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#1
Need some critique on my backup plans using robocopy
I am trying to make better file backups. So in order to have different backup frequencies on different files, I decided to write scripts to run robocopy to perform the backups (I'm running these scripts manually using scheduler to display reminders).
Here is what I came up with:
I have a few locations that I need more frequent backups than the rest:
Documents
Dropbox
OneDrive
Google Drive
Less frequent backups:
Pictures
Videos
I already have a schedule for windows 7 style file backup including system image backup.
Due to the natures of different files, some files in the frequent backup folders are large and don't need as frequently backed up as others. An example would be books I downloaded. They are large files but I don't cry a river if I lose them and have to find them again online. I still want them under Documents for organizational purposes. Other files are less important, such as past versions of a document that I've published. They are only somewhat important since I can always go back to a certain version if someone asks about it. I zipped files like that using winrar.
So here is how I organized the backup jobs.
small backups: running every two weeks only on files that are newer and more important.
medium backups: running every 2 months
complete backups: running every 6 months to back up everything
All backups are kept until further decisions.
There will be two identical drives on a dual bay (not WD external dual drive with forced hardware AES encryption). One will be backing up files. The second one is synced with /MIR option of robocopy (haven't decided on how frequently).
Since all my files are within respective folders, I decided to write a robocopy job file for each of these folders and save the job file inside each folder. Say my Dropbox folder will contain small and medium backup job files. They will have specific files and folders they wish to exclude to make small and medium backups take a lot less space and time than complete backups.
Then in a central location, say my Dropbox folder, I will have three power shell scripts to run small, medium, and complete backups.
I think this is better than keeping one job file since the job file in my scenario goes with the folder the job is supposed to back up.
Any advice on my scenario? I've done some tests on these jobs and they seem to work. Robocopy is not very fast but at least I'm only backing up files I want backed up, instead of trying to back up everything every time.