Backup Utilities

[bjwe]

I'm not trying to push SecondCopy, but it does not copy the whole of the directory each time - only the files that have changed.

Brian

[dalel]

I also downloaded trial versions of Second Copy and SmartBackup.

I will probably try the LE version of Quik Sync first, because it is free. If it does what I need without hogging system resources, and only copies files that have changed, that should serve my purpose.

Thanks again to everyone for your recommendations!

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[dalel]

The Quik Sync LE version does not allow you to backup to another hard drive, only to a Zip, Jaz, or other separate drive. Damn! (I have a Zip drive, but that is not my first choice for a backup location.)

I did a lot of searching, and found a highly rated freeware backup utility called Polder Backup. It works very well and is a small program, less than a meg. It has great options and flexibility, but does not have its own scheduler. That means I will have to manually use it to ensure backups, or use it with another scheduler like the Windows Task Scheduler. I will try it for awhile and see if I can get it to work with the task scheduler OK.

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[Gaussian]

Backup program should be hit and run. Dale, if you try to introduce the task sheduler, you're only going to make it more complicated for yourself. I downloaded Second Copy myself and it works perfectly, exactly "hit and run".

[Gaussian]

Look at the two screenshots I took...

[dalel]

I am now using PolderBackup and a scheduling program called Window Scheduler. Using these two programs together backs up my specified folder data once per minute. This scheduler can also be set for once per hour, once per day, once per week or month, or at a specified time each day. The Windows 98 Task Scheduler is apparently only able to schedule tasks at certain times, NOT repetitively every hour or minute.

If anyone is interested in backing up on a budget, here are the URL's:

http://www.splinterware.com Window Scheduler

http://www.xs4all.nl/~philippo/PolderBackup.htm

Both are free programs and their size together is about 1.5mg. I can email anyone who needs to know how to configure Window Scheduler to automatically run PolderBackup in the background.

Gaussian,

My setup is "hit-and-run" now with PolderBackup and Window Scheduler.

I still have my downloaded trial copy of SecondCopy (and SmartBackup), so if my method of using these two free programs doesn't work, I will try one of those.

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[diniel]

I've tried Iomega's QuikSync today.

My data directory's about 2.4GB at the moment, mostly made up of small HTML files and JPG/GIF files making up websites - and the Xara files to go with them.

There are two versions of QuikSync, the LE version and the full version.

The LE version is free, but you can only backup to Iomega drives (Zip, Jaz etc).

The full QuikSync 3.0 is about $40, and you can download it from ftp://download.iomega.com/english/qs3-w32-x86-3143.exe (it is just under 6MB)

HOWEVER, I've uninstalled it already - it took about an hour to copy my files to another network location (that's fine), but a VERY annoying window pops up each time it finds something to copy (ie a file that's changed).

The window appears above any program I'm working in - which gets very frustrating after about 15 minutes. Especially as, for some reason, it kept backing up an old PDF file, dated December 2001, which hasn't changed (or even been opened) since then.

It may be better behaved if you're copying from one local hard drive to another, but to a network location, I don't rate it at all.

I'll try SecondCopy next, it sounds good.

[dalel]

Interesting experience. I hate programs that are annoying like that. My setup now is not intrusive at all, and the only indication it is working is the scheduler icon in the system tray.

I've read a number of glowing reviews for Second Copy on the web, so that will be my next trial choice if my current setup doesn't work out.

Please post your experience with Second Copy! I'd like to know if you can set it to backup at intervals such as every 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. My current scheduler allows for running my backup application every minute or every hour, and I would prefer to have it backup every 10 minutes.

Hey, Gaussian! I'd like to hear your experience with Second Copy, too.

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[traceyp]

Daniel

I started getting that pop-up window but very quickly and simply got rid of it. To do this you simply double click the tray icon and in the resulting dialogue click the Advanced tab and uncheck Show Progress Bar When Copying Files at the bottom of the dialogue. That sorts that out very nicely indeed. No way would I have purchased Quik Sync if that damned pop-up window had persisted!

Tracey

[traceyp]

Dale

With respect to Second Copy only copying changed files, I'm a bit puzzled since I kept getting a message (.wav file) coming up and saying that a file I had opened was in use before I'd even saved anything. Therefore if Second Copy doesn't copy the whole directory structure what the blazes was it doing telling me the file was in use unless it wanted to copy something that hadn't at that time changed???

Tracey