How to sync user data folders with those on an external hard drive?

mingle · 11 Jun 2019

Hi Guys,

I have all of my user folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos) configured on a separate data partition (D:) to Windows and all of my program files (C:).

I also have copies of D: created on a bunch of external hard drives, for security and safety.

Every week, or so, I have to manually copy any new or updates files from my D: to the various copies on the external drives. As you can imagine this is a painful procedure and there's always the chance that I'll forgot to copy some stuff across.

What I'd like to know is, is there any program/utility available that would be able to parse my user folders, then copy any new or updated files to external drive(s)?

Cheers,

Mike.

dalchina · 11 Jun 2019

Hi try e.g.
FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software
Some here have mentioned MS's obsolete Synctoy

Hopefully you also use disk imaging routinely (Macrium Reflect - free + external storage for image files).
A few minutes each week and you have a complete image of Windows or any disk or partition you have chosen to image.
Images can be mounted as a drive, and explored with file explorer.
As everything is imaged, nothing is forgotten.
Faster with the paid-for licensed version.
Then best to keep your image backups offline.

That said, there is a place for data backup where critical data changes significantly between image creation.

mingle · 12 Jun 2019

@dalchina, perfect - exactly what I was after!

I've donated to the site and am currently giving the portable version of FreeFileSync a go.

Cheers,

Mike.

dalchina · 12 Jun 2019

Would be interesting if you could drop a note on how it works out after a while.