Are there any good USB Flash drive automatic backup programs?

[xmrkite]

Hello, I'd like to have a usb flash drive backed up automatically every day

The tricky part is that I don't have it plugged in every day.

I'd like the backups to be simple file copies if possible so they can be browsed in explorer and have each day's backup go into a folder called something like %date%flash_drive

If the drive is not plugged in, then the backup would be skipped obviously.

Is there anything out there that can do this?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Create a scheduled task to run each day.
Have that task start a batch file.
Put a file named something like back-me-up.txt on each USB drive that you want to backup.

Use code like this in that batch file:

if exist "z:back-me-up.txt" xcopy z:\*.* %UserProfile%\desktop\USB-FOLDER\*.* /yesvmk
if exist "y:back-me-up.txt" xcopy y:\*.* %UserProfile%\desktop\USB-FOLDER\*.* /yesvmk
pause

You can also read thru what the xcopy switches do. You can remove the pause after you get it working as desired. And you can repeat the code for as many drive letters as you want. There are other ways to deal with each of the drive letters, but this will keep it simple.

 

[vaidas3]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/

it can auto sync/backup folder when usb drive connected
It has two parts Freefilesync (sync tool) and realtimesync

RealtimeSync is a small tool which executes a command line each time it detects changes in one of the monitored directories or a directory becomes available (e. g. insert of a USB-stick). Usually this command line will simply trigger a FreeFileSync batch job.

for more info read help file included with software.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would strongly suggest using something other than a flash drive as a backup. You could get a much larger external hard drive or put an internal one into a drive enclosure instead.

 

[xmrkite]

The flash drive is not the backup, I want to backup the flash drive to the hard drive on the computer.

The problem with using something like filesync is that we want to be able to look at old versions of the files. So just keeping a bunch of full backups is the ideal way to do it.

I'm hoping to have this done automatically, so the scheduled task is probably not an option as it's tough to know when the drive will be plugged in.

What about creating some sort of autorun file. I've never done that type of thing, but can that be used to run the batch job instead of the scheduled task?

-Thanks

 

[UsernameIssues]

...I'm hoping to have this done automatically, so the scheduled task is probably not an option as it's tough to know when the drive will be plugged in......

I assumed from your OP that you were ok with missing a day or two because the drive might not be plugged in at the right time. You could have the task run every 30 minutes or so... but there are better ways to do this.

...What about creating some sort of autorun file. I've never done that type of thing, but can that be used to run the batch job instead of the scheduled task?...

autorun is an excellent idea and an equally terrible idea. I keep autorun disabled on most computers that I oversee. But, if you want to use it, here is a video that uses what you want to do as the illustration:

Depending on how you construct the batch file being called by the autorun.INF, the files that you have on the USB stick might be copied to every computer that the USB stick gets plugged into. You can use the same "IF EXIST" statement that I used in my other post to prevent that. The file that you would check for should exist on the computer that you want the files to be backed up on to.

...or you can try and point the autorun.INF action to a batch file that only exists on your computer. I'm not sure if that is possible and I cannot easily test it for you.

An alternative to all of this is to write your own script that runs on your computer all of the time. Whenever the script "sees" a drive with a file in the root named something like "back-me-up.txt" or any rare name "back-me-up.97y5d7"- then the script will back up that drive.

 

[kado897]

FreeFileSync as mentioned above can do all you want. It can mirror the current contents and create versions of any files replaced. The RealTimeSync component can be triggered by the plugging in of a USB stick.

 

[flogit]

I can highly recommend using the '' FreeFileSync'',It's so easy to set up and easy to use.

 

[vaidas3]

The flash drive is not the backup, I want to backup the flash drive to the hard drive on the computer.

The problem with using something like filesync is that we want to be able to look at old versions of the files. So just keeping a bunch of full backups is the ideal way to do it.

I'm hoping to have this done automatically, so the scheduled task is probably not an option as it's tough to know when the drive will be plugged in.

What about creating some sort of autorun file. I've never done that type of thing, but can that be used to run the batch job instead of the scheduled task?

-Thanks

Freefilesync supports file versioning. altought it doesnt save two copies of same file that hasnt changed.. so not seperate full backup just seperate files that changed.

 

[xmrkite]

ok, i will give it a shot and report back.

-Thanks for the help so far.