Freeware backup software

[Craig]

Anyone got any recommendations? I've preached to many for too long about having backups and I'm just as bad. A new external hard drive is arriving today so just want to get some software to do the job for me.

I want it to do full and incremental backups so it does a check of what's changed and only backs that up ;)

[euan]

What did you buy? Some of them come with free backup software.

I've got a Readynas (it's a NAS though) which came with NTI Shadow which does exactly what you want but it's $30 if you have to buy it. My Symantec external drive also came with some software, but I've never used it.

Or you could look at one of the online ones? If you don't want to backup much you can get free ones? That's the better solution, but may cost if you have a lot of data you want to backup.

My current backup regime is to backup my data onto the NAS (which also holds all my music and photos) and then take a backup of the NAS to an external USB drive (the Symantec) which then sits in my desk at work. I've yet to get a decent online backup for my NAS other than the Netgear one which costs a packet.

[Stewart]

Yeah I really need to back up the Music and Photo's on to a drive. The PC is old and I stopped backing up when it got to 16 gb off stuff. I keep waiting to see a external drive at a good price.

All the Music is on the Zen right enough.

[Craig]

I bought a buffalo drive (2tb) for £65 delivered. It will prob come with some software, but just wondered if anyone had any experiences as sometimes the free ones are as good if not better than the pay software! Thanks for the info Euan, I'll keep it in mind. ;)

[euan]

Yeah I really need to back up the Music and Photo's on to a drive. The PC is old and I stopped backing up when it got to 16 gb off stuff. I keep waiting to see a external drive at a good price.

All the Music is on the Zen right enough.

16GB isn't very much, you can get 500GB for under £50 now, I've seen a couple of 1TB disks getting close to that as well which is frankly rediculous. Or you can look at something like Carbonite for online backup, it's 40 quid a year but unlimited data. Mozy is the other one worth a look.

The issue with only backing up to an external HDD is that unless you keep it in a separate physical location, if you have a fire/flood/theft then you lose ALL the data. I'm (reasonably) strict with my backups so happy with my solution, but am seriously looking at online backups to keep it even more secure.

[AndyP & Lenore]

Craig, I use Memeo. It's not free, it's about $30 so not too expensive. But it does just work happily in the background backing up "changed" files after doing a full hd dv back up. It doesn't back up system files though. You can also set the number of versions of each file you want to keep on the back up drive. We use it in the cinema too for backing up basic stuff like film info and artwork and emails etc.

Easy to use and cheap enough, so it gets my thumbs-up.

A.

[Craig]

Craig, I use Memeo. It's not free, it's about $30 so not too expensive. But it does just work happily in the background backing up "changed" files after doing a full hd dv back up. It doesn't back up system files though. You can also set the number of versions of each file you want to keep on the back up drive. We use it in the cinema too for backing up basic stuff like film info and artwork and emails etc.

Easy to use and cheap enough, so it gets my thumbs-up.


A.

Thanks Andy. The software that came with the drive errors on install and the manufacturer won't let me download a new copy of the software ! :rolleyes:

I'll give that a go ;)

[AndyP & Lenore]

Thanks Andy. The software that came with the drive errors on install and the manufacturer won't let me download a new copy of the software ! :rolleyes:

I'll give that a go ;)

so, not *free* after all, really.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Gismo]

Craig, I use Memeo. It's not free, it's about $30 so not too expensiveGuess what, my WD 1TB back up device just crashed, all files safe on my PC, but, am gonna try this prgramme, comes with a 30 day free trial, backing up as we speak.
Online back up 100GB for $80 :thumbs up:

[AndyP & Lenore]

Guess what, my WD 1TB back up device just crashed, all files safe on my PC, but, am gonna try this prgramme, comes with a 30 day free trial, backing up as we speak.
Online back up 100GB for $80 :thumbs up:

Always been tempted by the online backup offers, but always felt it would just take too long to send 100gb up the pipe to their server and didn't want to risk running out of bandwidths, etc.

But I guess it would work the same as backing up to a local device, in that it once a complete backup is made, it would only send changed files to the online backup server.

A.

[Gismo]

Like you, i have loads of files, well over 400 GB so really the online back up isn't a reality yet

[AndyP & Lenore]

Like you, i have loads of files, well over 400 GB so really the online back up isn't a reality yet

Yeah I have about a TB of pics.

I have two external hard drives carrying backups. The only thing that worries me is a nearby lightening strike or any other spike in the power. All my equipment is connected to a surge protector, but even they aren't fool proof. There comes a point in time when you just have to say, if sh!t happens, sh!t happens.

A.