"Data backed up multiple times a day at will, without Macrium.">How do you do this ?
"Using a free third party data backup program that does NOT use imaging. ">Can you recommend some?
I've used several apps over the last 15 or 20 years. They all work the about the same way, but have various interfaces and help files.
Second Copy (30 bucks the last time I looked); been around a long time; highly refined; probably the best interface of all of them
FreeFileSync; free; works fine, but I eventually gave up on it due to an unnecessarily complex interface.
SyncBackFree; free; currently using this for the last 5 years with no issues; there is a paid version you aren't likely to need.
Others I've heard good things about: Syncfolders; Karen's Replicator; Synchredible
The first time you run one of these, it will likely take hours to finish, depending on how much data you have.
Thereafter, it will be a LOT quicker. On a typical run, mine finishes in 90 to 120 seconds for over 900 gb of data.
Generally...to set them up, you walk through the interface and select which individual folders and files you want to include, to what destination, and then you save those choices in a "profile". You run the profile at will. You can have multiple profiles....I have 3; one for ALL data; one for most critical data; and one for email only. I run the first one 2 or 3 times a day; the others maybe weekly.
You'll have to decide if you want to use what is often called "mirroring". I do. Some people don't.
Mirroring: suppose you have a file named cat.jpg. You run the backup and therefore have 2 copies of cat.jpg. You then delete your original cat.jpg and then run the backup program again. Do you want cat.jpg to REMAIN on the backup or to be DELETED from the backup? If you want to delete it from the backup, say yes to mirroring. If you want it to remain on the backup, say no to mirroring.
Macrium's paid version does have a file backup capability in addition to the standard capability. I tried it and gave up on it because it is not a simple "file by file" backup like these other apps above. It is clunky and slow. It uses shadow copy, compression, temporary mounting and all the same stuff that imaging uses. It creates an mrbak file when I had hoped it would just do effectively the same as a drag and drop.