Best free Backup Sync software
- Thread starter _Jimlad_
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Robocopy is brilliant for directly mirroring 2 folders using the MIR command (additions, deletions and updates will be made).
If not then Synctoy.
Robocopy is built into Vista, not 100% sure about premium but it's definitely in Ultimate. If premium doesn't have it then you can download it off the MS website.
I use this to mirror my college work from external portable hard drive to pen drive:
robocopy /MIR G:\ H:\ /R:50 /XD "Films" "$RECYCLE.BIN" "RECYCLER" "System Volume Information" "Cisco Apps"
/MIR - mirrors the folder exactly, including deletions and updates
G:\ H:\ - source destination
/R:50 - number of retries, it's set to something stupid like 3,000,000 retries as default
/XD "Films"...etc - directories to exclude
If not then Synctoy.
Robocopy is built into Vista, not 100% sure about premium but it's definitely in Ultimate. If premium doesn't have it then you can download it off the MS website.
I use this to mirror my college work from external portable hard drive to pen drive:
robocopy /MIR G:\ H:\ /R:50 /XD "Films" "$RECYCLE.BIN" "RECYCLER" "System Volume Information" "Cisco Apps"
/MIR - mirrors the folder exactly, including deletions and updates
G:\ H:\ - source destination
/R:50 - number of retries, it's set to something stupid like 3,000,000 retries as default
/XD "Films"...etc - directories to exclude
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Yes, both free by Microsoft.
You should just be able to run RoboCopy from command prompt using the commands I posted above (there are more commands if you run 'robocopy /?') as it's built into Vista.
Just create your backup command, save it in a .bat file and make a scheduled task
You should just be able to run RoboCopy from command prompt using the commands I posted above (there are more commands if you run 'robocopy /?') as it's built into Vista.
Just create your backup command, save it in a .bat file and make a scheduled task
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I use SyncToy 2.0.
If you want to run it unattended here :
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/01/01/schedule-synctoy-to-run-and-automatically-and-repetitively/
If you want to run it unattended here :
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/01/01/schedule-synctoy-to-run-and-automatically-and-repetitively/
SyncToy is probably the easier one to set up and use, but I recommended RoboCopy because of it's MIR(ror) feature.
SyncToy can't mirror a directory exactly, it can only 'echo' which basically updates changes from the source folder to the destination, it doesn't remove files and folders from the destination when they've been removed from the source.
SyncToy can't mirror a directory exactly, it can only 'echo' which basically updates changes from the source folder to the destination, it doesn't remove files and folders from the destination when they've been removed from the source.
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AFAIK it does all that and more, and the new version 2.0 also Hash Checks files not just the name and size like version 1.4 or Beta 2.0 did.
QUOTED :
"
. Synchronize: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes on either side are repeated on the other.
. Echo: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.
. Contribute: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. No deletions. "
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SamuraiTortoise
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I've been using Syncback - current version is a paid one but the previous version is free - might be worth a look as an alternative? http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html
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Another vote for SyncBack. I used to use SyncToy but found it left rogue empty folders on my backup volume.
There is actually quite a few of these freeware utilities, if you look in the General Utilities And Other Applications section, you will find about 10 of them...
Nice, looks like they've updated echo so it works properly now then... on v2 beta it was more of an incremental (no deletions).
I'm gonna upgrade now - I use SyncToy for my daily backup
This
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Does not happen to me, possibly older build or user error.
(there is a few settings you can change other than the main 3 choices in subsections).
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This was well over a year ago. I'm guessing things might have changed, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one to find empty rogue folders lying about.
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Well 1.4 was not for Vista offically, only 2.0 beta and now 2.0 Final and its in 64bit Flavour now.
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Ah sorry, I think this was about 1.2 or so - and on XP32.
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HEHE
Does not happen to me, possibly older build or user error.
(there is a few settings you can change other than the main 3 choices in subsections).
It's not happening to me any more since I set up v2.0, I can confirm that when you removed or renamed a folder in the source folder the old folder would be emptied and left as it was in the destination, so you'd be left with a bunch of empty folders.
Yep, they have fixed it now in v2.0. I had to re-setup all my folder pairs last night for it to sort itself out though.
robocopy /MIR =
Definitely this if you're not after something that's GUI based (you could get Robocopy GUI, but I never found it very good), espcially as robocopy is now included with Vista. If I was setting up a backup solution now I'd probably use Robocopy... but I've already got it all set up perfectly with SyncToy.