Easy Backup Software

[kurandoinu]

I just bought my mum an external HD for Christmas as she managed to write about 10mb of files on to CDs and DVDs all the time and costs herself a fortune. Problem is the one I bought came with 'One Touch Backup' which has turned out to be a wee bit shoddy- Vista wants permission every time to use it, the interface is hideous and not user friendly, and you can only backup from one place at a time.

I want something that I can install on her laptop and tell it to backup certain folders (photos, videos off her camcorder etc). An ideal one would be something like Time Machine on OSX, where you tell it to exclude certain folders and it backs everything else up, but I just want something that looks for new files in certain locations and backs those up.

Any suggestions are welcome. I don't mind paying a bit for the software, but free would of course be better. I'm not too knowledgeable on this stuff as I'm primarily a mac person.

[kureshii]

I'm using SyncBack, and loving it. Free, easy to set up and automate. Despite the name, it does backup as well (which is really just 1-way sync, anyway)

For those who prefer portable apps, you can use uniextract to extract just the app files without installing it. I've had no issues running it like this so far.

And although this should be obvious, I'm going to preempt some complaints and state now that SyncBack Freeware is the version you're looking for, so I hope not to see any posts about "WTF you talking about there's only a trial version, shareware FTL". If you don't see it, scroll down like all sensible users would (or just do a webpage search).

[shadowmaniac]

I used a different program a while back but can't remember the name. Still, based on what Kureshii said, Syncback is times easier to use.

Anyway, unrelated but I'd recommend a flash drive for her; this way she can carry her stuffs everywhere with her and is more compact than an external HDD.

[kurandoinu]

she has a flash drive too, but this is for complete backups. Ill try that app out tomorrow. :3

[Lumiinous]

What's wrong with the one built into Windows?

[vuzedome]

What's wrong with the one built into Windows?

You sure you haven't tried it yourself?

[kurandoinu]

What's wrong with the one built into Windows?

The one thats for full system updates? Or is there another one hanging round somewhere that I don't know about?

She only has a 100gb external, and a 250gb internal, but I don't want to be backing up the 40gb of Disney films I gave her etc, just all the stuff thats important to her.

[Lumiinous]

What's wrong with the one built into Windows?

You sure you haven't tried it yourself?

I have it back up my music collection and pictures folders every Sunday and have restored from it twice, never having any problems, does this seem awkward?

[kurandoinu]

Where is this? As I said, I'm not a Windows user (Vista frustrates and annoys me) and the only one I could find was to do a full system backup- which I don't want.

[Lumiinous]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.09.backup.aspx

You should be able to just backup certain folders, then restore them later the same way you backed them up.

[kurandoinu]

Ta.  I'll have a look when my dad gets off poker on facebook.

I just had to teach my mum to scan on a computer that has 32x less RAM than my laptop, and a HD 25x smaller. It made me giggle

[Lumiinous]

Ta.  I'll have a look when my dad gets off poker on facebook.

I just had to teach my mum to scan on a computer that has 32x less RAM than my laptop, and a HD 25x smaller. It made me giggle

My desktop had 4GB of ram, 32x less is... 128mb... that's like, Windows ME era. I ran 512mb for the longest time and even that was painful. I regularly stay at over 3GB usage now.

[kurandoinu]

Yep. 128mb of RAM and a 20gb HD. I nearly cried laughing. Poor thing.

[NaRu]

a extreme way to backup someones computer is to build a small home server. Nothing big is needed. a simple Celeron processor will do. 2 gigs of ram and 1TB of space. Install windows homeserver on it and it will backup all computers on your network.

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I tend to go to Snapfiles when looking for Windows software (especially since I'm out of the loop, much as you are).  IIRC, GFI Backup is what my mother uses on her OneTouch.

[kurandoinu]

I shall keep this topic handy and hope she doesn't destroy her computer before I get home. Thinking of letting her have my old machine for a low price, as the clicker on the one shes using doesn't even work. I was gonna keep it and either hackintosh it or make it into a media centre, but as the now ex is the one that knows how to do all that stuff theres no fucking point :/

[bork]

If you are supporting it as in keeping that computer running, you might want to look at yet another option -

Image the HD onto a second HD, a 250G HD now days are not too expensive.  If anything were to go wrong with the running computers HD, a quick swap and you are running again.  Imaging is not like file coping or backing-up were its dealing with files, it works at the sector/cylinder level; it can move a 250G disk in about 10~15 min.

[kurandoinu]

I don't want to be backing everything up though, just the important stuff. If she loses films or stuff off there, I gave them to her anyway so I have the files. Its just photos and home videos and stuff thats unique.

[bork]

Well anyways - its seems to be a common question though:

http://www.homeserverland.com/forums/f/88/p/868/3527.aspx
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-6322.html
http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/backup-software.html

for more google -> archiving photos backup methods

[Natheria]

Yep. 128mb of RAM and a 20gb HD. I nearly cried laughing. Poor thing.

lol, my mom is still using an old Emachine with a 566MHz Celeron and a 7.5gb HDD (back when they measured in halves of gigs) running Windows ME...