RPS Posted August 24, 2009 Share #1 Posted August 24, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) I recognize there have been several prior threads dealing with external hard drives and various backup scenarios. I've looked over those threads, but haven't found an appropriate solution to my problem. I have a Western Digital 500GB "My Book" external hard drive which I use for backups. Because of its low price, this particular drive came with no particular backup software. To move files to this external drive, I must manually drag-and-drop each folder, which is labor intensive and very time consuming, since all files in each folder are copied over in their entirety. What I seek is a software solution that automatically sychronizes the files on my external hard-drive with designated folders on my system unit hard-drive. Specifically, I want to have the system track which files have been added, changed or deleted and then automatically "mirror" those changes on the external drive whenever I connect it to the system unit. Only files that are added, changed or deleted would be handled in this scenario, dramatically reducing the time required to accomplish an identical image of my files on the external drive. Does anybody here have any knowledge of, and experience with, such software. My computer setup is a fairly recent Dell Optiplex computer, running Windows XP. Thanks in advance for your help. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 Hi RPS, Take a look here Synch Software for External Hard Drive. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Venkman Posted August 25, 2009 Share #2 Posted August 25, 2009 Microsoft SyncToy - free of charge, quite nice, let's you preview the changes as well and does only copy the files that have changed. Info: SyncToy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Download: Download details: SyncToy v2.0 Only "downside" to your mentioned scenario - it does not work automatically. For that you would need a Mac with Timemachine. Dirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted August 25, 2009 Share #3 Posted August 25, 2009 Go to versiontracker.com and do a search for "backup" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
analogisch Posted August 25, 2009 Share #4 Posted August 25, 2009 Hi, thanks for the question - had the same problem, which is really annoying. I will try the solutions mentioned. So also thanks for the answers Patty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erl Posted August 25, 2009 Share #5 Posted August 25, 2009 Robert, I have three "My Book" ext HD's and they ALL came pre-loaded with exactly what you want. On the first HD I bought, the pre-loaded software was called 'Memeo AutoBackup'. The later two have an updated version called 'WD Anywhere AutoBackup'. Check the Western Digital website for additional info. Also, have a close look at your HD. It just might be hiding a nice surprise for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbo68 Posted August 25, 2009 Share #6 Posted August 25, 2009 Dear all, I´ve been using COMODO BACKUP for a while and have no issues at all with this little tool: Next to the regualr backup modes it offers you the sync functionality for any folder/drive. You can load the program with windows, so the sync stars immediatly.Try to google you will find an downloadserver instantly. I think it is freeware - even better. Best Regards, Arndt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted August 25, 2009 Share #7 Posted August 25, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) When I had a PC I used this... MirrorFolder: A real-time backup software Worked perfectly. You specify what you want to back up by selecting the disk/folder with a right mouse click. It just sits in the background, monitors any changes and copies the relevant files/folders across. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPS Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share #8 Posted August 25, 2009 Thanks everybody ... this certainly gives me some interesting options to chew on. A co-worker recommended a product called GoodSync" ( http://www.goodsync.com/ ) - does anybody here have any experience with that product? Thanks again for the help. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted August 25, 2009 Share #9 Posted August 25, 2009 Robert, I use Second Copy, which I believe was recommended on this forum. It is inexpensive and I have been using it for 2 or more years. Basically, it keeps the directories -- or any other folder choice, like a drive -- mirrored. The first drive is a full backup; all subsequent ones, incremental. It can be configured for scheduled and/or manual backup. It's $30 and you can try it for free. I recommend this highly. Regards, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haroldp Posted August 27, 2009 Share #10 Posted August 27, 2009 EMC retrospect usually is bundled with WD drives and works perfectly with windows, (but not with apple). NTI shadow is working nicely on my apple systems. These (like water ) should be free. Regards .. Harold Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootist Posted August 27, 2009 Share #11 Posted August 27, 2009 I use a program called Powerdesk Pro which is a file management program with much more features and for me easier to use then Windows Explorer. Along with this program you get another program called "Folder Synchronizer" that I use for all kinds of folder/file copying/deleting (synchronizing) from one drive to another whether internal, external or across my home network. The only thing it doesn't do that you want is to do it automatically. Just disregard the comment about Apple Mac and timemachine. To my knowledge timemachine writes proprietary files, backups, to your other drive not a true copy of the original file. I'm sure they may be a program to do all of what you want but for it to do the real time checking and copying/deleting it would need to run all the time. For me that is not a option as I don't like programs that run all the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted August 28, 2009 Share #12 Posted August 28, 2009 Unfortunately, almost all these solutions give one a false sense of security. A raid is required so that if your principal storage media craps out, there are MIULTPLE REDUNDANT copies of your work. The DROBO is a very fine example as are WD's new raid systems based on high capacity single or multi-terabyte drives. If that one 500GB or larger drive fails, which is inevitable, or worse, gets corrupted (happens all the time with file systems) you're cooked. I have worked with a number of professional image makers, film directors, & sound engineers whose content runs the gamut from HD movies, film scans, large format files of various sorts, as well as music, sound & complex vector files. A raid of some sort is the least of what is required. I use multiple raids and also backup to a cloud that stores around 15 terabytes last time I looked. It's important to have multiple copies in different places to ensure that fire, wind, theft... don't leave you bereft of all your blood, sweat & tears. Hard drives fail. It's just a fact. If the principle drive burns to toast, having a index file of the changes & even maybe those recently changed files are little solace. Get an external raid that can be expanded & takes at least 4 different drives. They will fail, but the others will have copies & you can even switch out the dead drive while the others are still doing their job. I bought my first raid server from IBM about 5 years ago & can still buy the internal-swappable 500GB drives for cheap. I always buy at least 4 additional matching drives each time I increase my storage capacity. That day will come, when you are grateful to have only to replace a $100 drive, not all your work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
haroldp Posted August 28, 2009 Share #13 Posted August 28, 2009 Roguewave: You are correct, however one still needs an automated way to copy/synchronize changes to the 'cloud'. I use only raid devices locally, and back up automatically to raid devices on NAS units offsite but on my IP backbone. I will shortly additionally back up to an internet based service, but since I have in excess of a terabyte of real data, I have no idea how long the initial load will take. Regards ... Harold Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted August 28, 2009 Share #14 Posted August 28, 2009 RAID is one interesting solution. However, it there is only one user of the disk area, and multiple copies are maintained, then a RAID may be more expensive than is needed. In addition, the RAID array itself exercises the disk, perhaps unnecessarily. The approach I use is to keep 3 copies of all my digital images. Two are on online, external disks and the third is on a disk I keep in a fireproof box in my detached garage. The onus is on me, of course, to make sure I do the backups. So far, all is good, and I have saved some money. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Pope Posted August 28, 2009 Share #15 Posted August 28, 2009 Another utility that may be worth looking at is Delta Copy which uses a well-known Unix utility called Rsync to copy files. It's designed to run between different machines, but it's possible to use it to copy to another drive. The beauty of rsync is that once the initail copy is done, it only copies the changes from one macine/drive to another. As it's open-source, it's also free. Ben's comments about RAID are interesting and valid, but RAID isn't necessarily a backup solution, at least not on the machine that's being used for storing/processing images. Depending on the configuration, it can offer protection in the event of a disk failure, but you still need a separate backup IMO. Having had a PC with multiple HDDs suffer a power supply failure which caused all of the disks to be rendered useless, I'm wary of RAID. Though I am considering using RAID 1 (mirroring) it for my backup server, which runs something called BackupPC. This automatically backs up the PCs in the house to a central point over the network. With regard to video production and RAID, I would imagine that the configuration in use may not offer any form of redundancy - my guess is they are using RAID 0 which stripes data across multiple disks to provide much improved throughput but if a disk goes, then the whole RAID volume is effectively toast. As I write this, I'm archiving the BackupPC files to a 1TB USB drive, which will be unplugged from the system once the archive is complete. Then I can store it in a safe place... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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