What backup software do you use?

Buchanan0204 · 8 Jan 2012 at 13:08

What backup software do you guys use? I've personally never bothered with it before. I've always just copied and pasted my files onto another drive and left it there. However, you end up with the problem of the original folder/files being updated and thus the backup becomes old.

I believe Windows can do this now, especially 7. You can turn on archiving and it only backsup the new files. However, is there better more efficient software out there. If so what do you use and why?

Cheers.

Buchanan0204 · 8 Jan 2012 at 13:39

Blue160 said:
I've been using Windows 7 backup since Win 7 was released. It seems to work fine

What sort of setup do you have running with it?

Buchanan0204 · 8 Jan 2012 at 14:30

Just to point out to some people. I'm not interested in making an image. I've got that covered. Just looking for software to backup individual directories.

Will look into what Craig321 said. Sounds pretty ideal to me.

Buchanan0204 · 9 Jan 2012 at 04:14

Rensin said:
I use synctoy 2.1, i have it set to automatically backup the changes made in the folders that have setup. You need to create a task in task schedular to start the programme ... has worked perfect for me over the past year.

Will give it a go. Cheers

Buchanan0204 · 9 Jan 2012 at 07:58

mrk said:
FreeFileSync supersedes SyncToy in virtually every aspect and then some. I used to be a long term SyncToy user as did many others here.

Too late unfortunately. I've just downloaded it and set it all up with a scheduled task to run daily.

What will free file sync do that synctoy wont or can't? It seems to be doing the job for me with 0 intervention. Can I ask for more?

Buchanan0204 · 9 Jan 2012 at 12:55

CaptainCrash said:
When I used SyncToy many moons ago, I found it sometimes had a nasty habit of failing silently (only discovered the errors after doing a manual directory compare). This was obviously completely unacceptable for a backup program, and after some further research I found it was by no means an uncommon occurrence.

I don't know if the bugs have since been fixed, but FreeFileSync has been 100% foolproof for me so far, and given its far better speed and extra features, it's really a no-brainer.

Is it just the same thing as SyncToy then? Does the same job, just better.

If I get issues, I'll switch over. I will do a manual compare on next schedule.

Buchanan0204 · 9 Jan 2012 at 14:22

cats_five said:
The latest Synctoy is a big improvement over the original if backing up to a USB stick - if the stick has a different drive letter to last time it still works correctly.

I use Synctoy, in a variety of ways - to an extra internal HDD, to a NAS, and to a USB stick.

Happy days.

I don't have a NAS as of yet. Planning on throwing together a PC with existing parts. I only need the motherboard & PSU. Have the rest.

Then was planning on just installing Windows on it and setting up shares/homegroup and accessing files across a Gigabit network.

Would I see any advantage to running something like Windows home server or FreeNas. My only plan is to access files on the hard drives.

P.S. All hard drives isntalled in Main PC at the moment and backing up from one drive to another. Different drive letters of course.

Buchanan0204 · 9 Jan 2012 at 14:55

jbloggs said:
Use WHS, also Win 7 backup/Restore facility and Acronis True Image Home (for OS backup), use Second Copy 7 for files/folders...

I already use the built in Windows 7 feature to image the hard disk. Find it pretty good and efficient. Not so keen on Acronis. A lot of unnecessary options and over complicated menus, when I used it anyway. Windows 7 does the job nicely and doesn't complicate things.

I'll give WHS a try when I get round to building the NAS.