Georgews Loc: Wellington, New Zealand

I certainly would not go below 10% free an preferably 20%. As you load and shift files they are temporarily written to free space so, for a very short while, you maybe using more than you think. This is why a disk writing etc slows down markedly when you get too full. Do not let any disk get more than 90% full (I use only 80% to keep performance up

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Looks like you got some great replies. I would just like to ask the folks what they are using for backup software. I am backing up manually to my external drive but wouldn't it make more sense to let software do that for me automatically? Thanks.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

For my image copies I use a piece of software called bvckup2. Apart from imaging the system disk for restoration in case of hardware failure (and for this I use Macrium Reflect) I use bvckup2 for all other imaging/copying tasks. This is the best and my preferred software after 20 years of doing this type of work. Easy to configure, easy to use, although I manually start jobs you can schedule if you want, the fastest I have found so far, written by a Swiss guy called Alex. Previously I used robocopy but bvckup2 has it licked. I have had a few errors with it but in all cases these errors have been to do with impending hardware failure so has a few additional benefits.

Georgews Loc: Wellington, New Zealand

One thing you should do from time to time with backup software is to test the restore process. I had a friend who backed up religiously every week for two years. When I asked him about testing the restore he said he had never done it. So we backed up and the ran a restore. Nothing! His backup had not backed up although all settings etc were correct. Do test it sometime just to be sure

11bravo

For backups, previously used Acronis, but for the last several years, have used Macrium Reflect. I really like Reflect. Have both the free version, and a paid 4 pack. For my use, difference between paid and free is the paid version has full, differential, and incremental backups, while the free lacks incremental. Both versions clone drives. Paid version on my desktops and travel laptop, free goes on friends and family computers. Have Reflect on every computer I touch.

For copying, I use the free version of TeraCopy with auto verify turned on, and in the "more" display (window stays open after copy and verify completes). The verify does a CRC comparison on source and target. One limitation is that if too much data, program seems to hang, so I do in 50gb chunks (thousands of files). Sufficient for copying photos from SD to HDD, SD to external HDD, and copy backups. The verify can double the time, but I prefer the security; just start and go do something else.