Best free backup software with these features?

[riahc3]

I need a free backup software.

Requriements:

1: Schedule backups
2: Be able to choose between full, incremental and differential backups
3: File/Folder backups. Nothing about backing up to a single proprietary file like Aoemi does
4: The ability to backup to/from NAS shares via UNC paths


I dont think I need anything else

 

[Vdubchaos]

YOU are the best back up, not some software.

How hard is it to copy/paste?

 

[riahc3]

YOU are the best back up, not some software.

How hard is it to copy/paste?

Are you redactedkidding me?

NOONE IN THE WORLD copy/pastes. The problems it has are almost infinite. Xcopy or robocopy.

Are you 5? Or have you just never worked in your life?

I just read that.........and I actually just lost faith in AnandTech. Please, I beg ANYONE, to post something else and hope this is a real and inteligent IT community...





this is your 4th infraction for using profanity in the tech forums.

Stop.




esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[smitbret]

I need a free backup software.

Requriements:

1: Schedule backups
2: Be able to choose between full, incremental and differential backups
3: File/Folder backups. Nothing about backing up to a single proprietary file like Aoemi does
4: The ability to backup to/from NAS shares via UNC paths


I dont think I need anything else

EaseUS Todo or Macrium Reflect

 

[Ketchup]

Are you redactedkidding me?

NOONE IN THE WORLD copy/pastes. The problems it has are almost infinite. Xcopy or robocopy.

Are you 5? Or have you just never worked in your life?

I just read that.........and I actually just lost faith in AnandTech. Please, I beg ANYONE, to post something else and hope this is a real and inteligent IT community...

And I beg YOU to do YOUR job without leaching on AT for free help all the time.

This is not a question Google cannot help you with. There is plenty of free software out there for this, but NONE of them are licensed for business use.

 

[riahc3]

And I beg YOU to do YOUR job without leaching on AT for free help all the time.

This is not a question Google cannot help you with. There is plenty of free software out there for this, but NONE of them are licensed for business use.

Obviously. Im asking for people that have had experience...

 

[riahc3]

EaseUS Todo or Macrium Reflect

I think I tried them out but not sure.

Thank you for obviously being the only know to show some knowledge around here.

 

[Binky]

If you're just looking to backup files that have changed, use your own script using any of the available tools like robocoy, richcopy, xxcopy, powershell, etc. I've found some pretty powerful scripts but I stopped using them because I'm human and I forget to run them, then when I finally do run them, I forget how they work and I'm too lazy to figure it out again.

If you want a gui, try puresync (free for home use) or freefilesync.

If you're looking for an image-type backup, look at what has already been suggested above, or grab a free copy (of acronis) from WD or Seagate, assuming you have one of their drives installed. I'm sure there are others from other manufacturers.

You are your own worst enemy with backups. Also, remember that there are some pretty scary options with many of these methods that can inadvertently delete things if you set the wrong option(s).

 

[ArisVer]

I think I tried them out but not sure.

Start keeping a log file for every operating system. It's handy.

 

[riahc3]

Thought of a ghetto solution:

A simple bat file:

s:/ = source
d:/ = destination

robocopy s:/ d:/

Some issues that need clearling up:

1: Would this overwrite all my files each time? I would like it to overwrite only overfiles that have changed
2: Would this also keep versions?
3: Would permissions be alright?
4: Could I run this without being logged in? As a user with no log in possible?
5: Should I run with with additional parameters?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Thought of a ghetto solution:

A simple bat file:

s:/ = source
d:/ = destination

robocopy s:/ d:/

This won't copy subdirectories. Use /s or /e or /mir to also copy subdirectories.

1: Would this overwrite all my files each time? I would like it to overwrite only overfiles that have changed

No, it only overwrites the files that have changed.

2: Would this also keep versions?

No.

3: Would permissions be alright?

It won't copy permissions by default, if that's what you mean, but it can. See the documentation for the /copy, /sec and /copyall options.

4: Could I run this without being logged in? As a user with no log in possible?

I think so.

5: Should I run with with additional parameters?

Depends on what you're trying to do, although I can't think of how you could use robocopy to do either differential or incremental backups. The most that it can do, from a backup perspective, is to keep files at the destination that have been deleted at the source (this is the default behavior, as long as you don't use /purge or /mir).

 

[stockwiz]

Edit... if you're so smart as to be cutting down people for commenting here on a simple question you should be smart enough to google the answer to your question yourself which is what I typically do.

In any case I backup my media files (movies, music) at my mother's so I have something "offsite" in case of theft, power surge, or whatever. She can then use whatever I happen to have on there (stored on her HTPC) Use Exactfile to verify the MD5 hash of the files every year or so... so far I have yet to have a file succumb to bitrot or any other form of corruption.

 

[takeru]

why look at the built in help when it's faster to ask AT i guess? need bigger spoon!

 

[riahc3]

why look at the built in help when it's faster to ask AT i guess? need bigger spoon!

Basically you dont know what spoon to use and want to blame it on me...sure

 

[riahc3]

Depends on what you're trying to do, although I can't think of how you could use robocopy to do either differential or incremental backups. The most that it can do, from a backup perspective, is to keep files at the destination that have been deleted at the source (this is the default behavior, as long as you don't use /purge or /mir).

I found a better one:

robocopy s: d: /E /MT:2 /R:50 /W:10 /V /ETA /LOG:robocopy.txt

E = I include every subdirectory including empting ones
MT = Im kind of confused on this one. It creates multi-threaded copies BUT I only have 2 cores on the VM and HT turned off. Would 2 do anything?
R = Number of retry times. Shouldnt do it ever as the office is empty and it isnt in use
W= Wait times. I dont want it to wait forever so every 10 seconds is enough. Basically max 8 minutes per file.
V = Gives output
ETA = How long it is going to take
LOG = Make a log file. Is it possible to do something like robocopy%date%%time%.txt?

If its differential or incremental....well, I might as well do a full backup and if something has changed, it backs it up just in case. When something has changed, this includes timestamps, file size, etc. right? I dont care about permissions right now.

Thank you Carson

 

[takeru]

Basically you dont know what spoon to use and want to blame it on me...sure