markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I do believe Win 10 can do incremental, auto backups. Here's some helpful documentation from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17127/windows-back-up-restore
Mark

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Thanks, Mark

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

You are welcome. Hope it helps.
Mark

blackest Loc: Ireland

the only problem with doing a copy is what happens when part way through copying 10,000 files it stops for some reason.
where do you restart?

rsync

This command can be used to synchronize a folder, and also resume copying when it's aborted half way. The command to copy one disk is:

rsync -avxHAX --progress / /new-disk/
The options are:

-a : all files, with permissions, etc..
-v : verbose, mention files
-x : stay on one file system
-H : preserve hard links (not included with -a)
-A : preserve ACLs/permissions (not included with -a)
-X : preserve extended attributes (not included with -a)
To improve the copy speed, add -W (--whole-file), to avoid calculating deltas/diffs of the files. This is the default when both the source and destination are specified as local paths, since the real benefit of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is reducing network usage.

You don't need to memorise the command, look it up when you need it. You can even do a version where if rsync fails part way through it automatically restarts. It only copies what is different so if the first 4008 files are at the destination then it skips to 4009...
Each file has an md5 checksum if a file at the destination has that checksum value it doesn't need copying.

Subsequent backups are faster as only the changed files need copying.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I use Syncback Lite - since it was introduced during the Creataceous Period (computer-wise) and it has never failed me. I think you are correct - there is no archive bit referenced when syncing. Whatever is on the source drive will be sync'd with the destination drive, and if you delete something from the destination, it will also be deleted from the source. The archive bit is only looked at when doing an incremental backup.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Making one's life easy is a goal. Many use USB clone devices, me?, no!, I use a hot-swap door to place a hard drive into the computer. Open the door, slide the drive in and close the door and it is a second hard drive. Open the door pull the drive out, put in a static bag and store and you have your backup. Typically less than $20 on Amazon or Ebay.

Regarding programs, cloning there are 1001 paid and free. Or you can drag and drop if using the swap door hard drive, since that drive is while in is part of the computer. I make a backup at least once a month, should be once a week. One TB HDs are cheap, use 3 and rotate. For my photos, I use one internal HD and then also back them up on a Swap door drive. System drive is a separate drive in and backup.

MAKE EXTERNAL INTO INTERNAL

StevenG Loc: Long Island, NY

I have had success with carbon copy cloner (ccc). It makes a duplicate copy of your Drive and only copies the newly added data

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Making a duplicate of one's drive is great if the hard drive only crashes, needs to be replaced, and then restored. However....what happens if your system is, say, if the computer that crashes is running Windows 7 and you replace it with a computer running Windows 10? Personally, I prefer to backup my files from the command prompt (or using control c and control v) and then re-load my software. The advantage I find in doing it this way is that I can access the files on the backup disk as easily as on the computer. If, for some reason, my computer's hard drive were to become totally full, I could actually store ALL of my photos on external disks and access them for use as need from there.....or store only selected, more used photos only, on the computer. I have tried doing a file backup in Acronis, but afterwards have not been able to access the individual files. I also find the Acronis manual to be terribly written. Perhaps it's a good program (and I know it's faster than Western Digital's old transfer program), and maybe computer techs can understand it....but for somebody who is computer literate, and can somewhat think like a computer thinks, but is not a techie, understanding Acronis is difficult. I think an interpreter translated the Japanese manual. Acronis needs an American Techie who understands how to communicate to re-write its manual. Mark....are you available????

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have one of them on my Wish List on Amazon. I use one of these, so it might stay on my Wish List.

https://smile.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483880752&sr=8-1&keywords=sabrent+disk+case

stadtmkw Loc: Burlington, MA

With Acronis you can create two different backup jobs that backup to different drives. The two jobs can be scheduled to run at slightly different times.

An advantage to the Acronis cloning approach is that if you lose your system drive you can restore your entire system, usually in less than a half-hour. If you had to rebuild your system drive manually, it could take tens of hours including the Windows updates.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

When I copy a large number of files or folders, I do the job piecemeal, rather than all at once. I don't know if there's a valid reason for doing it that way, but I figure it gives both drives a chance to rest.

stadtmkw Loc: Burlington, MA

I have one of these and it works very well. I use it for both SSD and conventional, spinning SATA drives.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You'll get more responses if you make this a separate post.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It can make an image or a clone, right?