Looking for Simple File Backup (No Images, No VHDs, Jus

Although I’m impressed with the simplicity and functionality of Windows 7 Backup & Restore feature, I just really want to do a plain vanilla backup of selected locations or an entire HD. Specifically, I don’t want a VHD or archived or compressed file containing the backup. Rather, I want to be able to go to the backup HD and see the files that were backed up.

Of course, I can just manually copy files over to the backup HD but the main drawback to this is just that – it’s manual.

I’ve also considered Raid 1 redundancy but as many have warned, Raid 1’s purpose is really for system uptime rather than backup. As much as I like the automatic backup nature Raid 1 has to offer, real-time mirroring is something I am not comfortable with.

This would also address Win7 Pro’s mirroring feature. But in addition, I am also uncomfortable with the need to turn drives into dynamic drives. I’ve gone down this road before and it turned out nasty when I un-dynamiced the drives and lost all my data.

Lastly, I was wondering if there was some way I can create a scheduled task that copies certain folders of the entire source HD to a backup HD based on times which I specify? I would prefer a Windows 7 native solution over third-party applications.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts.

Welcome theronin,
Here's a few you might want to look at, There's a bunch out there.
Free Backup Software Roundup!

Thanks for the welcome, Derekimo and thanks for the great link.

I’ve also come across suggestions of putting together a bat file ran through the scheduler.

I’m wondering what the advantages of these archives are? I guess being able to pick a backup date is first and foremost – is it actually keeping older versions of files and tracking incremental copies or is it simply doing complete archives at points in time?

Here's another one, but might be a bit too simple for your purposes.
Simple File Backup - backup your files before its too late

First, RAID of any kind is not a backup. Period. Since you have said you don't want to mirror, I'll spare your the explanation why.

If all you want is a functional duplicate of your HDD that you can see, copy, etc. on, have you thought about cloning? all you do is open up the cloning software, point to the HDD you want to clone, point to the HDD you want the clone on, then sit back (skip to the loo, whatever) and let the program do all the work.

An excellent program for cloning is the free version of Macrium Reflect. While most people here use it for making images, it will also make clones. I image my boot drive but clone my data drives so, if the data drive goes belly up, all I have to do is pop in one of the cloned drives into an internal dock on my computer then keep chugging along until I can rustle up a replacement data drive (I prefer to wait to buy a HDD until I actually need it so the price will be the lowest and the warranty the longest). Once the replacement drive has been obtained and installed, then all I have to do is clone the back up drive back to the data drive. There is no reason, though, why one can't just clone the entire drive, though.