Looking for a Simple file-by-file Backup Program for Documents Folder

My Documents are not on the C drive but on another internal HD. My C drive is regularly backed up using Macrium but I have for some years been backing up my Documents folder with a frequent incremental backup. This checks the difference between the Documents folder and the last backup of it, updates the backup incrementally (its very quick) and, (this is the important point) produces a backup which is a file-by-file clone of the Documents folder. It is not a disk image.Therefore, I can directly access any Documents file (eg., a Word file and its actual text) on the backup by opening it or copying it.

After a crash I have lost that backup program. (It's logo/icon was a big green"G"). It worked perfectly. Does anyone recognise it, or can anyone recomend a free backup program which does what I want? (I have had a look at AOMEI Backupper Standard but it does not say that it produces a file-by-file clone of the Documents folder).

Thanks for any help.

Use the bult in Robocopy you can get a GUI for it if you want Robocopy in Windows 10 & Microsoft Robocopy GUI

Bvckup 2

I use AOMEI's 'File Sync' (part of AOMEI Backupper) which backs up files and folders in their native form. Scheduled to run daily (fully configurable) it looks for changes in any file and if any are found replaces the existing file with the latest one.

Callender said:

FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software

Yippee! That's it. Its good to have an old friend back. I will keep AOMEI Backupper Standard in reserve in case I need it.

Why not use File History? It makes direct copies (but adds date/time labels to differentiate file copies)

File History is quite good, however Microsoft themselves through a spanner in the works with that one by saying it was going to be dropped as a feature. That didn't happen, however it left everyone with the uncertainty and so many looked for alternatives.

Hi there

another solution

Install the WSL and then use rsync to copy files to destination -- you can set whether newer files on the traget device should be overwritten etc

for example : rsync -r -t --progress -s /source/ /run/target
(note add a final / to the source directory name)

There's about 2 zillion options for the rsync command but the above line will copy files (and sub directories etc) from source to target keeping permissions / acl stuff and time info and won't copy files that already exist on the target directory unless older than the source.

You'll need to install the WSL though (was called before Bash for Windows).

people who can't think of a use for WSL --well this is a great one.

Cheers
jimbo

Mooly said:

File History is quite good, however Microsoft themselves through a spanner in the works with that one by saying it was going to be dropped as a feature. That didn't happen, however it left everyone with the uncertainty and so many looked for alternatives.

I don't think this is true, never found info about file history being dropped (?).
Also I find it to be one of the most useful features of windows 8 & 10.