, and it writes plain .zip archives - not a proprietary image format that needs Budgie Backup to open it. If this app disappears tomorrow, your backups still open in Windows Explorer or 7-Zip.

About the Author?

Spent his first few pay checks (from his first IT retail job in the 1990's) went into buying a 2x CD-RW Burner (Not DVD) and a 13GB Hard Drive (Not TB). This was a time when 2GB storage and 1.44 megabyte floppies were the norm.

Programming was a hobby at this time. He transitioned to program medical software in Sydney Australia, then into a dozen IT roles over the past 25 years (Helpdesk, Field Support, Web Administrator, Database Design and Development - Strategy and Innovation, System Administrator etc).

From IT retail to working with large state wide IT systems, the need to back up data is a frequent observation.

IT career aside, backing up data family photos and videos are a top priority.

What Budgie Backup is not

Budgie Backup is a small utility that does one job. It is deliberately not any of these things, and it is not a replacement for them:

Tool	What it does	Action	Cost
One Drive, DropBox, Gogole One, Apple iCloud etc	Cloud Sync Tools.	I avoid using them	Subscription
Acronis True Image	Images your whole partition or drive so you can restore a dead machine bit-for-bit.	Use it	Subscription
Backblaze	Continuously backs up your data offsite to the cloud in the background, encrypted.	Use it	Subscription
PhotoSync (Mobile)	Wirelessly transfer & backup your Mobile Phones photos & videos. Any kind of transfer - PhotoSync can handle it!. Beat the cloud storage backup costs	Must Have	Subscription
FreeFileSync	Compares and synchronises two folders. Powerful, but fiddly to set up and automate.	Use Sometimes	Free / donation

The author still uses paid versions of Backblaze and Acronis True Image, even though they dislike paying for software.

Acronis True Image, Backblaze and FreeFileSync are independent products and are not affiliated with Budgie Backup. I pay for and use the first two myself, and recommend them.

Budgie Backup exists to help you get to 3 copies, 2 kinds of media, 1 offsite without a subscription and without trusting anyone else with your files. It handles the two local copies. Something else should handle the offsite one.

System requirements

Windows 11, 64-bit (x64).
The .NET 10 Desktop Runtime - included in the full installer, required separately for the small installer.
Administrator rights. Budgie Backup needs elevation for Volume Shadow Copy, System Restore points, drive health queries, and reading locked files.
Enough free space at your destination for the whole backup. Budgie Backup checks this before it starts.
Display 1920x1080 screen or larger.
Storage space on an internal drive (and a external hard drive with enough free psace to hold backups).
Administrator rights required

Help Test Early Builds

This is a work in progress, features will change.

If you wan't to help test Alpha builds reach out here: alpha-test-request-budgiebackup@fearby.com or reach out and suggest a feature here: budgiebackup@fearby.com.

Buy Me a Coffee and support the development.

Return Home