Is Anyone Really Good With Macrium Reflect?

The file backup programs I've seriously looked at and used (4 or 5 over 20 years) all work in about the same way. They differ in usability and interface. Some are better in those respects than others.

A key concept in all of them is "mirroring". You can say yes to mirroring or no. I say yes. You would say no.

Yes would mean that I DO NOT want to keep older versions of files. If I delete dog.jpg from my "originals", I also want it to be deleted from my backup.

As I understand it, you would want to KEEP all modified versions of dog.jpg. That is often called "versioning" and should be a clear-cut choice in the configuration. You'd end up with something like dog.jpg, dog (1).jpg, dog (2).jpg, dog (3).jpg, etc. Each version of dog in the same folder would be given a modified name to avoid over-writing.

I've never used versioning, so there are no doubt nuances I am unaware of, but it's doable. Lots of people like you that want to keep older versions of a given file.

I've used Second Copy (30 bucks, free 30 day trial). Excellent interface and in development for 20 years or so.

Currently using SyncBackFree for the last 3 years or so. No issues. Lots of configuration options. I back up 99000 files 2 or 3 times a day. Typically takes 90 seconds using SSD as the source and a slow spinning drive as a destination. I make or modify a couple of dozen files a day on average.

There is a paid version with features I don't need.

Have tried FreeFileSync, but didn't like the interface.

Karen's Replicator is another well-regarded program.

The end result is much like doing a drag and drop or copy/paste. No "image". No further complications. I run SyncBackFree with a single mouse click at will.

You can set up multiple "profiles". For instance 1 to backup ALL files; another to back up highly critical files, another to back up bookmarks only, another to back up video files only. Your choice. You select what folders and files--either by deliberate inclusion or deliberate exclusion.

Not sure how you would set it up to back up to a different folder each day. You say you want to each backup to land in a different folder (Monday, Tuesday, each day of the week). I don't do that. My destination folder is the same every time.

I suspect you could set up 7 profiles, each with the same source, but a different destination...one for each day of the week. Run the Monday profile on Monday, Tuesday profile on Tuesday, etc. If you did that, presumably you WOULD want mirroring because the destinations are different for each profile and you would NOT be in danger of over-writing.

Thanks for that.
You've given me several options to investigate.

The terms incremental and differential have been used forever in backups. Nothing new here with respect to Macrium.

Overall, you have 3 types of backups
1). Full backups. You can always take a full backup, and you can keep them as long as you want. You can go back to any point in time by restoring that full backup. This will take the absolute largest amount of disk space, and will take the longest time to backup, but will restore the fastest. (as there is only one backup to restore)
2). Incremental backup. This is a secondary backup you do after a full backup. It backs up just the things that have changed since your last backup. So, let's say on Sunday that you do a full backup. On Monday, if you ran an incremental, it would backup everything that changed since Sunday. On Tuesday, if you ran in incremental, it would backup everything that changed since Monday. On Wednesday, if you ran an incremental, it would be everything that changed since Tuesday. So, to fully restore your system, you would first restore the full from Sunday, followed by Mondays incremental, followed by Tuesday's incremental, followed by however many more incrementals you have. This takes the least about of back disk space, but causes your restore times to be the longest.
3). A differential backup would be a backup that contains everything that changed since your last full backup. So, on Monday the first differential backup would essentially be the same as an incremental backup. It would be everything that changed on Monday. However, on Tuesday, a differential backup would be everything that changed on Monday and Tuesday. And a differential on Wednesday would be everything that changed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These backups take more space as each differential contains everything from the previous incremental plus the newest incremental. But your restore times are shorter for a full restore as you only have to restore the full backup followed by the last differential to get back to the last point in time.

As you can see, being able to go back to a specific time is all dependent upon how many backup files you are willing to keep and how much space you want to dedicate to them. You can backup fully every single day and keep it forever and you would have a massive backup collection.

So, most people have to settle for something in the middle. i personally, have all of my "important data" on a box acting as a file server. I have a shared out data drive. Each day, i run a robocopy job that backs up that data drive to a named folder for that day on a separate physical hard drive.. So, I have a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday folder. So, I have a 7 day rotation and I can go back to any of those previous 7 days before anything is overwritten. So, I have a week to discover any problems. About once per month, I plug in an external USB hard drive and a grab a full copy of everything in that shared folder. The following month, I plug in a different USB hard drive and grab a full copy of everything in that shared folder. I keep those 2 USB hard drives outside of my home. Therefore, at any moment, I can restore to any day in the past 7 days, and I can restore to the last day of each month for the previous 2 months. So, if I didn't catch a problem in 7 days, there is a chance I can get it from one of my externals.

This backup method has served me well for about a decade.

ardneh W10 said:

What are the best (non-Macrium) apps to do Files and Folder backup with Differential
backup capability?

This is also addressed to Timlab55: I think the answer is Windows 10's own File History. It saves changed files at intervals you define, adding date&time to file names to distinguish them, and makes it easy to restore a given file from a particular date & time. The backups are plain files in their original format, so can be copied elsewhere (using explorer) if required. You can purge the history if you want, removing all but the latest versions. It runs automatically in the background, and needs no user intervention. I have it running as an addition to my own batch-file method - and am also using Reflect's file&folder backup as a trial - you can't have too many backups!

ignatzatsonic said:

The file backup programs I've seriously looked at and used (4 or 5 over 20 years) all work in about the same way. They differ in usability and interface. Some are better in those respects than others.

A key concept in all of them is "mirroring". You can say yes to mirroring or no. I say yes. You would say no.

Yes would mean that I DO NOT want to keep older versions of files. If I delete dog.jpg from my "originals", I also want it to be deleted from my backup.

As I understand it, you would want to KEEP all modified versions of dog.jpg. That is often called "versioning" and should be a clear-cut choice in the configuration. You'd end up with something like dog.jpg, dog (1).jpg, dog (2).jpg, dog (3).jpg, etc. Each version of dog in the same folder would be given a modified name to avoid over-writing.

I've never used versioning, so there are no doubt nuances I am unaware of, but it's doable. Lots of people like you that want to keep older versions of a given file.

I've used Second Copy (30 bucks, free 30 day trial). Excellent interface and in development for 20 years or so.

Currently using SyncBackFree for the last 3 years or so. No issues. Lots of configuration options. I back up 99000 files 2 or 3 times a day. Typically takes 90 seconds using SSD as the source and a slow spinning drive as a destination. I make or modify a couple of dozen files a day on average.

There is a paid version with features I don't need.

Have tried FreeFileSync, but didn't like the interface.

Karen's Replicator is another well-regarded program.

The end result is much like doing a drag and drop or copy/paste. No "image". No further complications. I run SyncBackFree with a single mouse click at will.

You can set up multiple "profiles". For instance 1 to backup ALL files; another to back up highly critical files, another to back up bookmarks only, another to back up video files only. Your choice. You select what folders and files--either by deliberate inclusion or deliberate exclusion.

Not sure how you would set it up to back up to a different folder each day. You say you want to each backup to land in a different folder (Monday, Tuesday, each day of the week). I don't do that. My destination folder is the same every time.

I suspect you could set up 7 profiles, each with the same source, but a different destination...one for each day of the week. Run the Monday profile on Monday, Tuesday profile on Tuesday, etc. If you did that, presumably you WOULD want mirroring because the destinations are different for each profile and you would NOT be in danger of over-writing.

syncbackfree looks nice. I did a test backup with compression. I notice when you minimize the program, it does not stay on the taskbar, you can click the icon for it on the right with the up arrow and select show and it brings it back up.