Question What do you all use to backup all your files ?

[Vanz_000]

I currently use GoodSync but find it a bit buggy and not that friendly at times. This would be for Windows 10 and 11.

I have several TB of personal data, and stuff like memes, movies and vids on multiple drives that I would like to back up to one large 8TB drive.

Ideally, I want to setup a program, then click a button once a week or so and have the software scan specific directories from multiple drives and back up all that info onto one large drive. I then take this drive and store it off site about every few years and buy a new 8 GB drive (I know its a little pricey but all my family person pics and home movies are worth it to me). I do not want to do any Cloud backing up.

When I run a backup I would like the program to compare all the files and only copy over the changed or new files. I don’t want it doing a whole fresh backup of everything. If during the backup process I get a power outage the software should also be able to continue where it left off and not do a whole new backup of everything.

GoodSync does work for this and is decent, just looking at trying other programs to see how they work.

Any suggestions/recommendations?

Thanks,

Vanz_0000

 

[USAFRet]

I use Macrium Reflect.

Full drive Images, Incremental every night or every week (depending on the system)

 

[punkncat]

Another program Windows already has is called RoboCopy, a command line file transfer utility. You can use task scheduler to have it do regular backups with the parameters you specify. The biggest thing with it is knowing the code required for the various tasks/abilities. Back in W10 days there was a console (called robocopy too, lol) that you just entered information into a couple windows, check marked the aspects you wanted on/off and away it went. I haven't actually used it in years, personally.

I use the Windows Backup program now as I can set which folders I want backed up. It is "meh". I actually take much more of a personal hand in keeping the things that are important to me these days insofar as duplicate items across multiple drives or cloud options for true backups.

 

[Vanz_000]

Another program Windows already has is called RoboCopy, a command line file transfer utility. You can use task scheduler to have it do regular backups with the parameters you specify. The biggest thing with it is knowing the code required for the various tasks/abilities. Back in W10 days there was a console (called robocopy too, lol) that you just entered information into a couple windows, check marked the aspects you wanted on/off and away it went. I haven't actually used it in years, personally.

I use the Windows Backup program now as I can set which folders I want backed up. It is "meh". I actually take much more of a personal hand in keeping the things that are important to me these days insofar as duplicate items across multiple drives or cloud options for true backups.

I did not know that, thanks...

 

[Vanz_000]

I use Macrium Reflect.

Full drive Images, Incremental every night or every week (depending on the system)

Will check this out, thanks USAFRet... never heard of it before...

 

[USAFRet]

Will check this out, thanks USAFRet... never heard of it before...

Unfortunately, it now costs actual money.

But, for me, it is one of those things that is worth the price.

 

[aldan]

I use Macrium Reflect.

Full drive Images, Incremental every night or every week (depending on the system)

what he said, except im lazy and just do a clone every once in awhile. i dont do anything that important.lol

 

[dingo07]

Who cares about all that data besides you? We all leave this place one day, and likely the ones we leave behind don't share the same fondness for our "data". I stopped keeping data years ago... floppies of Zork, Planetfall, Falcon 3.0, etc... it was only worth something to me - at one point in time. As I got older I've realized it's time to let go... slot car collection is going too.

 

[DSzymborski]

I do an automatic weekly OS drive image in Macrium Reflect and a daily 6 AM backup of key folders sent to my backup server with Bvckup2. My backup server then also sends the multimedia folders to the multimedia server as well, and backs up everything in the cloud.

 

[JayGau]

I just use the built-in Windows backup tool (control panel->backup and restore). It automatically backs up my files and creates an image of my system once a week. And you can customize it to back up what you want where you want.

On top of that I also use the Windows file history that copies my documents every hour and keeps all the previous versions for a year (incremental backup). I did a Windows fresh install a couple of weeks ago and could easily recover my files from it.

 

[Vanz_000]

Who cares about all that data besides you? We all leave this place one day, and likely the ones we leave behind don't share the same fondness for our "data".

my family... kids, parents, grandparent, wife's parent ...etc, years of home movies, picture ...etc... my parents like looking through this old stuff, I don't really look at it much these days, but I might want to when I'm retired and have the time...

 

[Vanz_000]

thank you for all the responses, will most likely buy Macrium Reflect...

Does no one use GoodSync?

If no one does, what are the reasons people don't like it...

 

[Grobe]

Use rsync (Linux).
I have set up a terminal command together with rsync that causes versioning backups - that is, removed or overwritten files are archived instead of deleted. This have saved my work a couple of times by now.

Back in the old days when I still used windows at home, I used to take regular backup of OS partition using Clonezilla. That worked for me, as I did partitioning - the fact that Clonezilla doesn't supported incremental backup never became a problem to me.

Then, I started transition to Linux at home. In the beginning, I did use Clonezilla on this too. However, after some time I realized that full backup of most Linux at home computers was in fact not necessary.
This is because - it normally takes just a short time to install from a bootable iso image, set up the user name and install all the apps normally using.
And - in almost every cases, apps in Linux store its preferences in the Home directory. That is why I've realized I only need to make backup of my home directory, and restore backup after re-install.

Or even better - in a stationary computer, I allocated a separate partition as home partition - thus all app settings is retained while re-install Linux.
Ok, I actively take backup of the fstab file in addition to avoid manually designate all partitioning over again (on the stationary computer with multiple hdd's)