Drive copying software that syncs like Dropbox?

TheBigCheese · 25 Nov 2013 at 11:50

Hi everybody! (Hi Dr Nick...)

I'm currently mulling over backup options with a view to protecting myself from the Cryptolocker virus and also for just good practice, it's a habit I need to get into.

I was wondering about cloud storage which has a local folder such as Dropbox but as some far more logical thinking members than me pointed out, should the virus strike, that would be encrypted as well. See this thread.

It's now occurred to me that rather than paying an ongoing fee for online storage (which would be substantial for the amount of data I have to backup) a better option would be backing up onto local HDDs.

Is there software available that works in the same way as Dropbox but for local drives?

My intention is to back up all the drives to external HDDs, then disconnect the external HDDs except for last thing at night where any changes made during the day to the source drives are automatically synced to the backup drive. That means adding data as well as deleting unwanted data I've removed from the source.

I have Piriform HDD manager 12 but that doesn't seem to have a sync option.

I've found free software called FreeFileSync but I'm not sure if that does exactly what I need or if I can get away with using free software for this job.

What do you think or this idea for backup and what software would you recommend?

Thanks!

(Sorry for spamming with two questions in short succession, hopefully this will be a good idea that'll provide a backup solution!

Dblaze · 25 Nov 2013 at 12:50

How about Syncback.

Selekt0r · 25 Nov 2013 at 13:05

I see you mentioned Crashplan in the other thread.

Even the free version of Crashplan enables you to sync local data to backup archives on another PC (either on your own network or across the internet). This still includes the built-in versioning capabilities of Crashplan, so if you were unlucky enough to get hit by Cryptolocker then you would be able to restore a version prior to the date of encryption.

And, since this uses Crashplan's internal protocols it neither involves mapped drives nor UNC paths, so the other PC on which the backup archives are held should be safe from Cryptolocker (as long as that doesn't get hit independently...)

linktoinsanity · 25 Nov 2013 at 14:54

Thought of using Robocopy? It's built into Windows (7 at least) and you can use Task scheduler to make it run every day at a certain time or you could just double-click a link on your desktop.

You would have to write your own script for it however, or find one that already does what you want it to and change it to match your needs.

bledd · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:01

Another good option for some file types..

Store them on a fileserver in your house and give your self read-only access to them, unless accessing them from the server.

I've done this for years with my MP3 / Videos / Photos. Mainly to prevent drunken folder drags into other sub folders.

Hellsmk2 · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:02

Dblaze said:
How about Syncback.

This is all you need.

The free edition will suffice.

Failing that, you could create a simple robocopy script to achieve the same thing.

seanyc5 · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:35

What a terrible virus! Strange that they use a 2k key when 4k is available?? I know 2k is unbreakable at the minute but it takes no more effort to make a 4k key?

I suggest everyone goes into there folder options and displays extension!

TheBigCheese · 26 Nov 2013 at 23:10

Thanks very much for all the suggestions, my apologies for the delayed reply, I've been busy the past couple of days.

Selekt0r - that's a really good point with the rollback feature but my Crashplan has now expired and I've decided I don't really want to keep forking out on a subscription. I'm also a little data protection concious as some data has names/addresses on it, possibly best not to upload that stuff, so I'm definitely looking at a local solution now.

linktoinsanity - Robocopy was sounding hopeful until you mentioned writing my own script...my one rule with technology is if it's possible to screw something up then I will...I always get an inexplicable error when building machines even though I've been doing it for years...makes the missus giggle anyway. :/

Dblaze and Hellsmk2, thanks for the Syncback recommendations, I've had a look at the website and that does look like what I need!

I have at least 2TB drives in my setup that I would like cloned and updated to backup drives in external enclosures. Would they still backup and sync if the external drives appear with different drive letters?

Also, do you know if it's possible to set the software to sync to just match the destination from the source drive? I don't want to delete stuff from the source drive only to have it reappear from the destination drive (I haven't really synced stuff before...not sure the setup of it!).

bledd. - wow that's a genius idea! I think I need to investigate how I can do that with my Synology NAS as that's a really good idea, the stuff I put on there (completed customer orders etc.) is just for achive so if I can protect them in that way it'll be brilliant!

Selekt0r · 27 Nov 2013 at 11:39

TheBigCheese said:
Thanks very much for all the suggestions, my apologies for the delayed reply, I've been busy the past couple of days.

Selekt0r - that's a really good point with the rollback feature but my Crashplan has now expired and I've decided I don't really want to keep forking out on a subscription. I'm also a little data protection concious as some data has names/addresses on it, possibly best not to upload that stuff, so I'm definitely looking at a local solution now.

I'm pretty sure you can use the 'Friend' backup capabilities of Crashplan to backup to a local PC on your own network or a friend's PC offsite without any chargeable subscription to 'Crashplan Central' (i.e. the Cloud backup). As I mentioned before, this can be done without any mapped network drives because it all happens through Crashplan's own internal protocols.

Dblaze · 27 Nov 2013 at 12:11

You can set Syncback to mirror the source, so when files and folders are deleted from the source they will also deleted from destination when the profile is next run.
Syncback is very configurable so you shouldn't have any problems tailoring it to your requirements
If the drive letter is different from the profile, the profile will fail when it is next run.

linktoinsanity · 27 Nov 2013 at 15:15

TheBigCheese said:
linktoinsanity - Robocopy was sounding hopeful until you mentioned writing my own script...my one rule with technology is if it's possible to screw something up then I will...I always get an inexplicable error when building machines even though I've been doing it for years...makes the missus giggle anyway. :/

Ok fair enough.

If other ideas don't work out for you, thought of trying BitTorrent Sync?

http://www.bittorrent.com/sync/downloads

bledd · 27 Nov 2013 at 16:56

Unless you're disconnecting your hard drives / network shares, then if you get infected with this Crypto virus, it will spread to every folder that it can write to.

So potentially could infect your backups too if you have 24/7 access to them.

linktoinsanity · 27 Nov 2013 at 17:13

bledd. said:
Unless you're disconnecting your hard drives / network shares, then if you get infected with this Crypto virus, it will spread to every folder that it can write to.

So potentially could infect your backups too if you have 24/7 access to them.

I'd suggest to get around this you need some form of offline backup as well. A WinImage backup or Clonezilla maybe.