Best way to do backups?

Scott_Arm

Legend
This is kind of weird, but in all my 20+ years of using computers, I've never really explored the world of backing up data. I just haven't had data that was precious to me. There have been a couple times where I wished I was more prepared for hard drive failures and the like ;)

Anyway, I just got a one terrabyte drive with an enclosure and I want to start backing things up proper. Basically all I want to backup is what is in my My Documents folder and I want it to be in a readable form on the backup drive. So, if I plug it in to another PC I want to be able to see the directory structure. Some compressed archive format is not suitable.

Is there a way to do this and have it automated or semi automated when I plug in my external drive? The ideal would be to plug the drive and have folders of my selection automatically synced to the external drive. If I had to load up a client that would remember my preferences and have me click "Go" to execute the sync, that would be great as well.

If you have any ideas on the best way to handle this kind of thing, so I'm not backing up folders manually, I'd appreciate it.
 
hasnt windows got a built in backup program ?
one thing that may catch you out make sure the backup program removes the permissions from the files + folders or you may get a "you dont have permission to access these files" msg if you try to read them in another pc
 
Windows has the addtionnal "Sync Powertoys" that can be downloaded from microsoft.

regarding permissions, as long as you're admin or root on the other computer you should be able to read the files (Vista may nag you) ; still that's a nice advice to remove them.
 
hasnt windows got a built in backup program ?
one thing that may catch you out make sure the backup program removes the permissions from the files + folders or you may get a "you dont have permission to access these files" msg if you try to read them in another pc

That happened to me but all I needed to do was make an Adminstrator account with the same name then take ownership of the files/folders.
 
Windows has the addtionnal "Sync Powertoys" that can be downloaded from microsoft.

Yep. I've been using this for a while now. I have it setup so that it syncs Docs/Music/Videos/Pictures/Downloads to my 1TB external disc. I suggest doing a test run to make sure the options you set up are the ones you really want (sync/echo/contribute) but once you verify that, two button presses and your disks are sync-ed.

I haven't explored automating the process but the Task Scheduler in Vista ought to be able to do that (say, once the external disk is detected) but tbh, SyncToy makes the process so simple that I never felt the need.
 
Windows has the addtionnal "Sync Powertoys" that can be downloaded from microsoft.

regarding permissions, as long as you're admin or root on the other computer you should be able to read the files (Vista may nag you) ; still that's a nice advice to remove them.

Thanks. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I can do an echo or a contribute. I'm undecided. I have 1TB, so maybe I won't want to delete in the right folder. I'm not sure.

Edit: Synctoy is perfect. Thanks guys.
 
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