Backing up files to an external hard drive

jrogers

What is the best way to back up your files to an external hard drive?

It might seem like a stupid question, but I don't think it is. Let me explain:

A couple of months ago I copied all off my files from my "Documents & Settings" folder to my external hard drive. No problem.

Last night, I went to do another backup. The normal Windows drag 'n drop method works fine except that if the file is already on the external HD, it asks you if you want to overwrite it. Your choices are Yes, Yes to All, and No. If you click Yes, you'll be there clicking thousands of time, obviously. Clicking Yes to all (which is what I did) and you needlessly rewrite thousands of files. What windows really needs is a No to All or something, so that only new files get written.

Am I missing something here?

P.S. I am aware that Windows XP (which is what I'm using) has a backup function, but I would prefer to keep my files uncompressed for easy access.

Thansk.

Art Scott

i DO IT THE SAME WAY.....I get ready to back up my files and then go to bed......normally done in the mroning.........I have used very expensive backup software that would tell you what CD to insert to start the re-write........but the one time I needed to restore a system....the syetem could not recognize the file extension from the software.......that was the end of doing that type of back ups.....on my c drive I do a complete clone every few months (as software is added), using ACRONIS Easy Migrate 7, this has been replaced by another product that I have not upgraded to yet, and for my photo files I still do as you do....drag and drop and just clik the yes to all button and go to sleep.

CynthiaM

jrogers wrote:

What is the best way to back up your files to an external hard drive?

It might seem like a stupid question, but I don't think it is. Let me explain:

A couple of months ago I copied all off my files from my "Documents & Settings" folder to my external hard drive. No problem.

Last night, I went to do another backup. The normal Windows drag 'n drop method works fine except that if the file is already on the external HD, it asks you if you want to overwrite it. Your choices are Yes, Yes to All, and No. If you click Yes, you'll be there clicking thousands of time, obviously. Clicking Yes to all (which is what I did) and you needlessly rewrite thousands of files. What windows really needs is a No to All or something, so that only new files get written.

Am I missing something here?

P.S. I am aware that Windows XP (which is what I'm using) has a backup function, but I would prefer to keep my files uncompressed for easy access.

Thansk.

I use a very simple backup program called Second Copy; you probably never heard of it, google it. I started using it when I got a computer that had Windows Vista on it and the software that I had been using was incompatible. I like second Copy because it is one of the few file back up programs that i could find that could do an UNCOMPRESED backup. By default, it will compress but you can go into the settings for a backup set and tell it not to compress. You can set it to just copy or to do an exact copy in which instance in addition to copy from your main drive to back up drive, it will delete from the backup drive files that no longer exist on the hard drive. For a simple program that doesn't cost a lot of money, it has a lot of nice features. Will even keep previous versions of a file, if you want it to.

Richard

I use and recommend SyncBackSE. There is a free version, but the intermediate version costs only $30 and is far more powerful. I have survived the loss of my internal drive and my external drive (not at the same time) and lost no data at all. The intermediate level product supports both incremental and differential backups, which avoid copying unchanged files. You can put your machine to sleep and it will wake up in the middle of the night, do the backup and go back to sleep again.

Kyle D

If you just want to continue to copy and paste your backups then you may want to look into TeraCopy. I think it will suit your purposes really well. It replaces the standard/default windows copy and paste utility. I use it on all of my computers (4 desktops and 3 laptops) and it works wonderfully. Also, they have a free version for home users and that is the one I use.

However, if you want an actual backup software, then I second the recommendation of SyncBack SE.

Scott_Quier

I recently upgraded my Nero 7 to Nero 9 and got Nero BackItUp & Burn as a free add on. I use this software. It generates a "split" zip file with a different extension. The neat thing is that I can, if I must, change the extension to the appropriate value or I can boot my computer from a Nero generated boot disk and use that session to restore from the backup.

I've used this restore method for my system drive a couple of times (when will I ever learn not to play with things that I shouldn't touch ) and also retreived a number of individual files from and, again, from an incremental.

My backup scheme is to do a full backup and then an incremental about once a week. About every month or two I will start over with a full backup as this makes recovery from a problem a bit easier.

jrogers

Thanks for the responses...it sounds like there are several ways that would work for me. Now I've just got to get in the habit of backing up regularly!

couple of questions:

CynthiaM: I'm assuming that the uncompressed files are not encrypted by the software, i.e., just normal files that any computer can read.

Richard and/or Kyle: SyncBackSE sounds like a good program...does it encrypt the files, or just copy them "as is?"

Thanks again.

Richard

jrogers wrote:

Thanks for the responses...it sounds like there are several ways that would work for me. Now I've just got to get in the habit of backing up regularly!

couple of questions:

CynthiaM: I'm assuming that the uncompressed files are not encrypted by the software, i.e., just normal files that any computer can read.

Richard and/or Kyle: SyncBackSE sounds like a good program...does it encrypt the files, or just copy them "as is?"

Thanks again.

You may be more disciplined than I am, but I never made backups manually often enough. It is a tremendous relief to have it happen automatically without having to think about it.

RE: SyncBack encryption--it is provided but optional. You can also do ZIP compression if you want. I don't use either one, as going back for a particular file is easier if everything is just in a normal file format. It also is convenient if you are using the external drive to move stuff across different machines or platforms. Note that it is Windows only. The basic license permits putting it on up to five machines, and in addition to backup, it can be used for synchronization.

PilotBrad

One of the cheapest, easiest and simplest solutions is to use Microsoft's SyncToy. It's a small app that allows you to create folder pairs on different disks or drives (or anywhere) which it synchronizes. No compression or archiving is involved, it just syncs the files and folders.

You do have a few options with regards to syncing (I use Echo which treats my HDD as master), but the real beauty of it is that the sync is incremental, meaning it only modifies or makes updates as needed and you aren't wasting your time for it copy files or folders that have not been changed.

I run it manually about once a week, but if you are feeling industrious you could set up a task in windows to have it run automatically.

Good luck.

Art Scott

My reason for using the Acronis Software (around $30) is that it was the only one that after the cloning was done and I swapped Harddrives around.....All of my software worked just like it was a totally fresh install......No other cloning software I used cloned each liite bit of info....there was always something that would not work, including OS at times, Photoshop and the one with the most problem being cloned was Microsoft's Office........but Migrate 7 did it and everything has worked perfectly since..........

My advice to find a software you like and is easy for you to use.....try it out make your back ups and then swap harddrives and restore to a new harddrive just as if your c drive did a hard crash and died and unrecoverable death.......this is what lead me to Acronis..........


Check with the local computer repair centers (not greek squid - big box stores) and see what they are using.....Locally we have several local owned repair companies and they all use Acronis Products for cloning harddrives.............


Good Luck

Wil Davis

Special backup programs are all very well, but I've been burned more than once where I've found that my backups, being in a special format, are not easily accessible from a brand-spanking-new-installed system, without re-installing all the original backup software (where did I put the key? and next, where are all the patches?).

Drives are very inexpensive (<$100/Tb) so it's unnecessary to compress backups. External drives (eSATA or USB 2) are easy to access from most machines. I use robocopy (robust copy) which is free (part of Windoze Tookit) and has all sorts of marvelous switches (only copy modified, delete (or not) after copying, mark archived (or not) etc. etc.…)

…and (wait for it) here's the best thing:

ROBOCOPY IS VERY FAST!

…because it's run from a command-line, and doesn't go through the bottle-neck of Windoze Exploder (plus all the {insert-favourite-security-stuff-here*} which slugs file-copies like you wouldn't believe!).

I don't have to run any special apps to recover files.

If I need to archive anything, I copy to DVD, but for regular backups (done once every 2 or 2 weeks) I just use robocopy, and buy more secondary storage as and when necessary.

HTH -

- Wil

* I use Norton (sigh...)

CynthiaM

jrogers wrote:

Thanks for the responses...it sounds like there are several ways that would work for me. Now I've just got to get in the habit of backing up regularly!

couple of questions:

CynthiaM: I'm assuming that the uncompressed files are not encrypted by the software, i.e., just normal files that any computer can read.

Richard and/or Kyle: SyncBackSE sounds like a good program...does it encrypt the files, or just copy them "as is?"

Thanks again.

You would not know the difference between what second copy has copied (provided you disable compression) and what you have copied. you could even take the external drive and plug it into another computer and be good to go. And you don't need the program to restore the files; you can just explore the backup location and copy and paste. Also, the program will let you schedule your backups. I keep my computer on 24/7 so i have it set to do a file backup every night in the middle of the night. I get anal about backups. I also back up to mozy on line and do an image backup about 1-2 times/week. Maybe that's because I am on windows and need something to get me out of windows hell!

Pupator

Another vote for Syncback. I've used it for years and like it so much I've upgraded to the paid version.