Windows 10: Recomendations for a program for backing up files

All my personal files (Documents, Movies, Pictures and Music) are on an internal 2 GB HDD, Drive D. (The C drive is on an SSD). In case of a fault I need to have a backup of those personal files. I would prefer that backup to list those files in the same way as the D drive does. For example, folders which are named Documents, Pictures etc. This makes it easy to retrieve a file from the backup if the list of files has the same structure as on the D drive. An example of what I want is in the attachment.




The simplest way to keep such a backup up to date is simply to periodically delete all the folders on the backup and copy on to the backup all those folders on the Drive D. But that is clumsy because it involves re-copying files that have not changed (the majority are in that category), and is slow. Much better would be a program which compares the backup with the D drive and makes changes to the backup only as necessary to make it display identically to Drive D.

I have used FreeFileSync which seems ideal, but it gets into a muddle and is now giving messages that it can't handle some files other than simple doument, picture etc. files which I didn't know existed. I make backups of my system using EaseUS ToDo which works well, but it does not produce the simple list as described above.

Any ideas on a suitable program please?

:)

 

Backing Up Files For Windows 10

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query to Microsoft forum.

There is no need to worry about the files as when you upgrade to Windows 10, all your files and personal settings to compatible apps and programs will be restored at the same location. However as George suggested it is always recommended to back up your
data before you perform any such activities on your computer.

For more information on Windows 10 update you may refer to
Windows 10 FAQ

Let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help you further.



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Thanks & Regards,

 

Backing Up Files For Windows 10

Its always wise to play safe and backup your data, ( documents, photos, emails, etc that are important to you) , to an external backup medium like a USB HDD before upgrading an OS, just in case something goes wrong.

If you have a backup and something fails or goes wrong, you still have your data on the backup. If you don't have a backup, you may lose it.

 

Hi, excellent that you're using disk images.

As regards files, it depends what sort of strategy you need.
Considering disk images, you should be able to mount the image and explore it, when you see exactly the same folder layout as on your imaged disk.

Incremental or differential imaging does what you seek

as that image (smaller and faster) than the base image is comprised of differences to the base image.

What you see in mounting an image would then be a composite- i.e. your disk as last imaged.
That would seem to meet your requirement.

I'm wondering if you use incremental or differential images - or only keep creating base images?

I'm sure others may suggest specific file backup programs.

If you want on-the-fly backups, Windows offers File History, but that won't provide a browsable view of backed up files as you seek.

 

Dalchina.

Thanks. I am runnung right now a newly-created Macrium BU of my D drive (it will take 4 hours). When setting it up I specified one full BU per week and four differential backups. My hope is that during each week there will be 4 diff. backups recording changes, and when the next weekly full BU runs the old one and its diffs will be deleted. Is that right?

I am also hoping that if I need to restore my D drive, the restore will be up to date by, say, a couple of days at most (following my setting of 4 Diffs along with the Full: 7 divided by 4 (or is it 5) being 1.75 days). Is that right?

Many thanks for your help.

 

Hi, I'm not sure why you want to update your base image so frequently, unless you make very large changes to the partition.
You also need to ensure that you have created a new image before the old one is deleted.

4 hrs is a very long time - I assume a large drive over USB2.
My differential images of my 1Tb internal over USB3 take -oh- under 20 mins.

Sorry, I'll leave the numbers for someone else to review- I don't want to get to that level of detail.

 

Actually it does. See: Control Panel > File History > Restore personal files