I'm looking to back up a lot of data. I will be putting the data on two separate external hard drives.
ExternalA will be the backup drive I keep connected and usually interact with.
ExternalB will be the backup to ExternalA, disconnected and stored in a closet or something when not in use.
To start things off I am just going to put everything on both drives to start fresh with my other storage and fresh OS install. I've been careless for the past few years and have accumulated thousands of folders of data that's not organized properly, I have yet to sort through it all but I will eventually.
When I get around to organizing on ExternalA, what's the best way to backup the changes to ExternalB when I'm finished?
Since I'll be deleting files or renaming them, I can't just copy/paste the folders at the root of ExternalA to ExternalB, since that won't copy over the deletes.
Do I reformat ExternalB then copy?
If I do reformat ExternalB before copying, and ExternalA dies, that doesn't seem safe.
There has to be a better way to do this.
>>51984069
personally I'd wait till I had stuff organized before I put it on drive B, because without that incentive who knows when or if I'd ever organize shit.
on another note, dual pane filemanagers are pretty helpfull when organizing large amounts of files
>>51984255
>personally I'd wait till....
I see your point with that suggestion but that's not happening. I'm putting it all on both drives ASAP in order to prevent data loss if a drive fails.
Gone too long without a proper backup, preventing data loss at this point takes priority over organization but I will definitely get around to organizing it shortly after.
>dual pane filemanagers
What do they do?
Do you have a specific program in mind to recommend? I'm using Windows.
>>51984480
total commander, basically it's like having two explorer windows open but you have hotkeys for lots of stuff that makes things go quicker once you're used to the keyboard method of doing things, but it also supports mouse actions as well if that's your thing
>>51984517
here's the address, http://www.ghisler.com/, it's not exactly free but the only limitation on the free version is you have to click on a number between one and three and it picks a different number for you to pick every time but if you want free free, and cross platform check out doublecommander
http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/
Here's an example if it helps.
ExternalA and ExternalB are perfect copies of eachother on 1/15/16.
I disconnect ExternalB that night.
The next morniing I get around to organizing some stuff.
End up deleting the following
-ExternalA:\Documents\Pictures\EmbarrassingPhoto1.jpg
-ExternalA:\Documents\Pictures\EmbarrassingPhoto2.jpg
End up adding
-ExternalA:\Media\Music\Song I Like.flac
ExternalA now has 2 less pictures, but one extra music file.
How do I, ideally in one step, update the "changes" and delete the two photos from ExternalB and add the song to it?
>>51984069
freefilesync
>>51984577
I think what you need to look into is incremental backups
HOLY SHIT
After a power cut this afternoon, my Windows wouldn't boot anymore (BCD Boot error or something). I was sweating like a pig, found no solution and had to resort to the final solution. Was able to restore it from a EaseUS Backup I made just this afternoon. THANK FUCK I MADE THAT BACKUP, please please do so yourself to protect your files
>>51984627
doesn't easeus output backups in a proprietary format?
>>51984660
Yeah, but they supply a nice bootable USB iso, was able to restore all 3 partitions on that disk in a breeze. I don't really mind it's proprietary, you can encrypt it if you want
>>51984681
I just wasn't sure how their format would work with a bootable recovery solution. do they have a tool to make a bootable recovery disk or do you just take the file it outputs and use something like rufus to make a bootable usb?
>>51984735
>do they have a tool to make a bootable recovery disk or do you just take the file it outputs and use something like rufus to make a bootable usb?
You can do boot, you can export an .iso and "burn" it to a USB or you can use their tool which automates the process.
The boot loader itself is quite easy to use. I just selected the backup and then the disk I wanted to restore and it did in just over 40 minutes. Worked like magic.
>>51984787
cool beans man
You ever look around your house at obscure cracks in the walls or floors or tiny gaps in furniture / electronics that you could hide a 128GB micro SD card in? There must be places that the fucko squads would never look even if they turned your house upside down.
>>51984995
not really, that's kinda why fucko squads tear the shit out of everything, then afterwards when they find nothing try to weasel out of paying for the damages
>>51984995
Cracks in walls might be good if you can cover them back up with some wallpaper or whatever.
For gaps in electronics, I think you'd have more luck wrapping it in foil and burying it in nutella.
>>51984577
Robocopy should work. Google it. I was asking the same question you were and Robocopy was recommended. I was happy with the results. You will need to use several flags to get it running how you want, but you should be able to figure it out.
>>51985330
Robocopy sounds like it'll work. Too bad I'm retarded.
I'll have to spend quite a bit of time figuring it out. Not familiar with the command line at all, it's kind of spooky since I know I can fuck shit up easy if I use the wrong commands.
Don't consider a detached spinning hard drive a backup. For every drive that spins up fine after being on the shelf for five years, there's two that never spin again.
The only reason the big online backup vendors can use spinning drives, is because of the scale they're at. They can afford to replicate and test the data periodically, across multiple data centers, often on multiple continents. You and I can't.
For all of their faults (and they have plenty) tape and optical media are backup.
Modern tape costs like a used car when all is accounted for, so get good BDR blanks, and burn baby burn. Or use online backup.
Wow, just stumbled upon something possibly epic.
DSynchronize (Scroll down to it at the link)
http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/
With this I just drag/drop a source folder into the left section, then the destination folder to the right and click "Synchronize" it adds/deletes files just like I needed it to and it also has an optional "Realtime" mode which instantly updates the second folder after I make an edit in the primary.
Seems amazing and perfect for me and my goal.
Anyone have something to say, such as why I should use something other than this?
>>51985577
tape is fine but optical media is a joke, there's the size per disc limitation that leaves you with a ridiculous number of discs for any kind of decent backup, and there's also the fact that optical media is rather delicate and easy to scratch. personally I'd use a zip drive before optical
>>51985649
I'd use LTO5 if I could afford it. Until then, I pick the 25 or 50ish GB I care about, write the data two times, pack appropriately, and store offsite in different locations.
>>51985577
Are external hard drives really that bad?
I mean, compared to having the data sloppily spread across a few internal drives and some of it on a 4-drive RAID0, I think storing my data on two mirrored externals is significantly safer.
When I save up some more money I plan to purchase extra drives to copy the data onto.
Honestly, recommending tape backups sounds a little silly but I understand it. I may consider tape, but not at the moment. What do you believe is a safe amount of copies to have if I store everything on external drives?
4 drives? 5? 6?
I also forgot about testing the data for corruption and that stuff, I'll have to plan for that at another time.
>>51984069
Norton Ghost
>>51985856
personally I'd just get an hdd dock and buy internals which are usually somewhat cheaper and more likely to last
