Windows 7: how to backup only NEW files instead of the whole folder?

hi,

I just backup files to an external HD and a second internal HD time to time. Then I get new pictures and designs and need to make up backups of those. Is there a good system that backs up only the new stuff? Many are corel files and some folders are pretty big to backing stuff up yet again takes a lot of time and space.



thanks for any tips.

Plenty of applications will do that.

They back up new files and any old files that have been modified since the last backup.

They all work pretty much the same way and would differ primarily in their interface. Some may have a few additional features.

Most are free, some have a modest fee.

Fish around for Synctoy, Second Copy, Folderclone, GFI Backup Home Edition, Karen's Replicator, and Synchromagic.

I'll second SyncToy 2.1, Microsoft's free, robust file syncing utility!

I use it make hourly backups of the contents of my RAMDisk to an external drive in case the power goes out and my pc is forced to reboot without a safe shutdown... You get to either Synchronize, Echo or Contribute files from one source to another, and it automatically detects which files you have that are newer to copy over or overwrite.

Fantastic interface, user friendly, and one touch support.

Hi there
This is what's known as INCREMENTAL Backup.

My whole view on backup is that it really isn't worth while going for basic freebies for backing up your DATA. The OS is a different matter but your DATA can be many times more valuable than the computer itself. What about those 1000's of CD's you've ripped / multi-media files/stuff from iTunes /photos / to say nothing of important documents, scanned tax returns etc etc.

To me paying for a decent commercial solution is WORTH EVERY EUROCENT / DOLLAR or whatever. I use Acronis but their are others. They only cost around 50 USD max -- and surely your data is worth many times more than that.

These as well as imaging an OS so you can recover even if you lose the entire HDD by booting the recovery media can also do "Incremental" backups like you requested.

Note that when you RESTORE incremental backups you need to start with the last FULL backup and then insert each of the incremental backup folders to get the latest state.

I suggest you backup your OS as often as required - depending on how much you add applications and do a full backup of your ONLINE data once a week.

Things like vast music libraries don't need to be fully backed up once they've been created -- but you should have at least ONE copy which you can use as an archive -- in emergency you can restore this one.

(There's a difference between ARCHIVE and BACKUP but it's beyond the scope of this post to go into that).

However it's always good practice to keep the OS / applications in its own partition or disk if its a small SSD and spread your DATA over other disks. Then if you restore the OS you haven't got to restore your data at the same time.

Cheers
jimbo

I keep all my date in a folder called F: Data files for C drive. various folders in various states, like for panoramas I have a source pics folder, a final panoramas folder for each subject, plus all sorts of complete image/design files as corel cdr, tifs, etc

btw I am just using a USB connection for the external HD and internal connection for the second installed HD, a disc that has Vista as an OS also, though seperate date folders.

just have the new ones scattered in amongst the older and would be nice to just send those to backup instead of having to copy entire folders that are already in a backup location.

might try some of these tips and see how they go since you are all so kind as to offer help :-)

My favorite is FreeFileSync. The link is in my sig. I made a video of it if you are interested. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube

I use xcopy. That and some luck, iv still got files from the 90s...