Backup Recommendations

[Dale]

Part of my current backup process (Win XP) is to keep rotating off-site external drives. Here's how it works.

• Place drive T:\ (physical unit 1) online.
• Delete all files in T:\D53_D_Backup for a clean start.
• The next Bounceback run copies all files from D:\ to T:\D53_D_Backup.
• Each night thereafter it copies only the files that have changed.
• Periodically I take physical unit 1 offsite, retrieve phyiscal unit 2 (also named T:) and restart the process.

I need to change the process and/or software because (a) some programs apply settings to files making them very time-consuming to delete, (b) I need to erase the files for a clean start so the first backup is huge, and (c) Bounceback does not do open file backup.

I've come up with two solutions...

• - Segregate photo folders to a separate file on the root directory so I can manage those backups separately. That won't resolve the open file backup problem or reduce total time, though.
• - Switch to sync software to avoid having to erase the files each time drives are rotated.

Questions...

1. I once used sync software. The copy drive failed. The software though all files on the copy drive had been deleted, so it deleted all the files on the master drive as well. Can you recommend sync software less likely to have that problem? Also it must allow multiple backup sets to multiple destinations, hopefully including network drives. Specifically what about Syncback which the book mentions?

2. What other suggestions do you have?


Dale

[Dick Holtman]

I've been using SyncBack, the freeware edition to sync multiple backup disks.

It compares the source and destination drive and you can specify how the sync is to be made.
It also has the option to make a verified copy.

The comparing can be made via the platform metadata (date and time, size etc of files) or a complete compare.

For me this works very and I'm satisfied.

[Dale]

Dick,

It compares the source and destination drive and you can specify how the sync is to be made.

Do you mean tell it you can tell it you want all the files on drive T:\ to match those on drive D:\?

It sounds from the website as if it will do a verified backup to external media (DVD, Blu-Ray) as well. Have you used it for that?

By virtue of being a sync program, I'm expecting that it does its work in native file formats, rather than some proprietary format that explodes the entire backup if one disk is corrupt. Is that correct?

Dale

[Dick Holtman]

You make profiles for different backup jobs.
For each profile you tell the program what is the source directory and what is the destination directory.

I will compare both.
On a special tab you can tell Syncback what to do if:
1) the same file is different on source and destination
2) the file is in source and NOT in destination
3) the file is NOT in source but it is in destination
For each situation it has several options.

I also have a offline backup. When I attach it and start the SyncBack profile, it will sync both directories according to your settings.

Try the freeware version.

[Dale]

Before I got your last post recommending trying the freeware version I downloaded the trial version of Pro because I thought it might be useful for backing up the archive files to DVD. It turned out not to be because first, for some reason it would not write to the DVD-RW I was testing with. Roxio did but required it to be reformatted which didn't seem to be an option in Syncback. Second, it told me there was not enough space on the disk even thought there should have been when it deleted the files already on the disk. Roxio wrote them all fine.

However the mirror function seems to be just what I'm looking for to keep an external drive copy up to date. From what I can tell, it seems to create a native format file, and it makes the destination match the source which eliminates the dangers of a two-way sync. Since the DVD backup seems not especially useful, I'll download the freeware version and try it out to mirror to my external drive. And according to the website it does open file backup, something I just learned that the software I've been using does not do.

What you describe, and what I saw in the manual make it seem to have the flexibility needed.

I suppose I'll use Roxio to write the archives to DVD unless someone has a better suggestion.

Dale