Computer backups

[Brian Ashton]

I have a separate partition on my laptop where all my files go that I would like to get some software to back up. Problem is all the software I've tried so far compresses and or changes the backup files so that you need that specific program to get access to the data. I would like to find a program that will scan the partition for changes and then copy them over to a USB HDD in a form that would allow me to take the USB HDD and plug it into any computer and get access to the files.

The mac has a program called time machine that allows that but I have no idea even how to google such a program for the PC... YOu end up with 10 million hits where they're all useless crap.

Anyone know of a software that will do that.

[Tom Veatch]

I use the ntbackup.exe that comes packaged with XP. I have a home network and nightly, a scheduled job runs a script in the wee hours of the morning that backs up one machine to the other. I'm not certain what restrictions there might be on the destination hardware, but if the OS can recognize it as a tape drive or a hard drive, it will write to it.

I'm certain there are other backup packages that are more convenient, but at least with ntbackup, the price is right. And it allowed me to restore data files with no losses when a drive on one of the machines crashed. Personally, I have no backup needs that ntbackup doesn't meet quite well.

[Shawn Patel]

I know what yr looking for. There ARE programs that do it.

However, it's probably simplest if you just (don't laugh) use XCOPY from DOS. I've been using that for 11 years to back up incremental file changes for my company's indiv workstations and it's worked pretty flawlessly.

If you create a .bat file that has a line something like this:


XCOPY <source directory>*.* <target directory> /D/E/V/I/C/Y

Every time you click on it, it'll only copy the files with newer time stamps into the target directory. Everything else (in the source and targ) remains unchanged. This keeps the backup files in their original, uncompressed format, so you can search and retrieve them without having to mess with indexes or proprietary search tools.

You can even download a free scheduling program and have this run every day or week invisibly.

If you PM me, I'll send you a more complicated batch script that you can modify that'll create a log file that'll show you what got copied last.

You could call this kind of backup 'Neander', but 'round here, Neander has a certain romance...right?!

[Matt Meiser]

We use Windows Home Server at our house. It automatically backs up the member PC's nightly with a method that allows completely restoring a PC with a blank hard drive or pulling just one file from the backup. All our files are actually stored on the WHS computer's drives. Its got a scheme called Folder Duplication to prevent losing files from a single hard drive failure--not RAID, but achieves a similar result.

Then on top of that I back up all the files stored on the WHS computer to a USB drive attached to my shop PC which is physically separated from the house. I use Shawn's method for backing up things like photos, music, etc. I also run a job every night that write protects the photos to make it difficult to accidentally overwrite an original with a resized or cropped one. For our personal files and financial files, I do a weekly compressed backup that creates copies. That way if a file gets corrupted we can go back to a previous week's version. For that backup, I use a free compression utility called 7-Zip and some batch files I wrote.

Then on top of that I periodially burn a DVD of photos and take it to my parents.

If you've got a really fast network connection, you could look at something like Carbonite.

[paul cottingham]

We use synchback. There is a free version, and it gives you the choice of compressing or not compressing the data. Back it up to a r/w dvd or some form of removable media. Don't store backups on site cause a fire will take out your computer and your backup.

[Robert Eiffert]

Originally Posted by Brian Ashton

then copy them over to a USB HDD in a form that would allow me to take the USB HDD and plug it into any computer and get access to the files.

Assuming Windows, google SyncToy 2.0 It is / was a backup program designed by Microsoft.

Easy to install and set up. Will (at your choice of time) do it automatically or you can start it whenever you want.

It can mirror (exact copy, including deleting files off the remote when you delete on the computer) or can just update files as they are added or changed.

You can set it up so it updates computer B after making changes in computer A if you keep the same file structure on all three (or at least the portion that you are backing up.

And free.

We use it for docs and photography.

[Dave Johnson29]

Originally Posted by Brian Ashton

Problem is all the software I've tried so far compresses and or changes the backup files so that you need that specific program to get access to the data.

Try DoGoodSoftware.com for PPBackup.

It does what you want. You define what folders you want backed up then you can save that list under any name and as many lists as you like. When you do the next backup load that list in and select "Refresh Folder list" and it will add any new files.

It will optionally create the backup structure you backing up, or it can create master folders then it will create that structure in it.

It will only update the files that have changed.

It's Shareware so you get to try it for 30 days.

[Anthony Scira]

I really like Carbonite off site backup. It runs in the background and is only 54 dollars a year for unlimited backup size.

The BEST feature is you will have all your files if your PC is lost, stolen or house burns down. Its really cheap insurance.

And you get to try it free for 15 or 30 days.

I also have a little Dlink Network Attached Storage drive that I throw files onto for a more local backup. I think the NAS drive with 2 - 1TB drives ran about 300 bucks.

[Brian Ashton]

Really great help guys Thx!... I've got some homework for the weekend now

[Gord Pat]

You could also take a look at Karen's Replicator, I use it to back up data folders etc.
It's easy to set up and run.
It's a freebee too.
You can find it here:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp

No connection other than being a user.

[paul cottingham]

As an aside, I definitely wouldn't do backups to a partition or even a second drive on the same computer. Anything that creams the computer will cream your backups as well.

[Brad Wood]

I Like Shawn's method. I'm a DOS guy too and I still go to the command line to do stuff, and still write batch files to this day at work.

[Curt Harms]

One is Syncback mentioned above. Another is Powerdesk Pro. I've always found Windows Explorer pretty sorry for file manipulation. You can get a free version here to try it out. The free version is crippled in that it doesn't support synchronization and some other functions. One caviat: the free version doesn't work well at all with Vista.

[Brian Ashton]

Thx for everyone's suggestions and help. In the end my computing is going the way of my woodwork - neanderthal. I just bought two egg beater drills this week and now I'm using dos scripts. It's hard to believe there's all those programs out there when a dos script is so simple and efficient. It searches through about 50 gigs of data in multiple locations and backup only the changed files in probably a 20th of the time any other program has done. And best of all any computer can read and access the data on the drive without any proprietary software. Thx Shawn

[Shawn Patel]

One more thing I like:

In your scheduler, or from the cmd prompt, you can 'pipe' the output to a text file.

something like this:

backup.bat > backup.txt

This will show all the files that actually got copied as of the last backup. I use that to determine if my script actually ran last nite.

Just make sure in the .bat file that you use a /f switch in yr xcopy command; that shows the full source and destination...