Hi all:
I have two internal hard drives. I purchased a USB external drive. I'm looking for simple to use backup software; something that will only back up what is missing, and allow me to select folders and sub folders I want to back up. What are you using?
Thanks in advance.
Dave Gurtcheff
Beach Haven, NJ

Syncback free version

I use 3 programs for backup:

SecondCopy - is perfect for what you want to do
AISBackup - also perfect, but not as tuned to automated backups throughout the day
MOZYHome - $5 per month for unlimited storage on a server(s) somewhere.

Image originals are loaded from CF card to USB disk A
SecondCopy makes backups throughout the day to USB Disk B
AISBackup makes a nightly copy to USB Disk C
MOZYHome makes a daily backup to the web.

I can grab disks A, B, C in the event of a forest fire and be gone in less than a minute. I feel that having two different programs copying to two different disks gives me some protection against software errors as well as hardware failures. MozyHome is th ultimate offsite backup. It's competitor does not yet do USB

Here is a very nice, easy to use program that does exactly what you want, and a lot more if you ever desire.

http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/index.php

http://www.outbackphoto.com/computers_and_...p_02/essay.html

I use the free Syncback software. Everyday it backs up everything on the main drive to the backup drive. Once a week it deletes anything on the backup drive that's not on the main drive. So if I delete something from the main drive, I have up to a week to recover it.

Mike.

if you use Apple OSX
the best thing of the new Apple OSX10.5 system ( Leopard) is timemachine

It backups up incrementalt every hour- every day every week until the external disk is full. You can even search back in time for your stuff. depending on the size ogf the external disk it can save several months of data.

Before that I used Silverkeeper- http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
It is a free program but more simple

I couldn't tell whether you were using a Mac or Pc from your post. I am on a MAC and use a program called foldersynchronizer.

http://www.softobe.com/products/flsy/pp.html

It is not free, but not expensive. I have been using versions of this for years. It allows me to do what you are asking. It also allows me to exclude certain folders or file types from a backup. I never backup my "downloads" folder for instance. And I never backup my Lightroom preview files--that are very big--and can be recreated. (I do, of course, backup the critical Lightroom file.)

Ed, in Baltimore

Thank you all for the quick replies. I use a PC with Windows XP. I will check out your suggestions.
Dave

Seeing you are on a PC may I suggest FolderClone. I'm quite happy with it.

Have you looked at MS' SyncToy? It's still in Beta but quite stable. I like it a lot.

Not a fan of synctoy. It synced a whole bunch of my files out of existence. Mostly my fault but it didn't make it obvious I was making a mistake.

I use Clone 2.1 for PC backup, a simple little programme but very effective and quite powerful. It does what you want, when you want, it's not pretty, but I've used much nicer looking programmes and they simply aren't as good.
http://newtonsoftware.co.uk/clone/

I use my own customized version of Dirmatch. I use 3 different batch files, each of which calls Dirmatch about 40 times, to compare 120 total folders. With the compare view, I can easily copy the newer and missing files, but I can also override any copy since I have total control. My copy of Dirmatch also has compensation for 1-hour or 1-minute time differences due to NTFS -vs- FAT and FAT32 file systems. And did I mention total visual control? No errors with this method!

I like this Program best for backup ,for BOTH Mac and PC,it came with my Seagate External Hard drive.
I bought the full program and costs 35 or so bucks.
Here's the link to the site, try the 30 day trial.Mind you I have never restored from it.THAT is the true test of such a program.Can it BACKUP and RESTORE!

http://www.memeo.com/autobackupstd.php

Let us know if you think it works for you!

Thanks again all for the suggestions. I downloaded the free version of Synchback. The jury is still out. I made a "profile", as they call it, for my documents, etc on my "C" drive, and another "profile" for docs, etc on my "F" drive. Both these profiles successfully backed up when used individually. The program allows you to create a "Group Profile", which I did. The group contains my "C" drive profile and my "F" drive profile. So far I have not been successful in getting the Group profile to run. I am probably doing something wrong. I like the simple interface.
Regards
Dave

I use Backup Magic: http://www.moonsoftware.com/bmagic.asp

Just wondering if you tried this link?
http://www.memeo.com/autobackupstd.php
Or if anyone had tried the software, and what did they think of it?

another vote for the syncback freeware... I use if for backing up a specific directory. At one time I tried to get fancy with folder syncronization and ended up loosing a whole whack of files from both drives, (fortunately recoverable).

I do not believe that Syncback will do what you want, which is an incremental backup (only files that are new or changed since the last backup). According to their website, you need to buy the LE version to do that.

It will sync two directories, however, so depending on his goals it _might_ be the same thing.

I use a program called True Image Home by Acronis. A major advantage is that its backups can also copy and restore the system and program files. Most other backup systems can't do this or mirror a drive.

So in the event of a hard drive or other failure, I can restore the OS and programs easily without having to get out all of those original disks and serial numbers, install and then update them.

True Image does incremental, and differential backups in addition to full backups and can be scheduled and controlled any way you like.

It's only $50 and can save you days of time trying to restore everything if your hard drive crashes.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/produ...e/features.html

If your using XP then you can create a script to perform these back ups yourself, the function is called xcopy, it's a built in function that is part of XP, you can specify various switches to set options like copying to a back up only the files that have changed or are new. You can save this script as a batch file and run it anytime you like. Check google for information on using using xcopy, there is a lot of info about using it and it's completely free.

For Wndows based systems, robocopy (included in the Server 2003 Resource Kit) is a very powerfull tool. Like xcopy, it's command line based - however Derk Benisch at MS came up with a nice GUI wrapper.



hth - John

Yo copy a few directories VERY FAST use SameDir (freeware) utility.
SameDir has a feature no other package managed to get right - an UPDATE backup.

I like True Image as well and back ups are automatic when I shut down. It also allows you to keep the backup on a partition that cannot be accessed by the operating system. Every week I make an additonal back up onto a second external drive.

Mozy is the way to go - off-site, cheap, and reliable.

This morning, as it happens, I had a fight with Bridge and lost, wiping out all of 2007 photos from home town Los Angeles (5 gig of photos). Within 2 hours, Mozy had me up and running again.

I use it for all 4 computers, especially now!

I have been using a program from Karen Kenworthy called replicator to copy from hard drives to other computers and external hard drives on a network. It can do incremental copies and can be set to replicate deletions (safest to leave this off most of the time). The program is shareware.

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

I looked at Mozy with some interest - but the "gotcha" for me is that whenever you do a backup, ALL the files (including those previously backed up) must be visible to Mozy, otherwise they are treated as deleted and kept 30 days then deleted from Mozy.

You're right. Almost any program can backup effectively (to some degree at least). The problem is when you want to restore the data, will it work.

My advice - Don't move to any new back up system without testing it, regardless of what people say here.

My experience with some inexpensive/free programs has been terrible and was worse than dragging the files back manually. I'd suggest to anyone even considering a new backup program that they should (redundantly) create a back up, (a 1 week trial would be great), and then try a restore. If it doesn't work, you've only lost a weeks worth of time but no files. Don't wait until the last minute when you actually need the files to find out your "solution" doesn't work the way you hoped...

Again, speaking from experience....

The problem I have from memeo back up is it grinds my internal hard drives for 5-7 mins. at start up. It annoys me !

Memeo has a trial for 30 days free.Here's the link:
http://www.memeo.com/
Have fun people !