Backing up files to an external hard drive

[weese237]

What is the best way to back up your files to an external hard drive?

Let me explain:
A few months ago I copied all of my files from my "Downloads" folder to my external hard drive. No problem.

If I try to do another backup, the normal Windows drag 'n drop method works fine except that if the file is already on the external HD, it asks you if you want to overwrite it. Your choices are Yes, Yes to All, and No. If you click Yes, you'll be there clicking thousands of times, obviously. Clicking Yes to all (which is what I usually do) you needlessly rewrite thousands of files. What windows really needs is a No to All or something, so that only new files or updated files get written.

I usually delete some files from the Hard Drive to free up drive space so I wouldn't want any software to "sync" and therefore deleting them from my external hard drive as well.

Any ideas? I've looked at several software solutions and at this point, I'd like to hear what others are doing.

Thanks!

P.S. I prefer to keep my files uncompressed for easy access.

[Bigaldoc]

I'm sure someone will mention program(s) other than Windows Explorer that are more "intelligent" about file copying.

For example, I myself use something called TeraCopy when I need only to copy a select group of files.

BUT, I hardly ever do that because of the state of disk imaging. It's easy, pretty fast, selected files can be accessed or retrieved almost immediately, and best of all, it's FREE: Macrium Reflect FREE Edition I just did a test on one of my laptop images and the backed up image opened in a tree pane almost immediately and I could browse, copy or open my files without a problem.

[weese237]

Hi Al,

Isn't that funny, I just downloaded TeraCopy. Obviously haven't tried it yet, still perusing the internet.

I guess when I hear the words "disk imaging" I think that I would be creating a copy of the entire hard drive which I don't want to do. I just want to make sure I have my downloaded software files and Documents. So maybe I'm not thinking correctly?

Thanks for giving another vote to TeraCopy!

[Bigaldoc]

I don't understand what your objection to imaging is. So yeah, it is going to make your WHOLE hard drive part of the image. But that's not a "bad" thing.

Murphy's Law ya know... It doesn't take very long and, if anything "bad" ever happens to your hard drive, you would NOT have to re-install windows and all your software again - it's all in the image.

Lordy, I suggest you reconsider.

[Roderunner]

All my downloads are saved to 'Desktop', from there, I can copy them to my external hdd for safe keeping and put a copy in my D:drive if I need quick access to it. Nothing except for a few pictures & my Wallpapers is stored on C:drive.

[weese237]

Hi Al, I guess I wasn't clear. Sorry. I have no objections to imaging. I've done it many times. The question I was asking was to backup a couple of folders without spending the night clicking yes or no a thousand times.

Roderunner, great idea! I may start doing that.

Thanks!

[Roderunner]

Roderunner, great idea! I may start doing that.
Thanks!

If an imaging tool is used for backing up files/folders, they usually have to be restored, which mean the current drive has to be empty, or spend a lot of time going through them to find the one you want, depending on what was used to back them up.

[weese237]

I agree. I've been looking at something called SecondCopy and SyncBack. Both have mostly positive opinions.

Thanks again

[Roderunner]

I agree. I've been looking at something called SecondCopy and SyncBack. Both have mostly positive opinions.

Thanks again

Why bother with apps that can take longer to do what can be done by yourself, faster & better.
Forgot to mention I also save mine on SkyDrive where I have 25gb on 2 accounts.

[Bigaldoc]

If an imaging tool is used for backing up files/folders, they usually have to be restored, which mean the current drive has to be empty, or spend a lot of time going through them to find the one you want, depending on what was used to back them up.

I don't agree with that at all. The only time a drive has to be empty is when you install a new OS to it.

In an imaging strategy, if you need to restore a whole image, it doesn't matter what's on the drive. The image will overwrite the drive/partition (assumed to be garbage or you wouldn't be restoring).

On the other hand, copying individual or GROUPS of files from a backed up image takes no more trouble than with any other software mechanism that I'm aware of. I've restored groups of files MANY times and it's not time consuming, confusing in any way - at least to me.

I guess I should bow out now, hoping I've not offended, for it seems that imaging is not a good solution to this thread.

[weese237]

True. If I had been diligent in making my backups regularly it would be simpler to do it that way. I haven't though and now I've got probably almost a year's worth to do. We'll see though, maybe it won't be too bad since I don't download like I used to. I usually go in spurts depending on the current project and whether or not the software I want to use is out of date.

[Roderunner]

If an imaging tool is used for backing up files/folders, they usually have to be restored, which mean the current drive has to be empty, or spend a lot of time going through them to find the one you want, depending on what was used to back them up.

I don't agree with that at all. The only time a drive has to be empty is when you install a new OS to it.

My reason for my statment was to prevent the files/folders in the current location being overwritten. A new backup would need to be made prior to the restore being performed, just to find a file/folder or two.

[Bigaldoc]

My reason for my statment was to prevent the files/folders in the current location being overwritten. A new backup would need to be made prior to the restore being performed, just to find a file/folder or two.

Well, I said I was gonna bow out and I will but I just can't help myself. I have no idea what the above sentence means! Unless you care to write a step by step scenario of what you're describing, I can't fathom your description. Not true in my experience. Do you use an imaging program of any kind?

[MalcolmWalker]

What is the best way to back up your files to an external hard drive?

PMFJI, but having read this thread I cannot recall seeing a mention of Windows 7 own built-in Backup and Restore component. That too will create an image as well as file backups with a dialogue enabling options to be selected.
The link to Backup and Restore is in Control Panel.

[Roderunner]

PMFJI, but having read this thread I cannot recall seeing a mention of Windows 7 own built-in Backup and Restore component. That too will create an image as well as file backups with a dialogue enabling options to be selected.
The link to Backup and Restore is in Control Panel.

Win7's B&R tends to be unreliable according to various posts in other forums.

[Roderunner]

I have no idea what the above sentence means! Unless you care to write a step by step scenario of what you're describing, I can't fathom your description. Not true in my experience. Do you use an imaging program of any kind?

When I post info, I tend to try and keep it as short as possible, this is normally where the confusion starts, so I will try to be more thorough starting now.

When I bought my pc, it came with one drive without any partition except the 'Recovery' part. As I was completely new to using a pc, I made countless errors resulting in having to do a hellava lot of recovering.

Eventually I learned how to fix things, thanks to help from other users in 2 forums.

The master info I got was to learn how to back-up instead of re mastering.

I soon learnt that doing a C:drive image was the most important, BUT found out that I lost all the MP3's I had painstakingly ripped from my vast CD collection.
This was when I made a partition to store them, and found it was possible to re master C: without affecting the contents on D:

Then all by myself, I realised if the one & only HDD crashed, I would still lose them. So I started to make an image of the drive using Norton Ghost 9. As my list of MP3's increased, I would do another back-up.

I then added other files to D: and then made other back-up's.
At this point, I realised if I had to do a restore and it failed due to a corruption in the back-up file due to a virus or other, they would once again disappear.

This was when I decided to make copies on an external hdd. This allowed me to choose what to put onto D: so as to have instant access.

Now that I use Win7, I still follow that method of having instant access to my files on D: but have copies on 2 externall hdd's, just to be doubly secure.
-----
To backup C:drive, I use Acronis TIH's 'One Click' backup method which gives a system image.
I do an image after one of my programs gets updated.
I also do an image before installing updates from Microsoft in case of errors.
I also do an image before installing a new program, if anything goes wrong, I can restore that image, in the knowledge is been removed completely, whereas uninstalling it can & does leave unwanted items on my pc's.

[StuartR]

Modern imaging programs allow you to 'mount' an image so it appears as another drive. This lets you browse / OPEN individual files and selectively restore just what you need.

[Sundog]

Note: Apparently the "One Click Backup" function does not exist in Acronis True Image Home 2012. See http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28122.

[BobArch2]

What is the best way to back up your files to an external hard drive?

I use a couple of different methods for backing up my files. I use a package (ShadowProtect) for weekly imaging with daily incrementals... and the same package for creating monthly images to an external drive.

Another approach I use, which more closely matches your needs and processes, involves the use of Window's Robocopy. I have batch files set up to invoke Robocopy which copies source files to the target on a selective basis. Only files that have changed get copied... and without those nagging "Yes... Continue..." questions.

Here's a sample of one of my batch files:

robocopy D:\Data I:\RCDriveD\Data /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Data2 I:\RCDriveD\Data2 /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Data3 I:\RCDriveD\Data3 /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\DigitalCameraWork I:\RCDriveD\DigitalCameraWork /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Icons I:\RCDriveD\Icons /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\IconsForIE I:\RCDriveD\IconsForIE /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Magazines I:\RCDriveD\Magazines /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Outback7 I:\RCDriveD\Outback7 /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\SnagItArchives I:\RCDriveD\SnagItArchives /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\SympaticoMusicStore I:\RCDriveD\SympaticoMusicStore /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Sysupdates I:\RCDriveD\Sysupdates /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL
robocopy D:\Sysupdates64Bit I:\RCDriveD\Sysupdates64Bit /MIR /LOG+:G:\RobocopyLogs\RCDLogs.log /NP /NDL

At the CMD prompt you can type in robocopy /? to see all the available switches. Or, clink here to see the available switches with an explanation of their use.

The very first running of the batch file will take some time since all of your data files will be copied. I have a few batch files, run them as needed and even with a lot of new or updated files I find the time taken is never more than a few minutes.

[weese237]

Thank you all! You've given me a lot to think about and investigate!