What are you recommendations for a free hard drive/SSD backup?

These are my needs:

1. I want the application to only make "incremental" backups of files and folders that have changed included those files/folders that have been deleted after an entire drive backup including partitions was performed

2. I want the application to provide me the option to reverse or recover the incremental backup of my choice

3. I want to run the application as a portable app/USB drive and do some maintenance with the backup and copy what I need over to another PC. For instance, most backups save the files in its own format. I'd like to run the files as a virtual drive without the need to have to install the full application

4. I want to the application to do this on a regular basis.

5. I want an application with a GUI with minimal user intervention, no scripts, or command prompts. Something similar to Ghost and Acronis. Basically an easy-peasy application.

Thanks in advance 🙏

Hello @Sammy888,

I personally use RoboCopy, but have you looked into or considered XCopy, RoboCopy, TeraCopy, or even CMD Prompt?

Here are just a few links that you might find informative and useful . . .

 XCopy:

> XCopy - DocsMicrosoft
> XCopy - TechRepublic
> XCopy - SS64

 RoboCopy:

> RoboCopy - DocsMicrosoft
> RoboCopy - TechRepublic
> RoboCopy - SS64

NOTE:- To view RoboCopy Commands in a CMD Prompt, type robocopy /? and press Enter.

To output the Commands to a .txt file, type robocopy /? > %UserProfile%\Desktop\RoboCopy.txt. Obviously change the output Path to your own.

 TeraCopy:

> TeraCopy - CodeSector
> TeraCopy - Copying and Verifying Files - CodeSector

I have NOT personally used TeraCopy.

 CMD Prompt:

> CMD Prompt - Copy - DocsMicrosoft
> CMD Prompt - How to Copy Files in CMD Prompt - WikiHow

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I hope this helps.

With the attached batch script, you can incrementally backup files and folders.

Sammy888 said:

4. I want an application with a GUI with minimal user intervention, no scripts, or command prompts. Something similar to Ghost and Acronis. Basically an easy peasy application.

Apologies @Sammy888,

Good move adding number 4.

SyncbackFree - backup files in native format
Karen's Relicator

Image systems with Macrium Reflect and/or AOMEI Backupper

I haven't tried any of these but consider searching github topics for "file sync":
file-sync . GitHub Topics . GitHub

There are many ways to skin this cow, but two I'll recommend is what was already mentioned of FreeFileSync. The other is Syncthing.

Syncthing

Understanding Synchronization — Syncthing documentation


If you're like me you could do a full on RAID 1, use AWS S3 and WinSCP with batch code for WinSCP to Sync. to AWS S3 Simple Storage. LOL!

Scripting and Task Automation :: WinSCP

I also use Bunny CDN...

On another computer of mine I use batch code fired off from Windows Task Scheduler. The batch code is used with the program S3 Browser and FreeFileSync.

AWS S3 no longer allows public viewing of buckets so you have to change the ACL (Access Control List). Just food for thought. Grant public read access to some objects in Amazon S3 bucket | AWS re:Post