Question organizing my files and then backing up final sets, but also frequent incremental backups

[sanman98]

I'm trying to find the right word to explain my goal and what my current method is of keeping my files.
Mostly I need to sync a folder manually to a hard drive and a cloud service, for personal archive and some to share on the cloud (Mega).
I need an incremental backup or maybe Teracopy
i've been sorting my files and then try to make a good backup
but i should backup even the disorganized folders also and project files regularly

so i have some redundant files or new files to rename or pictures from social media on my phone but then a full quality version i might later get. it's not necessarily possible to ask the multiple people posting for an original quality file. It might be best if i can just get all high quality files and with original file names and put in one folder or make a folder structure.
i need to commit to an overall protocol
the way it's been is i manually save and copy some files and sort through them, putting them in an intermediary folder and maybe a redundant folder (no symlink), a couple folders i organize with some of the same files
and do a whole backup from time to time with updates
i want to keep some archived untouched, pristine
and then whatever files i organize
and another way i organize it or for sharing, or smaller quality media and original quality
and also a frequent backup. It's a bit much. The main problem is redundancy and the intermediary folder. So I try to sort it and backup the same day.


below is just more explanation/background
:::
(trying to organize and backup my files in a routine, maybe some software backups but mostly files, documents, projects, some media. also i forget what i used before to save a list of my software, maybe an uninstaller program has that feauture BCUninstalller didn't)

Hi I've checked out Macrium Reflect before and had used Acronis many years ago. I see Easeus also has a paid software. Comodo has a free backup with incremental. I forget the difference between imaging and clone. But i do prefer if, in addition to an archive, to have a browse-able filesystem. Mostly I just don't want to be locked into a proprietary file type of an obscure software.
I am more concerned with backing up new files or changed files, but to not overwrite a good backup. So maybe to set a good backup every month when it is organized. I also want to backup to a cloud service such as Mega and they have a sync software.
I would keep a temporary in-between folder to sort every once in a while with new files. And then archive any final work or occasionally backup ongoing work.
Any files that need renamed or tagged. And then i go through them and copy it to a couple similar mirrored redundant folders for their own purpose organized differently. And eventually copy a whole backup when i can. And run a scan for duplicates becomes a bit counter-productive at some point.
It would be great to just have one folder and a pool of tags to sort them differently.

So generally I found that manually copying, maybe using an actually decent copying software like Teracopy and there's some software to check folder sizes such as WinDirStat and Directory Opus. I can scan for duplicates using DupeGuru, but Similarity App for music won't email me my license again or reply. I was doing a lot more with music and MusicBrainz Picard and MP3Tag.
But mostly now organizing documents and pictures, a little bit of music or project files.
I just need to get some backups and redundant files taken care of and also synced onto the cloud.

 

[USAFRet]

I use Macrium Reflect.
Full drive backup, and then a series of Incremental or Differential.

The duplicates thing, you'll have to do on your own.

 

[sanman98]

Anything for incremental/differential on only a folder? Or to pay for Macrium Reflect paid version.

There's a huge folder i'd rather not tie away in some proprietary image file. But yes, maybe. Or the paid version, yeah.
oh and incremental also seems to not be available on free version


Thank you, by the way
Yeah that looks good.

 

[USAFRet]

Anything for incremental/differential on only a folder? Or to pay for Macrium Reflect paid version.

There's a huge folder i'd rather not tie away in some proprietary image file. But yes, maybe. Or the paid version, yeah.
oh and incremental also seems to not be available on free version


Thank you, by the way

Paid Macrium does folders. But still in the Macrium file type.

FreeFileSync or SyncBack Free will do just the bare files.
And I've used those to de duplicate content in various folders.

Select two folders, sync in both directions.
Now, both folders have the total file set.
Delete one.

 

[Grobe]

Just mention that FreeFileSync support versioning, that is somewhat in the ballpark of incremental backup, exept whenever a file is deleted or replaced by a newer version - the backup of the deleted files move to a folder structure instead of actually being deletet, so that old versions and deleted files from backup is still possible to retrieve in the future.

This works for me, but I cannot tell what may be best of versioning vs. incremental backup in general because it isn't that different.