Looking for a simple backup program

[DuranXL]

Hi,

I'm planning on buying a 1GB external USB disk and copy my DATA partition onto it.
However I'd like to have a program that remembers the filetree of my DATA disk so that the next time I connect the external USB disk I can choose to backup only the new files.

I know there might be quite some backup programs that do this, but which free one do you recommend?
Does windows backup offer this?

Thanks

[dayglo98]

http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Todo...-10964460.html

That software will do differential backups

[DuranXL]

Thanks, but does it offer the sync option?
What's important is that I don't want a program running in the background that syncs every day or something.
All I want is to start up the program after 3 months and let it transfer the files I haven't backed-up yet.

[dayglo98]

Actually I'm not of the backup type, I just googled something just for you, and that program was mentioned in a lot of places and comments seemed good so I can't tell you. I would guess if it had the sync feature you would be able to disable it.

[dracom_ma]

Freefilesync

I use it to sync my videos on my NAS to backup drives. It keeps track of file structures quite well and should be what you need.

You can even use it to create "batch" jobs that you can keep on the drive. Just insert the drive, execute the batch, and remove the drive when done. You can also set up the batch as a scheduled task if you wish.

[DuranXL]

Freefilesync

I use it to sync my videos on my NAS to backup drives. It keeps track of file structures quite well and should be what you need.

You can even use it to create "batch" jobs that you can keep on the drive. Just insert the drive, execute the batch, and remove the drive when done. You can also set up the batch as a scheduled task if you wish.

Thanks, looks good.
So do I use automatic or mirror? (I dont know how smart automatic is).
If I choose mirror, will it rescan the whole drive needing more than an hour to match both folders?

[dracom_ma]

Thanks, looks good.
So do I use automatic or mirror? (I dont know how smart automatic is).
If I choose mirror, will it rescan the whole drive needing more than an hour to match both folders?

Well, I would think "mirror" would be what you need. Mirror copies everything in source to the target, if there is something in target but not in the source, it get's deleted, if a file is updated, then the file on the target is overwrote from the source. I havn't used "Automatic" myself, so I don't know what rules it follows exactly.

And honestly, FFS is pretty darn quick when it does it's comparison between the source and target. For myself, even with thousands of files taking up nearly 2TB, it takes FFS less then a minute to make it's comparison and determine what needs to be transferred, deleted, or overwritten.

[DuranXL]

Sounds good[thumbup] at first I was thinking about automatic, as it uses a database. However if mirror takes <1min (mine's 500GB) it doens't really matter.

Program looked good already when it allowed me to do a portable install

[ollip]

All you need: http://synkron.sourceforge.net/

[dracom_ma]

All you need: http://synkron.sourceforge.net/

Not a bad program. It's a lot like FFS in ways, although I do like the multisync options.

The only problem I see is there is no file verification at all. Any program to be used to backup files should have that option imo, and I learned that the hard way. I had a problem with my router that caused corruptions in the files I was syncing and because I did not have verifications enabled, I lost several hundred files that's going to take me months to replace.

I've not had any more file corruptions since replacing the router, but I don't risk my backups without verifications.