Good data backup software

Crashnburn

Crashnburn

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Crashnburn
I used SyncToy, a free utility from Micro$oft for a long time, but it broke when I upgraded Visual Studio from 2019 to 2022. Reinstalling 2019 didn't solve the problem.
I found this really fast backup software, FreeFileSync, but every time I run it, it corrupts the backup disk. It's getting uninstalled and deleted from my computer.
(The last time I ran FreeFileSync, there was one file left after I ran chkdsk on the backup HDD.


I could duplicate SyncToy's functionality, but I don't want to spend the time developing and debugging it.

Free, or moderately priced is the goal.
 
Crashnburn said:
I used SyncToy, a free utility from Micro$oft for a long time, but it broke when I upgraded Visual Studio from 2019 to 2022. Reinstalling 2019 didn't solve the problem.
I found this really fast backup software, FreeFileSync, but every time I run it, it corrupts the backup disk. It's getting uninstalled and deleted from my computer.
(The last time I ran FreeFileSync, there was one file left after I ran chkdsk on the backup HDD.


I could duplicate SyncToy's functionality, but I don't want to spend the time developing and debugging it.

Free, or moderately priced is the goal.
Click to expand...
I used SyncToy for a while, also. Too bad MS killed it.

Here are some recommendations:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/407569/the-best-free-backup-software-and-services.html
 
Is this software for people with files all over the computer?
I have all my data in one folder and it's pretty easy to drag and drop it.
Just wondering what I'm missing out on, or how it all works.
I guess the automatic nature, or scheduling is nice.
I have yet to find a program that will dig emails out of that app and save them...but that hasn't been a problem either.
 
Sync back free is excellent
 
Thank you all for the links. There are a lot of good choices.

My data is scattered all over the computer. I have an investments folder, a downloads folder, a documents folder, an Edge bookmarks folder, and Prepar3D puts files all over the place. I have several other folders to be backed up.
 
You might try something like Duplicati, that's what I use. Pretty easy to tell it what to backup and it does incremental backup, version control, etc. Honestly too fancy for what I need, but it's been so seamless and just works without me needing to intervene, so I stick with it.
 
if you are going to use cloud storage, at least use an encrypted image
 
Who knows if it's a mistake, but all my files are automatically backed up to Google Drive. Accessing files on my cell phone has come in very handy numerous times.

Google is free, and if something is free, then Google is benefitting from it, somehow. But given all the data breaches elsewhere, including the IRS and financial institutions, I don't see much downside.
 
Apparently, the HDD is dead. I destroyed the adapter to get to it. I have 2 TB SSD coming that will easily fit into an SSD adapter.I should probably have a backup for the backup. I had that at a previous job and it came in handy when the primary backup died.

I don't trust Google.
 
What's the OS? I like rsync.
 
I've decided to try Perfect Backup. I can set up profiles for all the data I want to backup (essentially everything). I have everything scheduled to run, plus I can manually start the backup whenever I want to. Also, I'm able to run multiple backups simultaneously, something that I couldn't do with SyncToy.

As far as I can tell, my previous HDD is toast.
I have a 2 TB SSD in a SSD drive caddy and that seems to be working well. I should get a second SSD/caddy and keep an image of the backup drive, just in case.

Thanks for all your help.
 
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