Help me backup all my data continuously

[Squisher]

I either need to learn to use windows office better or find a stand alone software that will accomplish what I want.

My wife just recently had her HD crash on her laptop and lost all her data.

What I would want would be some software that when saving files to the HD would also save a copy on a jumpdrive (it could even be an external HD, but I'll bet her data wasn't more than half a Gig). This would include Word, Excel, Jpegs, and even backup all the mail folders in Outlook maybe before every shut down.

Is there such an animal that could work in the background that could do this painlessly without much prompting by my wife's part?

Does such an animal exist?

 

[SilentRunning]

Linky

 

[redbeard1]

The program Second Copy will do what you want.

 

[JackMDS]

Almost all of the Sync. Programs are based on scheduled Sync. I.e. you have to define how often it will Sync. / Backup.

If a scheduled solution is what you want you can use Windows as described in the link of SilentRunning's post above, or get one of the free sync, programs.

This one is very Good: Allway Sync - Free folder synchronization tool.

However if you want a Real software ?RAID Style? Sync. I.e. constant Sync that is always On and not a matter of Scheduled Sync./Backup, this is the best tool: MirrorFolder - real-time backup of your files.

:sun:

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Squisher
My wife just recently had her HD crash on her laptop and lost all her data.

What I would want would be some software that when saving files to the HD would also save a copy on a jumpdrive (it could even be an external HD, but I'll bet her data wasn't more than half a Gig). This would include Word, Excel, Jpegs, and even backup all the mail folders in Outlook maybe before every shut down.

What you describe as what you want has the functionality of RAID 1. It mirrors the disk. Anything you do is replicated on two drives. If/when one of the two fails, you can always recover the data from the other.

However, that is not backup!
If you delete a file, by mistake, on a RAID 1 system, the file will be deleted from both drives. There will be no way to get that file back. If you have a backup, you can get the file back.

If you are only concerned about hard drive failures, what you are looking for will accomplish it. But, if you are also concerned about human error, or viruses or spyware, you should consider backup.

XP already has a backup utility.