Backing Up All Wrong: I recently discovered that I have backing up all wrong. I use SyncBack Free, and it does a good job - if it is set correctly. I use three external drives and a...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I recently discovered that I have backing up all wrong. I use SyncBack Free, and it does a good job - if it is set correctly. I use three external drives and a NAS to backup about a dozen folders. My mistake was setting it to "Backup." I should have used "Mirror Right."

With "Backup," everything is copied from C to the external, and it stays there, even if files are deleted from C. Eventually, I had 1.7TB of photos on an external drive, but much less on C.

Some exploring showed me my mistake. So, what I had to do was modify how SyncBack did its job. Here's the process.

Click on the folder in SyncBack > Modify > Decisions - Files. Then I went down to "What to do if files exists on Destination but not on Source" and select "Delete file from Destination if it hasn't been used in 0 days.

That changes all the "Backups" to "Mirror Right." Now, when I delete something from C and run Syncback, it will be deleted from the backup.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

What you want with backup is what I want, all untouched shots are kept on backup, has saved my sanity, or what's left of it several times, only deletions allowed from backup are totally unusable frames, just my way of doing things, Bob

amehta Loc: Boston

jerryc41 wrote:

I recently discovered that I have backing up all w... (show quote)

I think you were doing the backup correctly.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

amehta wrote:

I think you were doing the backup correctly.

It was correct in the sense that the company calls it a backup.

The past few days, I have been going through my image folders and deleting stuff I should have deleted ages ago. Then I backed up those folders, but all the junk stayed on the external drives. If I don't want something, I don't want a backup of it, either.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

jerryc41 wrote:

..... I use SyncBack Free...

Microsoft provides a free utility called SyncToy 2.1 that does the same sort of thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155

I use it and like it.

amehta Loc: Boston

jerryc41 wrote:

It was correct in the sense that the company calls it a backup.

The past few days, I have been going through my image folders and deleting stuff I should have deleted ages ago. Then I backed up those folders, but all the junk stayed on the external drives. If I don't want something, I don't want a backup of it, either.

Not everyone has that approach, so anyone else reading this should be aware of what the options are and what they do.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

What is needed is a program that will do incremental backups to what ever folders you desire on which ever drive or drives they are placed. There are many options out there from which to choose, and you need to really check to make sure you're getting what you need and that you use it properly.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

jerryc41 wrote:

It was correct in the sense that the company calls it a backup.

The past few days, I have been going through my image folders and deleting stuff I should have deleted ages ago. Then I backed up those folders, but all the junk stayed on the external drives. If I don't want something, I don't want a backup of it, either.

What if you change your mind?

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

flyguy wrote:

What is needed is a program that will do incremental backups to what ever folders you desire on which ever drive or drives they are placed. There are many options out there from which to choose, and you need to really check to make sure you're getting what you need and that you use it properly.

Back in the day, think PS2 as state of the art, I was taught to use copy, actually then we used xcopy, that way we could control what got backed up and where. Now I usually just copy whole untouched directories to backup before I edit.

amehta Loc: Boston

bobmcculloch wrote:

Back in the day, think PS2 as state of the art, I was taught to use copy, actually then we used xcopy, that way we could control what got backed up and where. Now I usually just copy whole untouched directories to backup before I edit.

I zip the whole untouched directory before I edit. The zip file is easy to verify as intact. If I have two good copies of each zip file, I know all my original photos are backed up.

I do need to work on the process for my edited pictures...

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

I also use SyncBack - have been for years...

I mirror to one external drive (working files - nightly)

I do a backup to a different drive (for archive and history - bi-weekly). If I permanently delete a file (I empty my recycle bin once a month) and discover that I needed it, it should be in my archives...

I also use Synchronize (Smart Sync) to a laptop so when I grab and go and add/delete/change - the files are updated on both systems when they are re-connected and sync'd.

Once a quarter, I copy the backup to my off-site storage drive and/or update my DVD's.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

flyguy wrote:

What is needed is a program that will do incremental backups to what ever folders you desire on which ever drive or drives they are placed. There are many options out there from which to choose, and you need to really check to make sure you're getting what you need and that you use it properly.

This does incrementals. I can back up a dozen folders with thousands of files in just a few minutes, provided I keep up with it every day or two. Backing up just the Pictures folder onto a new drive can take many hours.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

bobmcculloch wrote:

What if you change your mind?

If I thought like that, I'd never delete anything, and my house would be full of hard drives.

What I want is a copy of the important files that are on my computer. Using SyncBack, I duplicate (mirror) those files onto several external drives. If I started saving everything that I put into the Recycle Bin, I'd go broke buying external storage.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

bobmcculloch wrote:

Back in the day, think PS2 as state of the art, I was taught to use copy, actually then we used xcopy, that way we could control what got backed up and where. Now I usually just copy whole untouched directories to backup before I edit.

I used a little utility I got from PC Mag called DirMatch. It would show you what files were on two directories so that you could easily make them the same.

There is a new version (from 2002), but I haven't tried it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,485525,00.asp

C.R. Loc: United States of Confusion

flyguy wrote:

What is needed is a program that will do incremental backups to what ever folders you desire on which ever drive or drives they are placed. There are many options out there from which to choose, and you need to really check to make sure you're getting what you need and that you use it properly.

flyguy nailed it, incremental only writes files that are new since your last backup and appends them to your existing backup