How to auto update a portable hard drive?

[Monsieur]

I've got a 300gb portable hard drive - I'd ideally like this to auto-update documents and photos weekly.

I've looked on google but not much help - I use windows 7. Is there a way to make this happen?

 

[1130cc]

You're easiest solution is to use the in built Windows Backup utility.

This is an easy to follow guide - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/

For those who are looking for something a bit more feature rich, I like Syncback
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse-features.html

 

[rce]

Easy and free is Sync Toy which is a Microsoft freebee for genuine Windows

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155


Built-in to Windows 7 (and downloadable for other versions) is robocopy a command line utility that is very powerful but a bit more awkward to setup, could do you a suggested setup if you let me know location of data to synchronise.

 

[Monsieur]

Tried the windows backup today - very sloooow.
Does it copy everything again or does it ignore whats already there and just updates new stuff?

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

sync toy is better as it will update only new stuff.

win backup is encrypting as it goes so you won't be able to move the drive to a different comp and use the file.

 

[rce]

If all you want is what is on a directory on one drive on another drive then robocopy will do it well and quickly.

All you need to do is use notepad create a text file but with a .bat extension instead of .txt

In the file you put the following...


ROBOCOPY "C:\YourFolder" "E:\YourFolder" /MIR /R:1 /W:5
pause


The above will mirror what is in C:\YourFolder into E:\YourFolder in other words any file that is new or changed in the source folder is copied to the destination folder, anything deleted in the source folder is deleted in the destination folder.

Have attached the above as an example.

 

[Awfers]

You could cough up a bit of cash and get StorageCraft ShadowProtect.. A real backup solution, that is also a doddle to recover individual documents or even migrate your whole system to a new machine.

It's saved my arse more than once, and it's bloody reliable.

 

[1130cc]

You could cough up a bit of cash and get StorageCraft ShadowProtect.. A real backup solution, that is also a doddle to recover individual documents or even migrate your whole system to a new machine.

It's saved my arse more than once, and it's bloody reliable.

From a full backup point of view, I tend to use DriveXML, as it is free
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
It also has a boot cd to undertake restores.

I have used DriveXML in anger before too, to undertake single file restores, and on one occasion a full restore.