Backup, or even sync, software is better because you can save jobs and then do everything with one click. You get a log which details any failures. You can do mirror backups which delete unwanted files on the receiving end. And they usually can use the volume shadow service to back up open files. You also get compression options, should you want to use them, and encryption options for privacy, and you can schedule the jobs to run automatically.
Thank you for the reply.
Does software also "remember" the last files you've saved and thus, next time when you backup it will just save the new data and not overwriting the existing one? Sorry I can't explain it well but basically can it automatically save new contents each time without needing me to manually remember the last saves and such?
It might be my recent post elsewhere recommending Second Copy that you saw.
On your question (if I have got it right) if incremental backup is set up, this means that if a file in the source is altered (added to, parts deleted or amended), the file on the destination (which was created during an earlier backup) will not be over-written by the source file and replaced by it. Instead only the info about the successive changes will be stored with it (I think this is invisible) specifying the changes. If you then open that destination file the parts will be stitched together and the whole amended file displayed. (At least that is how I believe it is done). I think incremental backup is quicker because only the changed info is written to the destination. I don't use it because speed is not an issue for me. (See Wikipedia on Incremental Backup).
On your other question, I am sure that manually copying or moving files between folders or drives is the same as using a backup program without incremental backup set (unles perhaps the backup program is very sophistcated).
On another subject, Second Copy can be easily set to delete any file on the destination folder that is not on the corresponding source folder. This is how I have set up mine. Ignatzasonic also. This prevents destination folders getting clogged up. Second Copy calls this setting "Exact Copy"). You need to be aware that this means that if you delete a file from a folder in the source and then do a backup, that file in the destination folder will be deleted. This also applies to moving that file in the source to another folder on the source. Both is OK becaue you (hopefully) meant to delete the file, or it is still in existence where it was moved to.
On Lady Fitzgerald's point about automatic backups, mine are set to manual. Every third day or longer (or immediately if an important new file needs to be backed up soon) I switch on my two external USB HDDs and do manual backups (I have one for each folder), which occurs in the background, then I switch the drives off. I am wary of backups being done very frequently (say every few hours) because most backup systems work by moving files from one drive to another, and the next time they are moved on again. If a file is unknowingly corrupted or deleted, that corruption or deletion will worlk its way up the HDD line and soon disappear for good.
In case it is interesting, here is my full suite of backup routines. The gaps in the Last Run column reflect some re-organising I did recently. (I have yet to put them into groups, each group containing the same source and destination, eg. C to X; X to J; J to L.) The J to L ones are executed first, then the X to J, then the C to X. This shifts the data up one HDD at a time, new files and deletions entering at the beginning of the chain (C and X) and the oldest (L) still having files now deleted from (X) (which can be a safety feature, which is another reason why I don't do a backup more frequently than every few days). The only (C) file involved is the Desktop (in case I have lazily left a file (rather than a shortcut) on it). I don't have any personal files on (C) such as Documents, Pictures etc.
Any comments from anyone on this setup?
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