Help: Looking for Backup Software (PC)

[Ziggy]

So my mom has her 80GB hard drive almost completely filled, mostly with pictures. So for Christmas, I'm gonna get her a nice new larger hard drive. Then I had the idea, she has a shit ton of pictures on there, which are irreplaceable. So I thought I'd get her two identical drives and let one backup the other. That's what I do right now on my PC using Window 7's backup features, but the version of Vista that my mom has doesn't include the backup features.

Here's what I want the backup software to do:

- Let me choose what files and folders I want to backup
- Let me choose where I want to backup to
- Have a calendar system, so I can set a backup schedule
- When backups run, it only backups new or modified files since last time (not entire backups each time)
- Backed up files can be accessed just like regular files
- Isn't crazy expensive

I know there's a lot of external "backup hard drives" out there that come with software, but I would rather use an internal hard drive. Also, I thought about just using a software mirror RAID, but I'm not sure. I know they say RAID isn't a good backup solution, but I'm really only worried about hard drive failure, not accidental deletion of files. But is software RAID gonna be slower or something? Or, if the OS crashes, will that be a problem for the mirror?

[Hatta]

You might try this Windows port of rsync.

[Ziggy]

Wow, it's free? Awesome! Have you used it before? I read over the page quickly and it sounds very good.

[CRTGAMER]

Why not just direct copy folders over to an external drive? No proprietary backup software needed to retrieve your archive. Especially years later on another computer that doesn't have that backup software.

For pics and videos, a step further by creating a new folder every year:
\JPG 2010 and \MPG 2010.

Direct copy the pic/video folders to CDRs and DVDRs every year and send extra copies to relatives as a dual purpose Christmas gift and archive. Great grandkids decades later can easily rediscover the copies.

[Hatta]

I have used it before. It's something you'd want to configure for mom. It's a fairly thin wrapper around the UNIX utility rsync, so configuration is a little dense even with the GUI. Otherwise it is very capable and stable.

[CRTGAMER]

An added thought, I have removable boot C drives with an internal shared D drive. The D drive is the archive drive used only for all the non installables, family pics and videos. The added benefit of categorizing annual folders also makes for easy not backup but direct copy to external hard drive and discs. Only have to worry about the current year rewrite.

Can't stress enough just sticking with just regular raw copy burn and not a proprietary backup of JPGs and MPGs. One year my sister sent me a nice DVDR slide show with music, but I couldn't print out or wallpaper an individual pic! Raw copy is so much easier for printing out a photo years later on another computer or local drug store photo lab.

[Hatta]

Rsync is a glorified copy program. DeltaCopy (based on rsync) will give you a simple directory tree you can browse with any file manager. Rsync just gives you extras like transferring only files that have changed, include/exclude files by glob/regex, and network transparency.

[Ziggy]

Why not just direct copy folders over to an external drive? No proprietary backup software needed to retrieve your archive. Especially years later on another computer that doesn't have that backup software.

Well since it's for my mom, I want an automated process. She'll never manually back up her files, she can barely get through the process of copy pictures off her camera. As far as needing the software to retrieve, that's what I'm talking about. There is software that just automates the copy process, you can access the backed up files just like normal. This is what I'm looking for.

Rsync just gives you extras like transferring only files that have changed, include/exclude files by glob/regex, and network transparency.

That sounds like what I'm looking for. I basically just wanna set it up to periodically (weekly, maybe) backup her pictures and videos and maybe music folders.

I have used it before. It's something you'd want to configure for mom. It's a fairly thin wrapper around the UNIX utility rsync, so configuration is a little dense even with the GUI. Otherwise it is very capable and stable.

Sounds good to me. I'll be setting up whatever backup software I get for her anyway, that's not something she'll know how to do anyways. I downloaded rsync before, I'm gonna check it out right now and see how the GUI is.

[JimSmith]

Handy Backup can do it well, it provides an easy way to backup pictures and other memorable files with scheduling. Hope it will be a good Christmas gift for your mom.