What's the best tool to use to automatically backup selected folders from Windows to my external hard drive? [closed]

Solution 1:

The words you are looking for is "one-way file sync" software.

There's quite a few of these out there that specifically do just that, e.g. Bvckup and rsync. The difference here would be in how well they are made and how good the UI is.

There are also plain file copiers that can be used for this purpose, e.g. robocopy (very good, but command-line only and requires fiddling with a long list of parameters) or its open source clone capable of shadow copying - hobocopy.

Lastly, more conventional backup software like SyncBack family can too be configured for your purpose. I wouldn't say CrashPlan is a good idea, I find it to be too sluggish at times and generally bloated. It's installer alone is 40 MB.

Solution 2:

Best is relative, but there's a few tools I've used over time for this. For local, file level backups I use bvckup 2 - the newer version is currently in beta, and free for now (and 20 dollars once released) and there's an older version here, but this is one of those applications that I wouldn't mind paying for. It does incremental, automatic backups, so its pretty fast after the initial scan.You can set it to do periodic schedules or backup in real time.

Its got a load of configurability, so it can't be all that hard to get it tweaked to your precise needs.

If its for remote backups, I use bitorrent sync - it does encrypted, remote file backups, with nearly no configuration, and works on nearly everything I've thrown it at - I've even backed up over 100gb of small files over wifi to a raspi I use as a poor man's nas.

Solution 3:

The rsync program works very well for this purpose. It looks at the source and destination and updates the latter by applying only the necessary changes, not by copying the whole file.

There is a free windows version available, a port of the UNIX command-line program. There is a version with a Windows GUI, but that is payware.

What I would recommend is that you read the documentation, and open a command propmt window for some tests. Once you find an invocation that works for you, put it in a batch file. Put a link to that batch file on your desktop.

One thing to be mindful about when making backups is that the files you are making a backup of are not in use. Than could lead to inconsistencies.

Solution 4:

CrashPlan is a tool that you can download and use for free if you're backing up to a local volume. You can schedule it, and it will only back up changed files to conserve space. It would also allow you to back up files to a point-in-time, which can be handy. You want the 'green' option when you get to their website.