Need Backup Software for my PC

[rtroxel]

I do a lot of scanning of financial docs, and I need to make backups of the scans. I know there are some good backup apps available, but I'm not interested in anything especially intricate. This would be just for regular home and personal investment finances.

A backup program of sorts comes with Windows 10, but since it doesn't allow me to choose individual files and folders, it's almost worthless.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, in advance,

Roy in New Mexico

[davebarnes]

Backblaze.com
$50/yr into the cloud
I am a satisfied customer for 3+ years

[rtroxel]

Thanks, Dave.

At this time, I'm reluctant to put anything on The Cloud. Not sure how secure that is, considering all the hacking that's been going on these days.

Does anyone else here use the / a cloud for backups?

Roy

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtroxel A backup program of sorts comes with Windows 10, but since it doesn't allow me to choose individual files and folders, it's almost worthless.

The Windows 10 native backup service, File History, does allow you to configure it to include and/or exclude any folders you want. It works pretty well, in my experience, although I have experienced some occasional glitches, so it's not fully a "set it and forget it" solution.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2974...p-feature.html

[easysurfer]

Are you looking to back up the entire PC (system and all) or just data?

[nuisance]

2nd backblaze. Easy to use, cheap, and quite secure. It's been a while since I picked them, but you can set it up so that only you can decrypt your backups. (That means that if you lose the key, you won't be able to restore the files.) At that point the only way for a hacker to get access to your files is to compromise backblaze, and push a software update that disables the encryption. While this is in the realm of possibility, it's well beyond the usual hacks you hear about on the news.

I understand being wary of "the cloud" but for backups it's the only thing that's convenient that offers the kind of protection you need in case your house burns down/floods/.... Otherwise you end up backing up to a friend's house over the Internet, or send up weekly runs where you swap out a USB drive remotely. All doable, but then you're doing a lot more yourself.

[rtroxel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Are you looking to back up the entire PC (system and all) or just data?

Just the data.
- Roy

[rtroxel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuisance I understand being wary of "the cloud" but for backups it's the only thing that's convenient that offers the kind of protection you need in case your house burns down/floods/.... Otherwise you end up backing up to a friend's house over the Internet, or send up weekly runs where you swap out a USB drive remotely. All doable, but then you're doing a lot more yourself.

I store my backups at the bank.

[RunningBum]

Periodically I do a full backup, but every 1-4 weeks I run CopyChangedFiles TSR Copy Changed Files Software - Free software for logging changed and modified files. on my Documents, Images, Music, and Downloads. You can certainly pick any directory you want. I keep a log file of when I've done it, and run it against the last date, and it compares files in that directory and copies over (optionally writes a new copy, I think) anything that's changed. Fast and easy.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtroxel Just the data. - Roy

In that case, how about a simple solution of just storing the scanned data in a folder and every so backing up to removable storage like a flash drive or 2.5 inch external HD?

Unless you have lots of lots of data, you're probably not going to run out of space on storage.

If you want a more automated (not manual delete, drag copying), you can use something like FreeFileSync that does syncing between folders (works with external storage too).

https://freefilesync.org/

[MBAustin]

I use Acronis to back up to a hard drive - we have two and keep one in the safe deposit box at the bank, swapping them periodically. Reminds me that it's time to do that again.

[jim584672]

I have used Clonezilla for years.

https://clonezilla.org/

Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery.

[Walt34]

Another Acronis user here.

[ShokWaveRider]

I use Macrium Reflect Free for complete image backups, it works flawlessly. For file backups I use Syncovery, it also works flawlessly. both are simple to use and do not require any training.

[misanman]

Quote:

Another Acronis user here.

Me too. Works great.

[easysurfer]

I use Macrium Reflect (paid version) for daily backups of System and my data (stored in a data folder). Additionally, I sync my data folder using FreeFileSync when the mood strikes (non-scheduled).

This thread reminded me to do a backup of my data to an external drive at lease at start of year in case HD's on computer get wiped out.

[bloom2708]

Any external HD you buy will come with backup software. Let's say you buy 2 1 TB drives.

Install the backup software. Select the folders you want to back up. Backup to each drive.

Keep 1 in your safe or safety deposit box. Once a month, do a backup and swap the drives. This might cost you $150 total, software included.

Just one idea.

[OldShooter]

For backups I use Acronis, but for data that I want stored redundantly I use Dropbox.

There is a Dropbox folder on my desktop (Surface tablet, actually), another on our network file server and a third in the cloud at Dropbox. The Dropbox software runs continuously, keeping all three copies synchronized. Our file server is a RAID box with a pair of mirrored drives, so there also two copies there. It would be equally possible for me so set up the "network" dropbox folder on my wife's computer. I would lose the advantage of the RAID, but that's a belt and a second pair of suspenders anyway.

The advantage of this approach is that everything is kept up to date without any action on my part beyond setting up the scheme and turning Dropbox loose.

[donheff]

I use IDrive for PC documents and settings And Google Photos and Flickr for images. I don't worry at all about IDrive, Carbonite, Dropbox and the like. The encryption is more than enough protection. The only thing I would really worry about loosing is my Passwordsafe DB and that is encrypted locally and once again on the cloud backup services.

[kcowan]

I have been using Karens Replicator for over 20 years.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/det...eplicator.html