I've been using SyncToy 2.0 and I'm more or less ok with it, but there are some things I don't like about it so I want to see what others use.

Here's what I'm backing up:
I have my D: drive dedicated to data folders, where I got "Pictures", "Documents", "Videos" etc.

The main thing that changes is the Pictures, I keep adding new stuff when I get it from the digital camera, and also Videos. So I keep adding subfolders in there. I basically keep a copy of the D: drive on an external drive of the same size. I have almost 1Tb of stuff.

SyncToy is ok at scanning for new subfolders and adding new stuff to your backup set, but I found that sometimes it seems to omit folders, or skips over certain folders that had new files added to them. It also leaves these hidden files all over the place which I don't like.

I just want something really simple that will look at my current data, look at the backup, and copy any new or updated files over to the backup.

 

Robocopy?

 

Hmm... Hmmmmmm...


What would be an example to copy all files in all sub-folders, but only new or updated files? I'm not clear if this copies ALL files by default, that would take way too long.

That /MIR option looks interesting too but I would only do that occasionally, after I make sure I didn't accidentally delete any files I want to keep archived.

 

Robocopy by default skips files that are unchanged.

The /E switch is like /MIR except doesn't delete files. Thus your destination will potentially have more files than the source.

robocopy "d:\pictures" "e:\pictures" /E

 

If you have an external HD via USB, take a look at this http://www.clickfree.com/products_transformerse.php.

I have one one thier HD for my wife and a 750 HD on my desktop.

 

So how is /E different from default then? It ignores subfolders by default?

And what other switches would you recommend for my kind of backup? Like is there any useful stuff you can do with setting the archive bit or anything else?



FYI I don't use USB, I use eSATA. It's wickedly fast... when it works.

 

If you have subdirectories, I'm pretty sure you'll need /S or /E to get to them.

When I use it, I just use /MIR. It's simple and is just like it sounds - a mirror of your files. The archive bit is used by traditional backup programs to identify changed files. After being backed up, the archive flag is reset.

If you are having eSATA issues, robocopy will also help there with automatic retry. What functionality is robocopy with /E not providing that you need?

 

Yes, when it works. But if you're doing the backups in the middle of the night, doesn't matter USB, FW or eSATA.

 

Hmm, I don't know, I'm just being proactive.

Ok it sounds like /E will do for the "regular" backups and "/MIR" will do for when I don't care about protecting against stuff I accidentally deleted from my D: drive. Looking forward to replacing backup software with a simple batch file.

 

I've done some backups after reshuffling my movie collection where it said "18 hours left", that was using my FW... It seems 10 times faster with eSATA, but using that occasionally freezes my PC, when I initially plug it in or when I first try to browse the disk. Also if I want to reliably power down my WD MyBook with eSATA I have to go to device manager and uninstall it, with USB or FW you just pull the plug. That and the drive doesn't go to sleep when it's hooked with eSATA. Using FW for incremental backups is ok, I'll probably end up doing that.

Does anyone else here find eSATA a little flaky, and do all eSATA drives have these quirks, or is it just my disk/motherboard?

 

Well, I just tried robocopy on my stuff and HOLY FAWK is this great or what. I can't believe I've been missing it all this time. So fast, simple and doesn't leave junk lying around.


If you use the resume option, how does that work? Where does it save the state, and how to you tell it to resume as opposed to copy everything again from fresh?