Incremental backup to external hard drive

[cbay]

I don't really know what i'm doing on this subject. I purchased a 3 TB WD hard drive over the summer to protect my images. All i did was copy and paste folders into the drive a couple times. Now,,,,things are looking difficult as i have added to old folders, changes to some, etc. So it gets confusing and a little work to go in and find all this stuff and copy to the hard drive. Surely there is a better way to do this. I just did find the file history function in windows 8 and just turned it on. It says it's making copies but shows no progress bar or anything. This seems like it will duplicate all the files i already have on the backup drive but possibly make things easier from now on. Am i correct? Incremental backups would be good and hoping windows is doing that through the file history function. ???? As far as Lightroom i assume it is making copies of the backup there as well.
Should i be doing something different?
On top of this things will really get confusing shortly when i get another desktop. :sorrow:

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

WD has backup software that normally comes with its drives and it does a pretty good job. If you don't mind clicking a button there is a free program by Microsoft that I have been using for years. IT will take a little while the first time you run it but from then on it just compares and adds, replaces, deletes to sync the two drives.

[h=1]SyncToy 2.1[/h]
You just set up Folder toys and then name them. You can have more than one folder pair so you don't have to run the entire thing every time. Set it up to suit your workflow. What I normally do on the files I do use it on is when I am finished for the day I just click and run the program and walk away.

I use a offsite service for backup. I use Carbonite and it runs without any interference from me. I also have a External drive that does a Mirror image backup which is great in case you have a full meltdown of your system and need to do a full restore.

I use the Personal Plus Plan which is $99.99 a year since it will also back up all my External drives.

Online Backup, Cloud & Hybrid Server Backup | Carbonite

I like this since in case the worse thing happens and someone breaks into you home and steals your computer and your external drives or your house burns down all is not lost. I have had failures in the past and lost photos that I con not replace. That will not happen again.

 

[cbay]

WD has backup software that normally comes with its drives and it does a pretty good job. If you don't mind clicking a button there is a free program by Microsoft that I have been using for years. IT will take a little while the first time you run it but from then on it just compares and adds, replaces, deletes to sync the two drives.
.

Thanks Don. Still not sure what i have going is doing what i want it to do (using file history to copy files). I can't find a disc for the WD drive - there may have been one. If i remember right it seems like when i first fired it up it offered a backup program for money which i declined. I may try the one you posted before it's all said and done.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

Thanks Don. Still not sure what i have going is doing what i want it to do (using file history to copy files). I can't find a disc for the WD drive - there may have been one. If i remember right it seems like when i first fired it up it offered a backup program for money which i declined. I may try the one you posted before it's all said and done.

Using the file history method seems like it would be very time consuming.

The WD software for backup was free and comes with the drives. I have a number of the My Book drives like a total of 11TB of them. Check out their site for the software and you can download it there. Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support

 

[cbay]

Using the file history method seems like it would be very time consuming.

The WD software for backup was free and comes with the drives. I have a number of the My Book drives like a total of 11TB of them. Check out their site for the software and you can download it there. Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support

Thanks again Don, Yes it appears that the method going now may take a very long time after looking at task manager it is only writing at 20mb/sec. I have lots of pictures.

 

[cbay]

It looks like the WD backup is for just about every other hard drive they sell but not listed for Elements hard drives.
Synctoy installs but won't work for me on Windows 8.1, but i have updates turned off because i'm always on data restriction and could not possibly download much of anything with my speeds.
Looks like file history worked but also have duplicated a lot of files now and a directory that is buried and more confusing.
Maybe there is another decent free program like synctoy???

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

Thanks again Don, Yes it appears that the method going now may take a very long time after looking at task manager it is only writing at 20mb/sec. I have lots of pictures.

I can tell you that any method you do is going to be slow the first time. A lot of that depends on what kind of drive you have and how it is connected. If it is external then I can assume it is connected via USB. Remember there are 2 different kinds of USB. USB 2 and USB 3. A USB 3 drive will work on a USB 2 connection but be very slow. Many computers have both USB 2 and USB 3 connections on the back. IF you have a USB 3 drive double check to make sure you have it plugged into a USB 3 connection.