Recommendations on software to backup the user data

rvsw · 01 Mar 2019

I need to back up the user data and as I understand, Windows 7 is not doing any incremental backup.

So I tried using the free version of EaseTo backup Best free backup software for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/vista - EaseUS(R) Todo Backup Free .
My initial assumption was that one of the basic features any backup software will have is to only do the incremental backups (ie. After completing the first comprehensive backup, the subsequent backup will only identify the files that have changed since the previous backup and will just backup the newly created files. )That way it will take less time for every subsequent backup.

However, it is taking the same time for me which is approximately 3 hours to back up the user data on an external hard drive. Even though I would have changed only a few files.

I went through the documentation, but could not find any explanation of why that is happening.
So I'm looking for recommendations on any preferably free version of the software which will just provide incremental backup. I'm not looking for any other features beyond this for now. So hoping that I can use any free version.

Thank you for any inputs

BisVal · 01 Mar 2019

What type of user data You are trying to backup ? If it is media or documents just copy them on a external source and use file synchronizing software to keep it updated.

samuria · 01 Mar 2019

You identify critical data is data you don't want to loose is kids photos legal docs. The simple way is to use Google backup and sync which will backup to the cloud were it's unlimited for photos and all free. It will backup all on its own and backup changed files seconds after they are changed

mopar3 · 01 Mar 2019

Try AOMEI Backupper. May do the trick. It' free or retail.

mopar3

johnhoh · 01 Mar 2019

I use a custom cmd file called backit.cmd that has just a few lines and uses robocopy which you already have. Here are the contents on backit.cmd on my system.

start /w robocopy \\C\datafolder1\ \\H\datafolder1\ /s /xo
start /w robocopy \\C\datafolder2\ \\H\datafolder2\ /s /xo
start /w robocopy \\C\datafolder3\ \\H\datafolder3\ /s /xo

clicking on this backit file incrementally backs up the C data folders to the H drive. If the timestamp on the C and H files is the same it ignores them, it only copies them when the C version is newer than the H version. Takes 10-15 seconds for me. Took 30 minutes the first time I ran it of course because everything had to be copied. You can schedule it in task scheduler but I just click on it once a day or so and do not have it scheduled.

Banyarola · 03 Mar 2019

[QUOTE=rvsw;3424126]I need to back up the user data and as I understand, Windows 7 is not doing any incremental backup.

So I tried using the free version of EaseTo backup Best free backup software for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/vista - EaseUS(R) Todo Backup Free .

I use True Image....Never had a problem with it..