Backup Software suggestion needed

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Navarro
  • Start date Start date
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Dave Navarro

I have an external 120 GB USB 2.0 hard drive. I got it specifically to
back up my laptop which has a 60 gig hard drive.

I used DriveImage to create an image of the drive in case I ever need to
do a full restore to a new hard drive.

What I need now is a very simple backup program that simply copies
selected folders from the laptop to the external drive when I double-
click on an icon. It doesn't need to compress or encrypt anything.
Just a simple file copy.

I tried using a batch file with XCOPY, but XCOPY fails if a file happens
to be in use. And I don't get any kind of "progress indicator" to let
me know how many files have been copied and are left to be copied.

I've searched Download.com but everything I found was too complicated
with tons of features I flat don't need.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

--Dave
 
Hi,

Up until November I was a devoted user of Onstream, who produced a USB
tape drive that did a good job of backing up data with a couple of clicks on
their software. Unfortunately they went out of business, (for the second
time in three years). I dropped off using the drive because their software
became problematic when using WinXP and them not being around anymore.
I had been very reluctant to go to a second hard drive back up, simply
because of the virus situation, where a virus could infect all hard drives
and wipe out the information.
However, when Maxtor came out with their 'One Touch' USB drives that came
bundled with Dantz Retrospect I thought that might be a good compromise to
my trepidation. So I went to Newegg and got one. I've been using it now for
about six weeks and couldn't be happier. I like the USB hdd drive because
it's easily removeable, although one can accomplish the same thing with a
rack mount hdd.
Now having used Retrospect I can easily recommend it. Literally, with one
or two clicks one can back up all changed files on their computer to another
drive and go on with their business. Just to give you an idea of what I'm
talking about, it took about 24 minutes the first time to back up the 22 gb
hdd to the USB drive using a USB2 connection. The particular drive I'm using
is 160 gb USB/firewire combination. It came only with Apple software, but I
called Maxtor and they gave me a download website to get the PC version of
the software. I reformatted the drive from the Apple format to NTFS and
there were no problems along the way.
 
Dave Navarro said:
I have an external 120 GB USB 2.0 hard drive. I got it specifically to
back up my laptop which has a 60 gig hard drive.

I used DriveImage to create an image of the drive in case I ever need to
do a full restore to a new hard drive.

What I need now is a very simple backup program that simply copies
selected folders from the laptop to the external drive when I double-
click on an icon. It doesn't need to compress or encrypt anything.
Just a simple file copy.

I tried using a batch file with XCOPY, but XCOPY fails if a file happens
to be in use. And I don't get any kind of "progress indicator" to let
me know how many files have been copied and are left to be copied.

I've searched Download.com but everything I found was too complicated
with tons of features I flat don't need.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

--Dave
Click to expand...

How bout XXCOPY?

http://www.xxcopy.com/
 
Dave Navarro said:
What I need now is a very simple backup program that simply copies
selected folders from the laptop to the external drive when I double-
click on an icon. It doesn't need to compress or encrypt anything.
Just a simple file copy.
Click to expand...

LapLink can do that, but it may be overkill or too expensive...
 
I'd like to "second" this comment about Maxtor USB drive and
Retrospect. I also got mine from Newegg and only turn in on for a few
minutes a day for a very fast backup. I have used the file restore a
couple of times to get back files I deleted in error and works just
fine.

Harry



(snip)
 
jrweiss98155 said:
LapLink can do that, but it may be overkill or too expensive...
Click to expand...
I used to use Laplink before the easy availablity of USB external drives
and Dantz software. It was always losing its place and the USB was not
being recognized.

They also used to use proprietary USB cables which were expensive - I
don't know if they still do, but I'll never look back to find out :-)

You might also look at Stomp Backup My PC. I believe they have an
option for no compression and I know they have an option to leave
archive flags alone.

Being perhaps somewhat paranoid, I now backup daily to an external USB
using Dantz. Then every few weeks I burn a full backup to DVDRs using
Stomp, and I leave those in another location.

Louise
 
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