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← Go dark · Mission 10 of 17

Encrypted backups you can actually restore, even after ransomware or a dead laptop

restic copies your folders to an external drive, encrypted, and keeps a history of snapshots you can step back to. You'll run a ransomware drill: scramble a folder, back up the rubbish on purpose, and still get every file back byte for byte.

45 minIntermediateTools: Free (plus an external drive)Step 1 free
Tested 9 Oct 2026 · restic 0.19.1 (official Windows zip), Windows PowerShell 5.1, Windows 11, a 238 MiB made-up Documents folder
restic set up with no installer and no admin rights
An encrypted backup on an external drive, and a second backup that only stored what changed
One deleted file and a whole folder restored, checked against the originals
  • A ransomware drill: files scrambled, then every one recovered
  • A clean-up rule, a nightly schedule and a free off-site copy, plus the one mistake that could wipe your good copies
Before you start
  • Level 0 done (you can open PowerShell and cd into a folder)
  • An external USB drive or stick with more free space than the folders you want to back up
  • A password manager or a safe place for one long password (KeePassXC is perfect)
  • About 45MB of disk space for restic and its download
01/06Get restic (no installer)0 done
STEP 01 of 06~5 min

Get restic (no installer)

restic is a single program file. Nothing to install, nothing running in the background.

  1. Download the official zip from the restic releases page ↗. These lines fetch version 0.19.1 into your user folder and print its fingerprint:

    Windows
    cd $HOME
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://github.com/restic/restic/releases/download/v0.19.1/restic_0.19.1_windows_amd64.zip" -OutFile restic.zip
(Get-FileHash restic.zip).Hash
    Output
    DA948AD707ED690426473AABA2046CD61F8F90F6F0E7DAB6BE0D5796531DE67D

  2. That matches the SHA256SUMS file on the release page, so it's the genuine download (11MB). Now unpack it, give the program a short name, and check it runs:

    Terminal
    Expand-Archive restic.zip -DestinationPath $HOME\restic
Rename-Item $HOME\restic\restic_0.19.1_windows_amd64.exe restic.exe
Set-Alias restic "$HOME\restic\restic.exe"
restic version
    Output
    restic 0.19.1 compiled with go1.26.4 on windows/amd64
    Mac (Homebrew)
    brew install restic
    Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
    sudo apt install restic
    TipSet-Alias only lasts until you close PowerShell. In the next step you'll make a three-line "start of session" block to paste each time.
✓
Checkpointrestic version prints a version number.
If it breaks'restic' is not recognised + 1 more
'restic' is not recognised
Run the Set-Alias line again in this window. It disappears every time you open a new PowerShell.
I used winget and 'restic' still isn't recognised
The winget package keeps the long file name restic_0.19.1_windows_amd64.exe, so plain restic isn't found. Use the zip steps above instead.
Still stuck? Ask the community
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