I'm using an external SSD connected to my router as a central storage device for all my files. I'd like to make regular backups to another external drive (not an SSD) to keep my data safe. I've tried connecting both drives to my PC and doing a complete copy but this takes ages so I'm wondering whether there's a backup programme/solution that will do this as an incremental backup ? (Preferably free). Any help much appreciated.
To keep ONLY your data safe?
If so, I'd just use an ordinary file by file backup program....rather than an imaging program that might used to back up Windows.
The first run of such a program might well take hours.
But all later runs should take much less time...because ONLY changes since the last run are considered. I take under 2 minutes to back up over 900 GB of data.
To do an incremental copy, you first have to have done a full copy. First time round is always going to take ages, I'm afraid.
The simplest way is from the command line using the XCopy command, which has a /M switch just for this purpose. Say your original drive is E: and everything from E:\ is to be copied drive H:\ (and should have the same folder structure). Then the command to use is:
Xcopy E:\*.* /S /E /M H:\
E:\*.* = source files, using wildcard to match any file
/S = recurse through all sub-folders and copy them and their contents
/E = copy empty folders too
/M = Copies only files with the archive attribute set, turns off the archive attribute.
H:\ = destination to copy to
To make it easier to run, you could put the command in a .bat file and run that when needed. First time round all files will have their archive attribute set, so everything gets copied (and gets its archive attribute cleared). The next time, only those files that are new or have been altered would have their archive attribute set, so only those files that have changed will get copied - ie, it does an incremental copy.
The Xcopy command would copy any new folders that you add. It's a fairly simple-minded command though, so it won't replicate deleting a folder on the original drive, the copy will remain on the backup drive. It also won't cope well with renaming a folder on the source drive. The original name will continue to exist on the destination, and when a new file is added to the renamed folder, it will be copied to the folder's new name on the destination, while the rest of the files will still be in a folder with the old name
There is a more powerful command named RoboCopy, that can mirror one drive to another and cope with changes like that. But it's more complex to use and getting the syntax correct can be a nightmare. It does have a similar /M option though.
There's a description with examples here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com...-examples.aspx
Karens replicator could be what you want
Karen's Replicator the Backup Utility for Windows v3.7.6 Released May 25, 2020 | Karen's Power Tools
Thanks for your help guys. I've been trying the Xcopy commands which do partly solve my problem but it's not easy for someone with limited experience like me to use. In contrast, I've found using Karen's Replicator package very user friendly and there are a lot of settings you can tweak such as limiting which folders and file types to backup if you need them. It has also dealt with deleted and moved folders so does everything I need. The initial copy takes a while of course but after that backups are fast.
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