Backing up files and folders

[-Chris-]

From personal experience, has anyone come across a good (free) piece of software that can easily backup all files and folders totalling about 250Gb from one external hard drive to another external hard drive (both with USB3 connections), fairly quickly, say less than 6 hours please?

 

[smakme7757]

You should be able to transfer at full speed no matter which backup software you use.

I use Syncback Pro, however there is also a free version.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/download-syncbackfree.html

Great software.

 

[Gintaras]

From personal experience, has anyone come across a good (free) piece of software that can easily backup all files and folders totalling about 250Gb from one external hard drive to another external hard drive (both with USB3 connections), fairly quickly, say less than 6 hours please?

6 hours?
I do it much faster...

 

[-Chris-]

6 hours?
I do it much faster...

Care to enlighten us?

 

[Berryracer]

You should be able to transfer at full speed no matter which backup software you use.

I use Syncback Pro, however there is also a free version.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/download-syncbackfree.html

Great software.

Ditto, I use SynbackSE but before that I used to use the free version and it is perfect.

What I do is sleect the mirroring mode so everything on my source folder is mirrored on the destination folder and any changes I make only those files will be replaced upon the next sync not the entire stuff and no duplicates

make sure you stick to the MIRROR mode when asked what type of backup you want to create

After the first backup is done, the next time you run it will take only a few seconds as it will only synchronize the changes

 

[-Chris-]

Ditto, I use SynbackSE but before that I used to use the free version and it is perfect.

What I do is sleect the mirroring mode so everything on my source folder is mirrored on the destination folder and any changes I make only those files will be replaced upon the next sync not the entire stuff and no duplicates

make sure you stick to the MIRROR mode when asked what type of backup you want to create

After the first backup is done, the next time you run it will take only a few seconds as it will only synchronize the changes

Thanks, in the mirror mode, do both source and destination drives need to be connected at the same time? I would prefer to just connect the backup drive once a week for the backup.

 

[-Chris-]

6 hours?
I do it much faster...

How? Or is it a secret! :biggrin:

 

[smakme7757]

Thanks, in the mirror mode, do both source and destination drives need to be connected at the same time? I would prefer to just connect the backup drive once a week for the backup.

Mirroring isn't backup or at least I don't consider it backup. You want to create a Backup profile which will copy the changes from the primary to the backup drive without deleting anything. A mirror will delete everything from the backup drive that doesn't exist on the primary drive.

This way you can delete files from the primary drive and still retain them on the backup drive (in case you delete in failure). You can also enable versioning if you want, which lets you go back in time if needed.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Crashplan?

 

[Berryracer]

Thanks, in the mirror mode, do both source and destination drives need to be connected at the same time? I would prefer to just connect the backup drive once a week for the backup.

no bro they must both be physically connected because the way it does is...

SyncBack scans your source folder and compares the contents with the destination folder, every file that doesn't exist on the source folder, gets deleted from the destination folder, and any file that EXISTS on the source folder, gets copied over to the destination folder... it's like B will become the clone of A after the operation is complete with minimal time since all the changes are synchronized

 

[-Chris-]

THanks to the ones that have given constructive help here. To do a backup once a week from one ext hd to another ext hd, what would you suggest please? The destination hd would be locked away for the rest of the week.

 

[smakme7757]

Just a simple Backup profile.

1: Copies data from PC to External HDD
2: Only files that have changed are copied
3: No files are deleted from the destination
4: Ability to enable versioning if you need it (Keeps multiple versions of files.)

 

[-Chris-]

Just a simple Backup profile.

1: Copies data from PC to External HDD
2: Only files that have changed are copied
3: No files are deleted from the destination
4: Ability to enable versioning if you need it (Keeps multiple versions of files.)

Which free program for that?

Just backed up a load of files and folders using easeus todo backup and for 250Gb it took 17 hours!

 

[ralfy]

There's also Genie Timeline Free.

 

[smakme7757]

Which free program for that?

Just backed up a load of files and folders using easeus todo backup and for 250Gb it took 17 hours!

What are you backing up to and from?

Use Syncback Free.

 

[Gintaras]

How? Or is it a secret! :biggrin:

I do backup needed files/folders to external WD Elements HDD...

USB2.0 might be less than 6 hrs for 2TB...for USB 3.0, don't even need that...

And WD Elements are pretty reliable - no problems so far for HDDs running 24/7 for 2-3 years....

 

[Cerb]

17 hours?! Are they mostly small files? If they are, one of the HDDs could be a limit. You should be able to image the whole drive, over a USB 2 connection, in under 3 hours.

What's the average file size? (select all, properties, size divided by file count)

 

[-Chris-]

I do backup needed files/folders to external WD Elements HDD...

USB2.0 might be less than 6 hrs for 2TB...for USB 3.0, don't even need that...

And WD Elements are pretty reliable - no problems so far for HDDs running 24/7 for 2-3 years....

Any ideas on which program you use?

 

[Cerb]

Any ideas on which program you use?

250,000MB at 30MB per second (reasonable USB 2.0 maximum) -> 8333 seconds -> 139 minutes -> 2h19m. Assuming some imperfections, call it 3 hours. That's way less than 17, for copying the entire drive, at USB 2.0 speed.

If it's taking that long, there's something about the interfaces and/or files and/or device(s). With mostly small files, FI, HDDs are just plain slow, and your best bet is to not copy them a lot. They have a physical arm that has to move around a lot, and that takes time, and can bring you down to <2MBps, sometimes. There might be ways to work around it, but choosing another program is not going to change it by much, if it's doing the same copying. The program you use has only a small effect on the speed. You need to change what you copy, or what your storage medium is.

To that end, you can try any program that is made to sycnhronize, such as Karen's Replicator (with the right settings), Synctoy, Syncback, or any number of others I can't think off off the top of my head at this moment. That way, only the initial copy takes a long time, while subsequent uses just copy what has changed.

 

[Muse]

I do backup needed files/folders to external WD Elements HDD...

USB2.0 might be less than 6 hrs for 2TB...for USB 3.0, don't even need that...

And WD Elements are pretty reliable - no problems so far for HDDs running 24/7 for 2-3 years....

Wish I could say the same thing, I have had around 5-6 WD Elements drives (mostly 2TB), and had about 3 failures. I've been serious thinking about disassembling the remaining ones I have and drilling 1/2 inch holes in the plastic cases to facilitate cooling and then reassembling (I've had lots of practice taking them apart and reassembling ). They don't have fans, it's just passive cooling. Swiss cheese cases should increase their longevity. Never heard of anyone doing that, but I'm so so tired of the drives failing. They were warranted for only one year. My new Seagate 3TB USB drives (3 of them) I got from Costco for around $100 each are warranted for 3 years.

 

[-Chris-]

Thanks for all the great helpful replies, they're just small files really, probably less than 1mb per file. I have WD Passport, but look at the Seagate USB drives, any particular models?

 

[Muse]

Thanks for all the great helpful replies, they're just small files really, probably less than 1mb per file. I have WD Passport, but look at the Seagate USB drives, any particular models?

What I bought at Costco around a year ago was this (I bought 3 of them):

Seagate 3TB Backup Plus Desktop
Part number: STDT3000600
3 year warranty

I noticed they are selling the same or similar lately. Price was right! I got them to back up my LAN server for off site storage and rotation in two separate locations, one a safe deposit box.

The drives have backup software preinstalled. I haven't looked into using that backup software, my Synology NAS's software (DSM 5.x) includes backup systems.

 

[uberman]

I try to be cautious when I try to over simplify things. I mean, I've been around, a man of the world, I've even gone to a barn dance and a world's fair. I believe in "KISS," (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I think earlier versions of Windows use x-copy and Windows 8 uses robo-copy.

It's my sincere belief that if you take two external hard drives and plug them into USB, Firewire, or whatever, that you may simply "copy and paste" or "cut and paste" the files you wish to backup to the new hard drive.

I hope this helps.

 

[oynaz]

I try to be cautious when I try to over simplify things. I mean, I've been around, a man of the world, I've even gone to a barn dance and a world's fair. I believe in "KISS," (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I think earlier versions of Windows use x-copy and Windows 8 uses robo-copy.

It's my sincere belief that if you take two external hard drives and plug them into USB, Firewire, or whatever, that you may simply "copy and paste" or "cut and paste" the files you wish to backup to the new hard drive.

I hope this helps.

No versioning in this soluion, though. This means that it does not really qualify as a backup in most definitions.

xcopy does still exist in Win8, BTW.

@OP: Crashplan can do what you want. It is free and easy to use. There are lot of other options, but I like Crashplan.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Wish I could say the same thing, I have had around 5-6 WD Elements drives (mostly 2TB), and had about 3 failures. I've been serious thinking about disassembling the remaining ones I have and drilling 1/2 inch holes in the plastic cases to facilitate cooling and then reassembling (I've had lots of practice taking them apart and reassembling ). They don't have fans, it's just passive cooling. Swiss cheese cases should increase their longevity. Never heard of anyone doing that, but I'm so so tired of the drives failing. They were warranted for only one year. My new Seagate 3TB USB drives (3 of them) I got from Costco for around $100 each are warranted for 3 years.

What are you doing with your drives? I have 80GB drives from 2008 that are still working fine.