Smooth reliable way of continuous data backup ?

[ISedlacek]

Whenever I finish something during a day , I always backup it to an external drive. The only thing is when the session is really big or it is a multi-session and you only recorded few more things - is there any backuping software that will recognise what was changed in the given folder (among thousands of audio and other files) and will re-write just the thing which were changed and will add new things ? Otherwise I always erase the original backup folder and copy it anew, which is not very comfortable and is time consuming ...

Thanks for some tips.

[hanuman]

Superduper is an ap for mac. It BU's and UD's your whole system. Have a look and see if that does the job.....

[ISedlacek]

No Mac here ... What I mean is having two folders full of files - one on the original drive, other on the external one (with something added/changed in the original one comparing to the previous backup) and to be able to adjust just those few changes in the external drive folder without the necessity to rewrite 90% of things that remain the same ...

[hanuman]

Did not know your platform, sorry..

[bitman]

I like Acronis True Image.
I do 1 Full, then an incremental when the session is done.

[orange]

try restrospect.
or if you're adventurous try the rsync command.

[majortom]

MirrorFolder does what you're asking. I use it. It differs from solutions like Acronis because it just copies files around. So to restore a file you just copy it from the backup instead of pulling the file out of a big data file using the backup tool.

I use Acronis as well to periodically create an image of my machine for a bare metal restore.

The Windows backup software will also do incremental backups.

[MrZu]

I use Carbonite for my continuous backup. It's an online backup provider with no restriction on archive size... which is quite important for media files. It's $50 a year. Works very well for me. Their site: "Online Backup: Easy, Completely Automatic. Secure. Carbonite."

Thomas

[jbuehler]

Get a lot of the same HD and have the mirroring RAID array setup. Expensive but automatic-multiple-copies in real time and old skool.

[andsonic]

I'm also running a mirrored RAID setup. The Acronis app looks interesting.

[zeljkom]

You should try this one:

Cobian's site - The home of Cobian Backup

[docbop]

When I was doing IT all the time we used a Unix tool call rsync to keep servers in multiple states in in-sync. What is cool about rsync is it only copies the changed files so the transfers are smaller. The the Mac has rsync in its Unix tools and there are Windows versions like:

DeltaCopy - Rsync for Windows

[Jason West]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

No Mac here ... What I mean is having two folders full of files - one on the original drive, other on the external one (with something added/changed in the original one comparing to the previous backup) and to be able to adjust just those few changes in the external drive folder without the necessity to rewrite 90% of things that remain the same ...

There's a free utility from Microsoft called ROBOCOPY. It's a command line tool that comes as part of the Resource Kit. You can specify parameters so that it only copies the files that have been added/changed.

I use it to for various sync activities: sync laptop folders to desktop folders, and sync multiple terabyte drives.

For example, a simple example for copying new/modified files from drive X:\mymusic to drive Y:\musicbackup would look like this...

c:\>ROBOCOPY x:\mymusic y:\musicbackup /MIR /NDL

You can google it for more information on all the things it can do.

I've tried the various commercial tools (GoodSync, Acronis, BackupExec, etc). I think they are overkill for basic sync functionality. One key feature they offer is scheduled/recurring backups. ROBOCOPY is something you kick off manually on demand. Since your original scenario involves starting a backup immediately after finishing a session, the ROBOCOPY may meet your needs.

(edit to add: ROBOCOPY in some ways is similar to rsync but I think ROBOCOPY is better suited for your needs. The main strength of rsync is that it has algorithm to analyze delta changes within the file and minimizes the about of bytes to copy from source to destination. However, most file changes in audio are whole new files so this "advantage" to rsync over ROBOCOPY will not be useful.)

[Ethan Winer]

I like SyncBack which is only $30 and works great:

2BrightSparks: File Backup and Utility Software

--Ethan

[recall]

If you use Lacie drives there is anpplication called silverkeeper which is mac/pc which does exactly what you need.

I have used Retrospect, but prefer silverkeeper as there is no fiddling with catlaogue files etc.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by recall

If you use Lacie drives there is anpplication called silverkeeper which is mac/pc which does exactly what you need.

I have used Retrospect, but prefer silverkeeper as there is no fiddling with catlaogue files etc.

Silverkeeper is Mac only - at least, it is on the Lacie website. You can download it from there for whatever drives you use, not just lacie.

There's equivalent programs for PC anyway - lots to choose from above.

I've just set up a new backup routine. I've bought a 1TB drive, and each of my other hard drives (excluding the system drive for now - I might extend it to this eventually with an image of the system drive) is cloned into it's own folder on this drive.

Every night, or whenever I finish working on something - it gets backed up onto here. Incremental backup, so generally only takes 5mins per drive.

Whenever I finish a project - it gets backed up to DVD, moved into a separate "finished projects directory" on the 1TB drive, and removed from the working drive.

Job done.

[Funk Dracula]

Retrospect to AIT tape is rock solid.

[theblue1]

If your backup needs are not too complex -- but you want to do incremental backups and store in a generic, easy access format (like .zip files), you might do pretty well with Backup995.

(You can use it for free -- it pops an advert in your browser -- or buy the full version for $9.95. They also have a suite of utilities you can buy as a group or simply DL individually and use for free, ad-driven.)