Easy way to synchronize two hard disk drives?

sleepyhead

sleepyhead

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Hello. Sorry for asking this here, but I'm not in touch with any computer forums, so don't know where else to turn...

I plan to use an external USB hard drive as an ARCHIVE drive for my digital files. I would then like to have a second similar drive as a perfect mirror BACKUP of the ARCHIVE drive.

The ARCHIVE drive will have say 100 files added/changed to it each month (in various folders depending on whether digital camera file or scanned film). Once a month, I would like to synchronise the BACKUP drive with the ARCHIVE drive by just having the newly added/changed files copied automatically over to their appropriate locations (that is, I don't want to recopy the entire ARCHIVE drive contents over).

I'm running Windows 2000 Pro at the moment. Can anyone recommend good software or a method to do what i want to do easily and reliably?

THANKS!
 
What you're looking for is called an "incremental backup" and should be pretty easy to perform with most backup programs. I don't remember the name of the program I'm using but there are many to choose from.

RAID1 (mirrored drives) is also a solution but I don't know if there are RAID-interfaces for external disks. It's two disks in parallell that will look like one to you and when you send data to it/them, the RAID interface will make sure that both disks receive all the data.
 
If in fact you want to make an image of ARCHIVE on BACKUP without copying unmodified files, you can do it with a command prompt (i.e. no software to buy) and a batch file: Use the XCOPY command with the /m flag.

See your documentation (yeah I know nobody gets that with a computer any more) or open a command window and type "XCOPY /?" to see the options.

Basically your command will look like this:

XCOPY <ARCHIVE> <BACKUP> /m

This command will copy all files and directories from ARCHIVE that have the archive bit set to "on" to BACKUP (creating directories and files as needed plus updating exisitng files on BACKUP when the corresponding file on ARCHIVE has changed) and then reset the archive bit to "off" so these same files will not be copied next time unless they are modified or updated again.

The use of the archive bit against your ARCHIVE files means that you cannot blanket copy from your primary drive to ARCHIVE. You will have to copy only those that have changed in order to correctly use the archive bit.

The incremental backup scheme mentioned above works, but backup programs generally do not produce a file that is accessible to the original source program. i.e. you must "restore" the file via the backup program before, say Photoshop, can access it.
 
I would recommend to avoid RAID as backup solution, it wasn't meant for that. A screw up in controller or manager software, and you're in for the world of pain. Does not protect you from user action (deleting the wrong folder) or malice, nor does it allow for off-site backup storage.
 
I am assuming you're talking about backing up your digital *photo* files.
My method for doing this is by creating multiple "mirrors" of the directories and files, *not* the operating system.

This way I am not tied to a specific operating system.

I don't know if you have friends who are familiar with UNIX commands. Due to evolving in the non-pretty industry/business environment, UNIX operating systems has more robust (established) programs and methods for this purpose.

On my windows machine at home, I installed Cygwin which gives me access to almost all UNIX programs. Two specifically that I use to synchronize my photos with two external HD's are 'rsync' and 'ssh'.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I use SyncBack (http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html) on all my computers (Windows 2000 Pro and XP). At home, it's set up to back up my data files onto both an internal hard disk and an external one daily - but you can set this to an interval you want.

It mirrors my data files, copying only those that have changed, and deleting those on my back-up disks that are no longer on my main data drive.

It's very flexible, e.g. you can set to up to archive only changes to your main data files (as I'm doing), or prevent files from being deleted from back-up drives an copying over only new/changed files, create filters to block certain folders or file types being backed up, and so on.

It's very reliable, easy to use and mature (been around for several years) - and it's FREE!


PS: I've no connection with SyncBack - I just think it's a really nice bit of software!
 
Thank you all for your answers. Yes, the question is related to backing up my image files

I think I'll mull over the options, and ask my wife to teach me how to access the command line in Windows! Then I can try spyder2000's option.

I really appreciate your help.
 
Sleepyhead: start > programs > accessories > command prompt opens the window you need to use the XCOPY command (spyder2000 - niiiice! - didn't think anyone remembered DOS).

Like varjag said - RAID is not a backup solution, it is a way for drivemakers to sell more units to home computer users. RAID is great in the server environment where you can hot-swap failed drives without losing data. It used to be useful when you needed to cob up a really big drive from smaller units, but since you can pick up a TB of NAS for less than $1,000 these days it is not so useful any more.

RichC - thanks for the tip on SynchBack. I will check it out myself. Sounds like a useful tool, especially if it does not compress the backup into some unreadable format.

Tip to the OP - you probably want to avoid having two external drives on your USB. The Win2k drivers are a bit buggy for the kind of sustained 2-way throughput you need for large volume backup. I would plug a nice inexpensive NAS like the 500 GB Hammer Myshare into your router for ARCHIVE and then have a USB device like a LaCie Porsche drive (looks cool) plugged into your desktop or laptop for BACKUP. Make sure your computer supports USB 2.0.

- John
 
How well does "Synctoy" work with large datasets, say bigger than 500MB? I know that, for example, the My Briefcase option for syncing laptops works really well up to about that half-GB limit, and then just completely falls apart. Sometimes there's a reason the free/easy stuff is free/easy...

xcopy is a good idea; you can even automate it a bit, and generate a log file to see what was changed.
 
foto_fool said:
RichC - thanks for the tip on SynchBack ... Sounds like a useful tool, especially if it does not compress the backup into some unreadable format.
Click to expand...
It doesn't change the files in any way, so they can be accessed as usual. (It can also restore the backed-up files with a mouse-click, if you've done something stupid or your PC dies or something!)
 
In the Windows 2003 Server ressource kit there is an invaluable tool named RoboCopy. This has been there since NT Adavance Server 🙂

Here you'll find direct links to the older NT/2K and the XP/2003 Version:

http://www.ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html

Here is a graphical shell for sale
http://copyrite.dynu.com/index.htm

and here is the older, but free, version of said shell
http://www.msu-hb.de/download/critexp.zip


I use RoboCopy to sync my Laptop with the network, but it's fine with almost any type of storage.
 
Thanks everyone again for your input. I'm going to look into SynchToy first, partly because it sounds great (and free), and partly because I have a laptop from work which I cannot install any new software on
 
If you're brave you could write a very simple script based on the popular open-source build tool "Ant" hosted by the Apache Software Foundation:
http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi

Once you have downloaded the distribution, extracted it and written your basic script (name it build.xml), you can call a specific target inside that script from the command line:
http://ant.apache.org/manual/running.html#commandline

The core task needed for your "backup" script is here:
http://ant.apache.org/manual/CoreTasks/copy.html

Once you get your feet wet you can use this library to help you with other repeatable, batch processes necessary for your particular digital workflow.

Make sure you have a current JVM installed because Ant requires it.

You should backup your important files manually first just in case your script was incorrectly written and deletes them ;-)
 
Kevin--
What a unique use of ant. I use ant daily as my build tool and I never would of thought to use it for disk backup. The only drawback is that the target disk has to be mounted but that should not be a problem with manual backups on a windows box.

As for my self, I'm one of those scruffy bearded, smug unix users. Rsync over ssh is my preferred backup scheme, but that would not help Yaron unless he loads the cygwin tools like Shadowfox suggested.

Our shop uses Norton Ghost to create disk images of windows boxes, a bit of over kill for this situation.
 
Another vote for Synctoy here. Very friendly, quite powerful, and you can run it in preview mode. I regularly run it from my laptop against a 0.5TB USB drive, fast and no problems at all. Will take a look at Syncback though, being an professional IT geek I really ought to 🙂
 
FOLLOWUP - I chose SyncToy

FOLLOWUP - I chose SyncToy

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I've now got things up and running with SyncToy. It does EXACTLY what i wanted, is free, and very straightforward to use.

I'm a happy camper!
 
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