Backing Up

neil3k · 1 Mar 2007 at 12:22

Whats the best software for backing up your files to an external HD?

Thx

bledd · 1 Mar 2007 at 12:38

synctoy is awesome

will only copy updated files since the last run

and can be scheduled

MTA99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 12:39

Synctoy is free, easy to use and from Microsoft (not sure if that's a good thing or not

).

I use Robocopy (another M$ tool) to make incremental backups to a network drive. Its powerful but not particularly easy to use.

MTA99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 12:41

bledd. said:
...and can be scheduled

but not to run on shutdown or logoff

hence robocopy for the logoff/shutdown win

zetec452 · 1 Mar 2007 at 12:41

sync back is pretty good too. www.2brightsparks.com

bledd · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:14

MTA99 said:
but not to run on shutdown or logoff hence robocopy for the logoff/shutdown win

sure you can

just use gpedit.msc to add it to startup / logoff / shutdown

synctoy.exe -R (will run all jobs)
synctoy.exe -R"Pictures" (will run the job called pictures if you have one)

MTA99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:19

bledd. said:
sure you can

just use gpedit.msc to add it to startup / logoff / shutdown

synctoy.exe -R (will run all jobs)
synctoy.exe -R"Pictures" (will run the job called pictures if you have one)

Do you speak from experience?

BruceLee · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:23

JonRohan said:
sync back is pretty good too. www.2brightsparks.com

I use this, good programme

bledd · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:26

MTA99 said:
Do you speak from experience?

can't say i've used it for logoff/shutdown, but the help file says it'd work

MTA99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:36

bledd. said:
can't say i've used it for logoff/shutdown, but the help file says it'd work

Was a loaded question really

cos i know from experience that while adding synctoy.exe -R will run all jobs at shutdown, "shutdown" won't pause and wait for synctoy to finish before killing all processes and powering off.

It will however wait for robocopy

bledd · 1 Mar 2007 at 13:46

does it do this with 1.4 aswell?

personally, i've used robocopy a lot, but synctoy seems more suited for the average home user

MTA99 · 1 Mar 2007 at 14:09

bledd. said:
does it do this with 1.4 aswell?

Errr.....dunno. Release date for 1.4 given at Oct06, I was messing about with synctoy and robocopy before that.

bledd. said:
personally, i've used robocopy a lot, but synctoy seems more suited for the average home user

Agreed!