Question Good silent backup software?

[JamesC01]

I'm finally back up and running after over a week of not being able to use my PC due to failed PSU. Thankfully all of my data seems fine, and I'm backing up my files as I write this. Problem is, backing up 20gb is taking hours. It's already been an hour and it's only 20% complete, and this is just for the files on my desktop. I have quite a few more. This is impractical, and is the reason I hadn't backed up in 6 months. Does anyone know any good software that will allow me to just plug an external hard drive in, press a button, and it will back up all of files I've specified? And ideally, it won't make duplicate back ups of files that haven't changed? I'd also like to continue using my PC without the backup getting in the way. It would ideally just skip over files I'm modifying, and then once the backup is finished, it alerts me saying it failed to backup those files, and gives me an option to back them up. Backing up the way I am now is a nightmare, but so is losing files, so I need a good solution. I can't spend my entire day backing up files.

 

[Lafong]

The FIRST backup of 20 GB is always going to take a long time.

LATER backups with proper software will be shorter because that later backup would involve only newly created or modified files.

Backing up to an external is always going to be slower than internal.

Not sure what you mean by "silent" software.

With the proper software, you would set up a backup profile and then actuate it with a mouse click.

 

[JamesC01]

The FIRST backup of 20 GB is always going to take a long time.

LATER backups with proper software will be shorter because that later backup would involve only newly created or modified files.

Backing up to an external is always going to be slower than internal.

Not sure what you mean by "silent" software.

With the proper software, you would set up a backup profile and then actuate it with a mouse click.

By silent I mean that it's running in the background, and will only interrupt me to tell me it can't copy a file at the end of the whole backup, instead of like windows where you manually copy files and it just halts the entire copying until you tell it to skip or retry. What is some good software to use?

 

[Lafong]

By silent I mean that it's running in the background, and will only interrupt me to tell me it can't copy a file at the end of the whole backup, instead of like windows where you manually copy files and it just halts the entire copying until you tell it to skip or retry. What is some good software to use?

I use SyncBackFree.

There are several others that work well....but they have different interfaces. Some are more user-friendly than others.

Others include Free File Sync, Karen's Replicator, Second Copy (paid not free).

They can all run in the background. If you have a file open when the backup is running, it would typically be skipped and you'd get a message that "file X was not backed up".

I back up 950 GB about 3 times a day. Takes about 2 minutes. The first backup (when the backup drive is empty) takes 4 or 5 hours.

I back up from Drive D to Drive E...both internal. D is an SSD; E is a standard spinning hard drive.

Your situation would be complicated if:

1; you are backing up FROM multiple drives.

or

2; you are backing up TO multiple drives.

But it's doable.

How many drives are you backing up FROM?

 

[JamesC01]

I use SyncBackFree.

There are several others that work well....but they have different interfaces. Some are more user-friendly than others.

Others include Free File Sync, Karen's Replicator, Second Copy (paid not free).

They can all run in the background. If you have a file open when the backup is running, it would typically be skipped and you'd get a message that "file X was not backed up".

I back up 950 GB about 3 times a day. Takes about 2 minutes. The first backup (when the backup drive is empty) takes 4 or 5 hours.

I back up from Drive D to Drive E...both internal. D is an SSD; E is a standard spinning hard drive.

Your situation would be complicated if:

1; you are backing up FROM multiple drives.

or

2; you are backing up TO multiple drives.

But it's doable.

How many drives are you backing up FROM?

I have my main ssd where most of my files and windows are stored, and then another hdd with some older files on it, that aren't accessed as often, but are sometimes changed. Although I could easily bring the more frequently accessed folders to the ssd.

 

[Lafong]

I have my main ssd where most of my files and windows are stored, and then another hdd with some older files on it, that aren't accessed as often, but are sometimes changed. Although I could easily bring the more frequently accessed folders to the ssd.

OK.

If you have 2 source drives, lets call them S1 and S2.

Backup drive: I assume you have just one. Let's call it B1.

You'd set up 2 "profiles" using the software.

Profile 1: backs up S1 to B1

Profile 2: backs up S2 to B1.

They would run separately and on demand.

You have total control over which files and folders to back up. Could be "everything" on S1 and S2 or only certain files/folders. You'd choose by checkmarks in boxes representing your source drive folder tree.

There might be a way to combine the profiles and run them as if everything was on just S1, but that's something I've never tried. It's a layer of complexity.

I'd say put all "originals" on a single SSD, unless you have some over-riding reason (capacity?) that won't work. Simpler. Single profile. One mouse click.

You have to decide on the following issue:

Suppose you have a file called kittykat.jpg on your source drive.

You run the backup. Kittykat.jpg is now on the source drive and on the backup drive.

You then delete kittykat from the source drive.

When you run the backup again, do you want kittykat to be deleted from the backup? Or kept?

Some people do. Some don't. I don't, but it's a choice you have to decide on when designing your backup profile.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Where are you backing up your files to? The only one in my solution that takes forever is backing up to my cloud backup provider, but as mentioned, it only hurts on the first run. Every other run only updates what changes were made.

Other than that, I use FreeFileSync to perform the update to my local backup stores. You can set it up to be automated.

 

[JamesC01]

OK.

If you have 2 source drives, lets call them S1 and S2.

Backup drive: I assume you have just one. Let's call it B1.

You'd set up 2 "profiles" using the software.

Profile 1: backs up S1 to B1

Profile 2: backs up S2 to B1.

They would run separately and on demand.

You have total control over which files and folders to back up. Could be "everything" on S1 and S2 or only certain files/folders. You'd choose by checkmarks in boxes representing your source drive folder tree.

There might be a way to combine the profiles and run them as if everything was on just S1, but that's something I've never tried. It's a layer of complexity.

I'd say put all "originals" on a single SSD, unless you have some over-riding reason (capacity?) that won't work. Simpler. Single profile. One mouse click.

You have to decide on the following issue:

Suppose you have a file called kittykat.jpg on your source drive.

You run the backup. Kittykat.jpg is now on the source drive and on the backup drive.

You then delete kittykat from the source drive.

When you run the backup again, do you want kittykat to be deleted from the backup? Or kept?

Some people do. Some don't. I don't, but it's a choice you have to decide on when designing your backup profile.

Thanks for the help! Ideally, I'd want it to get rid of the file on the next backup, but it'd be nice if they point it out "kittykat.jpg has been deleted, do you want to remove it from backup" or something like that.

 

[Lafong]

Thanks for the help! Ideally, I'd want it to get rid of the file on the next backup, but it'd be nice if they point it out "kittykat.jpg has been deleted, do you want to remove it from backup" or something like that.

You are not going to be notified as the backup runs for each file, but you could look in the log file after the backup is completed to see which files were deleted.

If you modified kittykat on the source drive and wanted to keep both the modified and unmodified versions on the backup, you would see kittykat.jpg and kittykat (2).jpg on the backup. One is a backup of the original and the other is a backup of the modified version.

If you are backing up to the cloud, you have my condolences. It is just terribly slow. I wouldn't even consider it as my only backup. Possibly as a second backup.

 

[PEnns]

I second the recommendation for Free File Sync. It has a good interface and works flawlessly.

I use it to back up / mirror whole drives. As to "silent backup": It is possible and works this way:

You create a backup job, i.e D; to G: drive.
Select what kind of back up you want (mirror / update / 2 way / custom) and let it compare them and then run the backup.

Should it come across files / folders that cannot / shouldn't be backed up (say, Recycle Bin) you can exclude them by filter such as:
\System Volume Information\
\$Recycle.Bin\
\Temp\
*\desktop.ini

After that it won't bother you again!