Zipped a folder, then upzipped it to test it, and files are missing

I'm wondering if BackupMaker cannot make use of Windows VSS. I just now remembered your other thread about archive bits, I will watch and learn from others.

You could divide the unzipped folders into chunks, and then check each one side-by-side against the original folder. Most folders will be the same, and you can zoom through them. It's long-winded, but that's the only way I know. I've lost entire folders and films moving my data to a new computer, and I know it's frustrating, because I didn't find out till months later, and the old computer was gone.

Is that the only folder you back up regularly? A very simple backup program is Karen's Replicator. It dates way back to Win 98 and has been upgraded for Win7,8,10, but it's efficient and uses very little memory. I use it just to back up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles nightly to a flash drive.

You can set it to specific times for as many folders as you want, or separate time for different folders. It runs in the background and will turn on at the times you set, then you can verify if and when it ran. The secret to this program is its SIMPLICITY.

Karen's Replicator the Backup Utility for Windows v3.7.5 Released November 2, 2019 | Karen's Power Tools | Utilities for Windows | KarenWare.com

For imaging of my entire drive, I use Macrium Reflect, but I don't know if you can do just one folder, and it uses a lot more memory running in the background.

Your query has been here only one day. The person who can also help might be on the other side of the world, working or sleeping, or not on their computer. Have a little patience.

I'll be backing up 7 folders, total about 250GB from HDD to SSD. The folder I tested was one of these 7. I can back up sub-folders individually and compare. Yeah, I didn't think there was an easy way.

I'm running a test BU now using Karen. Looks fast. If it's good for what I need, I'll delete all the zip files that Backup Maker created (and there's no size reduction). If I understand Karen, the backups are effectively copies. As changes are made, only that folder/file is updated. That makes more sense to me than creating a Full.zip, then Differential.zip or Incremental.zip, and combining then to see a file.

Thanks for the Firefox/TB backup idea. I forgot about them. I started a list of what needs to be backed up.


EDIT: I'll compare dates too. If it rewrites the original date with today's date, it'd be a deal killer for me, unless there's a workaround.


Imaging has always been a mystery for me. How large is the image? Are all the drive contents in the image? If so, it must be huge.

EDIT: Karen is the one. Copied over 10GB, size matched, even retained dates on files and folders. Thanks, good catch!

Image size: The entire drive contents is in an image as 1 file. I don't know if there's a formula for predicting size, because every program is different, and it also depends on the contents of your drive. My HD, C+D, uses 110GB, bit I can't reboot right now to activate the external drive. Backing up my entire drive takes 16 minutes, so I don't bother with incremental and differential. You need to wait for another helper.

Great info, thanks. I'm playing with it now.