Decent Backup Software...

[aHumanError]

Hello.

I'm looking for suggestions for some good software to backup my data partition to a network drive.

I have tried Seagate backup (That comes with the NAS drive) but for some reason it stores everything in ridiculous folders, for example "\\Drive\Data\Backup\z5d2hz14blahblahblah6s2dj6x\Computername\Drive\Pictures". I also tried Windows Backup & Store but that compressed everything in a million and one cab files, also in unrelated folder names.

I just want software to virtually mirror my data partitions, the folder layout, names, everything. I do not have to worry about space as there's plenty so no need for any compression, either. The more customisable, the better; Of course it also should be able to amend any changes that might have occurred with any file.

It doesn't necessarily have to be free, if it's good enough I don't mind coughing up the dosh; as long as it's no prescriptions.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[BikerEcho]

A bat file can do that easily.
I relied on a bat file for a long time, before i decided to just use Google Drive for all my backup. (I still have my most important files on an external harddrive)
I need less than 1000gb of backup. So it only cost me 2$ a month

 

[BikerEcho]

Here is an example of the code i used

xcopy C:\Users\ECHO\docs\*.* G:\Backup\docs /c /s /r /d /y /i /h /f
echo DONE

In your case it's properly more like

xcopy "C:\files\*.*" "\\networkdrive\backup" /c /s /r /d /y /i /h /f

Haven't tested that though

 

[Technician1]

I use Backblaze and Google and Skydrive.

 

[Trotter]

Acronis is good. I use it in my work to backup and reimage drives. It can be set to automatically backup whatever drives you designate on whatever schedule you set up, either with complete backups or incremental ones.

 

[crazyman143]

I'm going to second Biker's suggestion of using a batch file for this. I almost posted a similar suggestion of using a robocopy script in the same fashion but I held off because I thought maybe writing a script would be too much for a user just wanting something simple.

But really, once you've fine tuned your script it's dead simple for file backups. You can even schedule your script to run via Task Scheduler, and it just works. Your files will be mirrored on your destination network drive, identical to the source.

If you don't want to script anything, other options you might be intersted in are SyncBack and SyncToy. Synctoy is freeware, Syncback has both free and paid versions but it looks like the free edition would probably work for you. A setup like that should work fine, the only concern I have with doing a "sync" type of backup is that if files get lost/damaged on the source, the same will be true of the backup, and vice versa once the sync has completed.

This is one nice thing about using a software that will take incremental backups but of course then you have to rely on that software for restores, and it will store backups in archive formats, not an easily browsable folder structure.

 

[aHumanError]

I'm slightly confused about the batch file idea; it's surprising a batch file can be as advanced to copy/replace files that have been amended, or is that not what this is doing here?

It's a good idea to keep a scheduled task for backing up your data, but really I'd prefer to do it manually - especially to eliminate the risk about corrupted files highlighted by crazyman143.

But thanks for all your suggestions, I'll look into this when I have a bit more time.

 

[BikerEcho]

I'm slightly confused about the batch file idea; it's surprising a batch file can be as advanced to copy/replace files that have been amended, or is that not what this is doing here?

All those parameters after the batch command adds a set of rules to the copy.
In this case it will copy only files that isn't already at the destination. However if it sees the same file at the destination, it will check for changes. If it does detect changes to the file, it will copy and replace. So basically it syncs files.

You can see what all the parameters available does here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771254.aspx
You can add them according to your needs.

If you don't want the prompt to appear every time it checks for files, you can start the job minimized by adding this code to the batchfile before the xcopy command.

if not "%minimized%"=="" goto :minimized
set minimized=true
start /min cmd /C "%~dpnx0"
goto :EOF
:minimized

The other recommendations you have gotten is properly easier.
But I just feel that you don't need a third party software for local backups. (unless you want the backup encrypted)

 

[Technician1]

All the on site options are fine for what they do, but what do you do in the event of a fire or other catastrophic failure that takes out the whole computer? You really need an off site solution, and that's why I gave those options, they do what the on site would do and add a layer of safety to that. There is no better option.

 

[aHumanError]

I decided to just use SyncBack freeware, it's fine for me. I just want to mirror my data partition on request.

In the highly unlikely event of a fire I'm one of those people who would grab their laptop as well as my phone. I also do not yet trust those cloud services.