Backup Software

For a windows machine, and a straightforward "Mirror" to an external hard drive, Microsoft's SyncToy is dead easy to use and it works.

Pete
 
I've been using Karen's Replicator for many years (from the Win 95 or 2000 days I think and up to Win8.1) and it does what I need and has saved my bacon several times when HDDs have died over the years. Although Karen Kenworthy, the author, died a while ago, I think a simple Google will find the program - and several others she wrote. All free by the way...

Anthony.
 
rsync and cron because it is the most efficient way of syncing across multiple computers. But you will need to be comfortable with command line and have something like cygwin installed to use it on Windows.
 
Not backup in the conventional sense but I use Acronis to create an image and schedule regular updates ... a restore gets you up and running 'exactly as was' at the time of the selected restore :)
 
Adam Wortman said:
What do people use and why? I'm keen to get a good system going but I'm struggling to work out which software is best , be it paid or free.
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Acronis True Image to make images of my computer drives, and All Way Sync to mirror my server to another server.

gramps said:
Not backup in the conventional sense but I use Acronis to create an image and schedule regular updates ... a restore gets you up and running 'exactly as was' at the time of the selected restore :)
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^This.

This IS backup. Having copies of your images somewhere else is back up to a degree, but genuine back up will enable you to restore everything back to how it was, including installed apps, desktop icons and even recycle bin contents.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
This IS backup. Having copies of your images somewhere else is back up to a degree, but genuine back up will enable you to restore everything back to how it was, including installed apps, desktop icons and even recycle bin contents.
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This is, for me, the great thing about Acronis.
By 'not in the conventional sense', I mean that most people view backup as backing up 'data' and then if a restore is needed, restoring from 'data' ... or wiping the drive, re-installing software and then restoring 'data'.
With Acronis it is not necessary to go through all of that to get up and running again quickly e.g. after a HDD fail or upgrading HDD.
 
Macrium Reflect for imaging C drive and FreeFileSync for direct 1:1 copying.
 
Adam Wortman said:
I still don;t understand the downside (is there one?) to using something like Acronis to back up files v something like freefilesync?
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There's no downside to Acronis or Macrium versus FreeFileSync - they just have different uses.

Acronis & Macrium can both clone a drive or make an image of it. I use images to restore C drive if something goes wrong with Windows or I install some trial software then decide to get rid of it. Acronis & Macrium will both do this in a few minutes.

FreeFileSync is used to sync two drives together so that any changes/additions to the source drive are replicated on the destination drive - e.g. if you add say 10 new files to the source drive, running FFS will add them to the destination drive as well. Once you've got FFS set up it's very fast.

NB. You can back up individual files/folders with Acronis & Macrium too but the result is an image file and not a 1:1 copy. The image file needs to be accessed via Acronis/Macrium before you can do anything with it. FFS on the other hand makes 1:1 copies - they're exactly the same as the original files so they can be accessed directly via Windows Explorer, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.
 
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PS. if you try FFS watch out for unwanted addons (e.g. Conduit, Yahoo, RealPlayer) - untick/deselect them at the install screen.
 
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boliston said:
freefilesync is good
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Yeah I use that to for my photos - works well and easy (and free) to use

For my computer in general I use EaseUS Todo Backup which is also free
 
Pete Gl said:
For a windows machine, and a straightforward "Mirror" to an external hard drive, Microsoft's SyncToy is dead easy to use and it works.

Pete
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This.:plus1:
 
I didn't get on with SyncToy at all. I can't remember why, but I know that when I re-installed my OS, I had Synctoy and AllwaySync as legacy solutions.

I ended up with FreefileSync which stood me in good stead until I decided I wanted realtime folder monitoring. Monthly backups were taking forever and I wanted something that would just keep on top of it. I'm now moving over to Siber Systems' GoodSync. I'd used their Roboform product for password management and it was simple, robust and regularly updated. GoodSync is brill and for $30 or your regional equivalent, it's not too expensive.

Don't get me wrong, FreefileSync is awesome and I'd give that a shot to begin with. Seeing the functionality in Goodsync though was worth the money.

For me. Your mileage etc etc...
 
Would always recommend some off-site backup - something like Backblaze, Mozy, Crashplan - they all review well, all have their own pro's and con's - worth reading up on - but also worth doing..!
 
Another vote for Acronis True Image.

It was recommended to me by an IT Professional, so I bought it, and have been impressed with the simplicity of using it for backing-up to two external hard drives.

A bonus was the included 'Clone Disk' facility, which I recently used when I replaced my HDD with a SSD. Just connected the new SSD to a spare SATA port on the Motherboard, and let Acronis get on with it. The result, a perfect copy of the C drive, including the 'Boot' sector, on the SSD.

Then, just removed the old HDD. Job done. :)

Dave
 
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Acronis for disk image copy of the operating system disk, stored on multiple media, hard disk and a couple of copies on DVD.
All applications used are either on media or when installed/used are put into an apps folder and these are copied off also. My PC has office, Lightroom, and photoshop installed. A few other essentials and that's about it. I keep it quite clean.
In this way if I need to clean install then I can

Important file based backup every weekend to a nas and two separate USB disks. Basically this is email pst files, documents, all photo based files, raws, jpegs, Lightroom files etc.

I also have my course work on a blog, which is backed up every week and emailed to me.

Syncback is a free GUI based copy program which can be setup and only takes changes, as can robocopy as a command line. I run robocopy from a batch file as I find it's quicker.
 
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