[eng530]

Hi All, My 1TB Samsung Portable (backup drive) has just given up so am in the slow process of recovering the data i do not have duplicated elsewhere..... I have been using testdisk to poke around and currently just completed a photorec scan to recover all i can.

Bought a 2TB 3.5" for my rig as a replacement backup drive and for the recovery process. However I NEED ADVICE on how to manage future backups. I have a desktop (with the 2TB HD) a media centre and a work laptop and the mrs has a mac and work laptop.

The main need is to backup large itunes Music and photos archive folders across the network from the media centre. And I will hopefully setup other folders to sync on the other devices.

Can you recommend software i can use to manage the process of syncronising the folders (I do not intend to have the backup drive connected all the time just want to plug in and backup once a month etc). Previously I have just manually deleted the backup folder and copied over the original but now the itunes and photo folders are too big so i need to get a bit smarter and just update what is new to the backup drive.

Cheers....

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Macrium Reflect will do it-> http://www.macrium.c...eflectfree.aspx Oops! I think the free version may not do it! Look closely!!!

I suspect Prodigy will as well but am not certain.

-Mel

Edited by Melvin_Deal, 01 January 2012 - 11:28 PM.

[Melvin_Deal]

Macrium Reflect will do it-> http://www.macrium.c...eflectfree.aspx Oops! I think the free version may not do it! Look closely!!!

I suspect Prodigy will as well but am not certain.

-Mel

Edited by Melvin_Deal, 01 January 2012 - 11:28 PM.

[sari]

Hi, eng530,

Can you recommend software i can use to manage the process of syncronising the folders (I do not intend to have the backup drive connected all the time just want to plug in and backup once a month etc). Previously I have just manually deleted the backup folder and copied over the original but now the itunes and photo folders are too big so i need to get a bit smarter and just update what is new to the backup drive.

There are a number of different software programs that will perform the functions you need. One thing that will work better with a program is that they'll perform what's called an incremental backup, meaning they'll only back up the files that have changed. That reduces the amount of time needed to perform the backup. While it's good that you are backing up your data, I don't think once a month is enough. You have 4 pcs and a media center - I would imagine that files change more frequently than that. Have you considered a cloud-based service instead? While the free offerings may not be sufficient to meet your needs, the advantage to a service like that is that the backups are performed daily, sometimes even right after a file changes.They also have redundancy, so your data is saved in multiple places. You can also access them from anywhere. Either way, I would consider backing up much more frequently than once a month. I have a Windows Home Server that performs backups when I'm connected to the network, and it saved me recently when I was hit by some particularly nasty malware.

Here are some cloud backup solutions:

Amazon Cloud
Sugarsync

Software-based:
Easus Todo Free - never used this, but it's highly-rated by CNET and has the features I would recommend. It's also free.