Backups

[Muse]

I have a variety of data and keep all the essential stuff on a 2TB USB HD that's attached to my server machine on a wireless and ethernet network.

Some of that data is very important to me, I'd be semi-devastated if I lost it. Other stuff is greater in GB's but not as crucial.

I want to insure that I don't lose the most important stuff and would like to backup the not so crucial stuff too.

Up until now, my strategies have not been well organized. Occasionally I've copied data from the server HD to other locations. That could be another USB HD, a HD on one of my client machines, some flash drives I have.

Now, copying files that haven't changed seems redundant and wasteful (wastes time and causes extra wear to hardware), but that's very often what I've done.

I'd like to have off-site backups, so I've bought a couple of extra 2TB external USB HDs, also three 16GB flash drives. I understand that I can use Windows XP's backup program to do incremental or differential backups but don't know if I can coordinate that sort of thing with multiple backup media and locations. Is that doable?

 

[smakme7757]

Syncback Pro is an absolutely fantastic software!
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro.html

It can backup to pretty much where ever you want. You also have a range of different scenarios to choose from: Backup, Mirror, Sync ect...

I use the backup option mostly and it works like you would think. Only copying the files which have changed since the last backup (Compare Source and destination). You are also in complete control of the decision making to the software. What should be moved, deleted, excluded etc..

I have a few profiles backing up to Amazon S3, FTP, Local storage, Network storage ect. It supports versioning as well if you need that.

It does support encryption however Syncback SE/Pro doesn't use a proprietary solution so it's only backing up the files "as is". Files are not packed into another container format such as the .tib files Acronis use. So If you want to encrypt the backup it will add; either each file to it's own encrypted .zip file or add all the files in a single encrypted zip file.

For my encrypted backups I'm using Acronis, however for everything else Ii'm using Syncback Pro (There is an SE version with slightly less functionality for a lower price)

Give the trial a go and see if you like it. It's not super fancy on the UI side, but it makes up for that with a fluid and constructive design as well as having a very impressive and solid feature set.

I might also add in that their support staff are extremely helpful. They helped me sort out a backup error on Windows 8 preview (before they officially supported it). Not many companies use man hours on a single customer on an unsupported platform.

Brainstorming for your personal backup scenario
It will 100% solve your problem with backing up data already backed up seeing as the software will figure out what is new or changed and only send the new stuff over the wire to the destination.

As for multiple drives and backup places i would create a profile for each

1. Backup - Documents - 16GB Flash Drive
2. Backup - Documents - 2TB HDD
3. Backup - Pictures - 16GB Flash Drive
4. Backup - Pictures - 2TB HDD

Backup locations that are available all the time (not a removable device which becomes disconnected) can be scheduled to run every hours/day/week/month.

Then have removable media as manual profiles which you run on demand.

It takes a lot of trial and error to get a backup system running perfectly. I've used months to get mine the way I want it. There has always been something extra or that needed changing to get it running smoothly.