File backup to external hard drive, incremental etc?

[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

I back my files up on a regular basis to an external hard drive by copying but it takes ages as I copy everything!

Searching around mention is made of Incremental and Differential techniques to only update files which have changed but is seems a minefield to me.

Can anyone recommend a simple reliable method or program to use?

Thanks   Peter

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

FreeFileSync is neat, works well and is free.

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

Yes, Free File Sync is excellent, and fast and more or less foolproof.

I use it to back up all my data locally, I have USB enclosures with M2 drives used in the traditional three generation rotation of backups. This uses mirror mode to the USB drive. You can choose an alternative synchronisation mode as necessary. It usually takes about a minute to do the backup unless you are reorganising the data..

I also backup my Thunderbird email folders (profile) locally, again in mirror mode. Due to the use of thousands of tiny files by Thunderbird, this takes 3 or 4 minutes for much less actual data.

Here is an example of a USB caddy. Of course you need three enclosures also three M2 drives, but it is not worth going beyond basic speed drives unless you expect to use them elsewhere. However, take note that both PCIe and SATA interfaces are available. I suggest you go for PCIe (drives and USBs).[edit – woops, item below is SATA]

If this is as clear as mud, feel free to ask for more information (but it is simple enough in the end).

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/akasa-ak-enu3m2-02-m2-sata-10gb-s-external-ssd-aluminium-enclosure-usb-31-gen-2-type-c

 

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

Don’t you get a question about skipping identical files where you can tick “all instances” so only new files or changed files are copied?

Martin C

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

Yes, you want to copy only changed files. There is a choice of criterion, but I have had no trouble with “newer”.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

I use SyncToy on Windows; now discontinued by Microsoft, but readily available.

Bill

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

Malcolm,

Thanks for your input.

Your first line sounded hopeful but, as a computer user working on a need to know basis, what followed gave me a distinct sinking feeling ! In the past I have used a little back-up programme called “Easy-Back-it up” written by a US IT student. All that was required was to define :- source, destination and files. I don’t have (as far as I know) USB enclosures, M2 drives, 3 generation back-up arrangements, things which are mirrored and lots more. So would “FreeFileSync” be responsive to ignorance (and unwillingness to learn) on this scale, that is just backing up selected files to a local hard drive ?

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

Free File Sync is very easy for me to use, but being fairly comprehensive, there are quite a lot of choices. To me, it is well designed, so that it is quickly mastered and can do everything I need. I would suggest you download and install it, then somewhere with enough disk space in your existing drive(s), make new “test source” and “test backup” folders. Copy the entirety of a suitable folder into the “source” to work with, then experiment there with syncing to the “backup” to become conversant with the program and methods. Delete these folders once they have served their purpose, all without risk to your data, or dross left on your computer.

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

Don’t worry – try it.

Opens a screen with two panes. Drag & Drop the folders you want to back up into the left hand pane. Assuming the external drive is connected, drag and drop the folders on the external drive to the right hand pane. Set the Compare Settings to Time & Size – the default. Set the Synchronise setting to Update ( Two-way is the default). If you then click the Compare button the programme will show you what it is going to do by comparing the two sets of files & folders.

Clicking Synchronise will do the update.

Hope this helps.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

A really simple method that doesn’t require extra software etc is to use Windows explorer.

Go to the drive / directory you are interested in then in the search box (top right) simply put in something like the following

Datemodified:>yyyy-mm-dd

That will list everything updated since the date specified, then select them and copy to your backup drive/ memory stick.

There are options as well, like using >= (greater than or equal to) which then includes files modified on the date specified.

You can also select a range by also including less than or equal to ) such as Datemodified:>=yyyy-mm-dd <=yyyy-mm-dd

Looks more complicated than it is.

Easy & quite powerful. Enjoy

Mike

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

Thanks Peter, Malcolm and Mike

I’ll give it a go.

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

Just a general comment that any widely used software actively developed in response to users will appear complicated. Free File sync has many flexible features to fit with the real world. For example, the “exclusions” provision may seem a needless complication, but when used for two way synchronisation, your folders soon fill up with multiple copies of the system admin files used by M$. For example, I have exclusions of:

\System Volume Information\

\$Recycle.Bin\

\RECYCLE\

*\thumbs.db

*\Desktop.ini

*.ffs_gui

\Downloads\

You can ignore such things at first until you become aware of how useful they are.

[Peter BellParticipant @peterbell11509]

Many thanks for all the help and options….pleased I asked.

FreeFileSync has worked for me.

 

Peter

[HowiParticipant @howi]

In Windows, FILE HISTORY will back up all user files whether new or modified with no fuss.

It keeps copies of the same file but different mod times so you can go back to an original before modification and anything in between.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

Just to add a few general thoughts to this thread. BTW my background was in large scale accounting software implementations.

Backing up and archiving files serve two different purposes. A backup gives you a second copy of a file should the original become lost / damaged in the future. An archive gives you a copy of a file at a given date / time should you find the original file has become damaged or lost during a period between the present and the archive date. Why? it is possible that corruption has occurred to a file and has not been noticed and it has been updated since. For example, you’ve just completed chapter 23 of your magnum opus and you realise chapters chapters 13 to 17 are missing from the file and from the backup. (Think of poor T.E.Lawrence of Arabia who left his draft copy of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom on a train and had to rewrite it without his notes as he’d destroyed those thinking he’d not need them any more!)

Large organisations will perform both archives and backups, with the backup media being recycled on a regular basis while the archive media is held for a year or more.

The next thought is the location of your backups. Having an external hard disk by your PC is fine if your PC fails but not much use if its stolen or destroyed in a fire alongside your PC. There are lots of options for cloud backups from people like Amazon, Microsoft and Norton, for example.

Being a retired accountant I do all of the above, external hard disks and multiple cloud backup regimes.

One last thing I would also recommend is periodically test restoring from you backups (to a different location) to ensure all is well. Also, store the installation files for your local backup software on external media so if you lose your PC you can install the software on a new machine to perform the restore of your backup files.

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