Which prog to daily create copy paste type mirrors of drives ?

[DBenz]

[FONT=&quot]Hi,[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Can windows7 64bit pro do this in an easy to run manually type way ? How is it done ?
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[FONT=&quot]every hour, or 2 hrs etc, if possible with ability to overide if using pc. Else what prog to get ?
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[FONT=&quot]C drive SSD. only progs. I use Acronis to clone it.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]All my personal data files are on 7200rpm drives and I need a backup prog for these.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I have drives D E F G with drives O P Q R same size to receive their backup files. All internal. DE FG OP QR are the four separate hard drives with partitions.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I want a prog (free or purchased), that is going to see support and development. Just used Cobian but support forum is dead, registration fails, security image says internal error, so no chance of getting any help, he has sold it to someone a few yrs ago.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I need to have the developers behind the product into the future so dont mind paying for it.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I need a copy paste type backup, this must be just as if I had done copy paste. NOT A SINGLE FILE HOLDING ALL MY FILES WITHIN AS AN 'IMAGE' THAT TIES ME TO THE PROGRAM TO UNLOCK IT ! IF THAT PROG GETS DROPPED I AM STUFFED.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]As a copy paste type, I want it to be able to function with another same type of backup prog, should the original backup prog becomes undeveloped/supported.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Preferably I want to look at O drive and have it as if I was looking at D drive, to see all my files and folders, not have a folder there and all the files within that folder as Cobian does. they are at least copy paste type as opposed to an 'image' file.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It must initially do a full backup, then spot for deletions, changes and new files and carry out these three on the backup.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Must have deletions reflected in backup, I have video files, they fill up a drive in no time, when I have converted to final mpg, the source I delete , else the drive will be full and not accomodate more files. As such the backup must also MIRROR that as well else there will again be no space for the final edited files ![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]If I obtain a better picture of something, I deleted the original, so I dont want to see apparent duplicates of the photo in the backup.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I need to run it manually, and just set it to run on D E F G whilst having evening meal etc. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It must carry out a test to check if copy was good.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]To have it also run e.g. every hour as an option would be good, and warn of this incase I wish to overide it.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]DBenz[/FONT]

 

[samuria]

The built in robcopy does just that can simply type robcopy c: d: /mir to mirror c to d it's very fast built for servers by ms and all the files are the original it has tons of options Robocopy /MIR switch – mirroring file permissions | Server Storage at Microsoft

 

[Tranquil Hegemo]

Syncredible will do all of that if you want a version with a GUI.

I can state for certain that

1. It does the timed part - every ten minutes is the default if you opt for that.
2. It does the deletion of redundant files and also files that have moved to different folders
3. It does sub folders and their contents including empty folders but I suspect that can be overridden if required.
4. Certainly does the manual part - that's one way I use it. The other is at startup - it just syncs the folders that I have it set for.
5. It has a setting for "Semi-automatic synching" which apparently requires you to authorise whether it syncs or not - not used it personally.
6. Sure it does the verification as well as it has alerted me to issues in the past.

Available for free for personal use - just throws up a splash screen at startup (maybe all synchs) but is about £20 to buy from memory.

The full list of functions is here

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

There are several very serious problems with what you are wanting to do. First, having your backup drives installed in your computer is dangerous. The same dangers that can take out your data drives, such as malware, PSU failure that fries your drives, a voltage spike or current surge that blows through any protection you have, theft, natural disaster, house fire, etc. will also take out your backup drives. You would be much, much better off removing your backup drives from the computer and installing them in enclosures, essentially making external drives out of them.

Second, automatic backups require that the backup drive be connected to the computer at all times. This exposes the backup drive to infection from viruses and other malware, which you may not detect until after your data has been compromised or destroyed. Also, any user errors will also occur on the backup drive. Again, it is much safer for backup drives to be kept disconnected from the computer, except while a backup is being updated, and to manually update them as needed after running full security scans to make sure you aren't "backing up" any malware that may have "snuck" onto your computer.

Third, having only one backup is dangerous. For data to be reasonably safe, it must exist in at least three places, such as on the computer, on an onsite backup drive (not connected to the computer except while updating the backup), and an offsite backup drive. The offsite backup drives should be swapped out with the onsite backup drives as frequently as possible to keep them as up to date as possible. Possible locations for keeping offsite drives include a trusted friend's or relative's home, a locked desk drawer or locker at work or school, or a safe deposit box at a bank (I use my safe deposit box in the vault at my credit union).

A good substitute for offsite backup drives is to use a good, paid backup service such as Carbonite (my personal preference), CrashPlan (also popular) and Backblaze. Stay away from cloud data storage sites. Most are not secure and are more likely to be hacked. The free ones are the worst since they also are notorious for disappearing with inadequate or no warning, taking your data with them. A good backup service will automatically backup new or changed files and retain any old or deleted files for 30 days or more, depending on the plan (this is called versioning). The main downside to a cloud backup service is you do have to have a broadband internet connection with a high enough data cap to handle the increased traffic. While basic plans can be had for $60/year, they are usually limited in the size and type of files than will automatically be backed up (there are ways to work around much of this). More expensive plans have fewer limitations. Unlike cloud storage sites, a good cloud backup service is safer and avoids the problems of backup drives permanently connected to a computer due to far stringent anti-malware protections that you are likely to use and due to versioning, allowing you to revert to an earlier version should an infected file manage to somehow get through.

While cloning is a good way to backup the System files (OS and programs) on your SSD, it is very inefficient compared to imaging. Imaging is faster and requires less drive space than cloning, allowing you to keep several versions of your SSD. Images should be stored on external backup drives. Imaging works much like old film photography where a camera makes a photo negative (the equivalent of an image of your drive). The negative then is used to make the actual photographs. A computer image is used in the same way to restore a drive to the state the computer was in when the image was taken.

I personally recommend Macrium Reflect Free for imaging. I use the paid version but the free version is very popular with people on Seven Forums and is highly recommended.

While imaging is the best way to backup System files (imaging and cloning actually are the only ways to backup system files), it is inefficient when used to backup data files. For that, I recommend using a folder/file syncing program, such as FreeFileSync. After the initial backup, instead of copying everything over to a backup drive (essentially, cloning the drive) every time you update your backup, the program will compare your drive in your computer with the corresponding backup drive, then copy over any changed files from the source drive to the backup drive and delete the old files on the backup drive and also delete any files on the backup drive that were deleted on the source drive. FreeFileSync has a versioning feature that will send files deleted from the backup drive to a versioning folder or drive. That will protect you from accidental deletions and also allow you to recover earlier versions of files should you ever need them.

Both Macrium Reflect and FreeFileSync that I recommended can continued be used even if the company goes belly up. It's not necessary to update the programs if you don't want to.

 

[RolandJS]

Ransomeware can be added to the mix of dangerous things that can happen to connected internal and external hard-drives.

 

[DBenz]

Hi,
thanks for the advice.
Jeannie, I have spent a lot of money on internal Western Digital HDDs plumbed into motherboard, so if I remove these, I will need to have them in some kind of powered unit and how do I connect them to the motherboard ? I have all my USB slots in use, and the powered hub sees some performance issues, as hubs last only a while, so unlike a dependable SATA cable this could screw things up.
USB type HDDs can fail, I had one do so, the file tree software corrupted, data and drive hardware was fine, some glitch meant everything looked like egyptian text !

Sounds like I will have to remove them, mount them into some kind of powered caddy, but that will be usb connection I fear, have more power cables and transformers lying around, the unplugged leads disappear off down the back of my table and I have to use string to haul them back up again....and how do I get O drive to display as O drive when I plumb it in, with four partitions absent I dont want R drive displaying as O drive.

I need to have backups done daily, so to have to plug in and unplug each in turn, when e.g. Cobian would run tasks and do them all one after the other, is a pain. I know I wont get time to do all this, and I want it to do it at end of day as I am having meal at midnight !

I do a C drive image with Acronis once in a while when I am about to install something new that might mess up C drive.
Does FreeFileSync do drive to drive ? All thesebackups seem to be about dselecting some folders, I simply want to mirror D to O etc, if I delete a file on D I want to have it deleted on O. I cant have massive original video files being retained as the drive wont have space for new ones and those that have been edited and quickstreamfixed.

Tranquil Hegemo,....Does Syncredible do drive to drive, and mirror ? I need to be able to just select D as source and O as destination.

DBenz

 

[samuria]

Unless you have masses of data why not just use google drive or one drive they can give yo 20gigs of backup and its safe on the cloud and all you do is save in a folder and its all backed up instantly

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Unless you have masses of data why not just use google drive or one drive they can give yo 20gigs of backup and its safe on the cloud and all you do is save in a folder and its all backed up instantly

Don't use Google Drive. It's not secure and Google is notorious for snooping through people's data. Google is also notorious for discontinuing service with inadequate notice.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Answers in bold italics.

Hi,
thanks for the advice.
Jeannie, I have spent a lot of money on internal Western Digital HDDs plumbed into motherboard, so if I remove these, I will need to have them in some kind of powered unit and how do I connect them to the motherboard ? I have all my USB slots in use, and the powered hub sees some performance issues, as hubs last only a while, so unlike a dependable SATA cable this could screw things up.

You can use one or more cables that connect to your SATA ports and run to PCI brackets with e-SATA sockets. Then put your HDDs into enclosures or a dock that have an e-SATA interface and use an e-SATA cable.

USB type HDDs can fail, I had one do so, the file tree software corrupted, data and drive hardware was fine, some glitch meant everything looked like egyptian text !

If those are external drives, then you know first hand that they are lower quality.

Sounds like I will have to remove them, mount them into some kind of powered caddy, but that will be usb connection I fear, have more power cables and transformers lying around, the unplugged leads disappear off down the back of my table and I have to use string to haul them back up again....and how do I get O drive to display as O drive when I plumb it in, with four partitions absent I dont want R drive displaying as O drive.

See this tutorial on locking in a drive letter on a drive.

I need to have backups done daily, so to have to plug in and unplug each in turn, when e.g. Cobian would run tasks and do them all one after the other, is a pain. I know I wont get time to do all this, and I want it to do it at end of day as I am having meal at midnight !

Again, if you want your backups be safe, you cannot have them connected to your computer at all times. You will have to find a way to do your backups manually. If you have enough e-SATA ports and your computer is powerful enough, you can run several instances of FreeFileSync at once.

I do a C drive image with Acronis once in a while when I am about to install something new that might mess up C drive.

If Acronis has been working for you, there is no reason to not keep on using it. Just make sure you keep your images on a drive other than your C: drive and you back that drive up.

Does FreeFileSync do drive to drive ? All thesebackups seem to be about dselecting some folders, I simply want to mirror D to O etc, if I delete a file on D I want to have it deleted on O. I cant have massive original video files being retained as the drive wont have space for new ones and those that have been edited and quickstreamfixed.

FreeFileSync (FFS) can do what you want. You simply use the mirror setting and it will essentially make a clone of your source drive on your backup drive except only files that have been added, changed, and/or deleted will be dealt with. speeding up the process considerably. If you don't want to keep deleted files, set FFS to just delete them, not to send them to the recycle bin or a versioning folder or file.

FFS handles drives the same way as folders. I do drive to drive backups on all my data drives in my computers. Also, you don't have to lock in the drive letter on the external backup drives. FFS has a provision for setting it to look for drive names. That is how I have my backup profiles set up.

Tranquil Hegemo,....Does Syncredible do drive to drive, and mirror ? I need to be able to just select D as source and O as destination.

DBenz

 

[RolandJS]

I have an idea; I do this at home with the home desktop and with the home laptop. Because they contain a 2nd internal HD, I will just before doing a backup: Control Panel --> Device Manager --> hightlight the 2nd HD, right-click on Enable. When the backup is finished...right-click on Disable. I highly recommend giving all hard-drives and all partitions unique names! This way, you will always know which HD and which partition you are "aiming" at. Of course, for the very first time, you have to Disable the 2nd HD to keep it offline when any backup is not in progress.
Does this idea guarantee safe backups? Nothing man-made is 100% guarantee-able, however, I believe any backup routine is much better than no backup routine.

And, those two computers also have two dedicated usb ext 1TB platter-driven HDs which receive the OS and Data partition backups bi-monthly or weekly.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I have an idea; I do this at home with the home desktop and with the home laptop. Because they contain a 2nd internal HD, I will just before doing a backup: Control Panel --> Device Manager --> hightlight the 2nd HD, right-click on Enable. When the backup is finished...right-click on Disable. I highly recommend giving all hard-drives and all partitions unique names! This way, you will always know which HD and which partition you are "aiming" at. Of course, for the very first time, you have to Disable the 2nd HD to keep it offline when any backup is not in progress.

And, those two computers also have two dedicated usb ext 1TB platter-driven HDs which receive the OS and Data partition backups bi-monthly or weekly.

Even when disabled, a drive is still subject to damage from voltage spikes and current surges (nearby lightning strikes to power lines, blown PSUs, etc. can cause those that are strong enough to blow through any surge protection you may have). If the computer gets stolen, burned up in a fire, drowned in a flood, knocked off a desk, etc., the backup drive will also be toast. The only way for data to be reasonably safe would be for it to exist in at least three separate places, as widely separated physically as practical.

 

[RolandJS]

LadyF, I agree with you! However, I wanted the thread starter to start doing something, anything, related to routine backups. Perhaps, sooner or later, that nice person will move from using internal backup HDs to only using external HDs, and continue doing routine backups, this time, with the ext HDs spread out like you posted earlier. Also, you did see my final comment in that post? External HDs are my mainstays.

 

[Tranquil Hegemo]

Hi,
thanks for the advice.

....

Tranquil Hegemo,....Does Syncredible do drive to drive, and mirror ? I need to be able to just select D as source and O as destination.

DBenz

Does drive to drive - it's one of the profiles that I have set up - do a full image of all three main drives drives to a fourth drive and then sync that drive to a fifth drive (both fourth and fifth are removable) and the NAS (separate profile for the NAS).

Mirroring it does at intervals as far as I can tell but I don't think that it does it in real time (it's not something I have looked into as I don't need it) but the shortest interval time between syncs is 10 minutes from memory. I have three profiles for various folders that sync at startup and then at 30 minute intervals that I have show me the differences and then OK those but it will do it without user input if that's what you want.

Also does syncing when you plug in a USB drive which I find really useful as I copy across CCNA\CCNP videos to a USB key that I can then watch on my tablet etc. as required. Really nice as it recognises the specific USB key so it doesn't execute when you plug in a different one.

One day I may look into getting off site backups working as well but there are many other projects to do prior to that.