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Syncback is great, you need to network your stuff together separately, but it will copy the minimum amount of files for you to speed up your backups.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/

We use it, works great, we use intranet not internet though, but that's just a networking setup deal I shouldn't have to explain.

Norton Ghost is another one, it goes on sale on newegg sometimes for dirt cheap and isn't that expensive to begin with, might be worth looking into, it's getting better, but I'm not a fan of their interface.

MS drive extender and

Well, not anymore do they?

What happens if you lose a disk?

Why, what happens? We are talking about the MS drive extender and with LVM2 you can use such feature with every major Linux distribution since 13 years and that without the risk to loose any data.

If MS only just implemented LVM2 for Windows you would have now a nice space expansion feature which is proven to work.

Raid is not a backup solution anyway so if you care about your data you need to have a backup strategy.

I use SyncToy at work to sync my laptop up with the network for a quick and dirty solution that just requires a simple replication of data, but I've found it to be less than satisfactory for more complex tasks and interminably slow when there is a large quantity of files in a sizeable directory structure.

For home use (a mix of Linux and Windows boxes) where things are more involved I started using Unison for a cross platform solution but in the end settled on a simple RSync for the Linux data and SyncBack SE for the more complicated Windows stuff. SyncBack SE might not be free (it's $30), but it is lightning fast, extremely flexible and can handle very sophisticated synchronisation and backup tasks including versioning, support for more than one target, remote targets via FTP and email), bandwith controls... Worth a look!

Been using SyncBackSE at work and home and it's great: http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html

Neat, so you don't even know what RAID is for. Well done.

Think I've had about enough of you, go away now.

I've never used SyncToy, but for my Windows box I regularly use SyncBack, of which there is a free version available.

I've got a terabyte and a half of storage under my desk, on 2 old Pc's that would otherwise be useless to me.

Whenever anyone I know upgrades their machines, I get the old ones. Take a Celeron 400 and an pold P3, throw in $120 500-gig hard drives and boot with NASLite. (NASLITE overrides the BIOS of old motherboards, so even dinosaur boxes can boot huge hard drives. I've run it on 486 boxes).

So I have about 600 gig of storage on one NAS box that I use for music, movies, photographs and anything else that I want to have accessible to all the machines on the network. The other NAS box is just 2 500 gig disks that are used for backups of the first NAS box.

I'm using SyncBACK freeware to schedule backups from one box to the other.

Works like a charm, and all for the measly cost of NASLITE+ and the hard drives.

Syncback

Try the free version in the download page.

I use SyncBack on my XP laptop to keep backups and on occasion to synchronize shared data between more than one machine. Usually it works well and isn't too hard to set up.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub .html

Yes, SyncBack does a pretty decent job and it's user friendly too.

I've personally been using SyncBack for years with tremendous success, both as a general use and as a data manager. The basic features are usually enough, however the expert mode really shows the usefulness of the utility. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/

If you're running Windows, I would recommend SyncBackSE (http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html), which I expect you should be able to setup to do exactly what you asked.

Once a day, it runs a backup of my laptop and everything on my machine comes to a grinding halt for five to ten minutes.

A solution is not a solution if it doesn't get used. We have only 5 guys with laptops, but some are smart enough that they can cause trouble. I was using a network backup to tape drive, but these guys could go into their Windows task manager and kill the process, 'cause they didn't like the way the backups bogged down their performance. Since I had a solution in place, my ass was covered, and they were on the hook for any problems if we didn't have a current backup. Still, a laptop loss or hard disk failure will cause me a lot of headaches, whether or not it's my fault.

So the second option I implemented was external hard drives for all laptop users. They can back up their own stuff, whenever is convenient for them. Yet they are kinda lazy and very busy with other stuff, so I've been hearing rumors that some laptops are only getting backed up once a week. Or worse. With the external drives in the users hands, I can't keep any track of what is going on. Once again, my ass is covered, but a disaster will still be a headache for me.

What my guys need is something with logs that I can see, and will back up their laptops to a server, but will give them some scheduling control so as not to interfere with their work. The compromise we are working towards is some file synchronization software. Something that has scheduling capability, but can also be initiated by the user. When they are VPN'ed in, or in the office and connected to the network, and they are going to lunch or heading to a meeting, they can click an icon on the desktop to set off the file transfer. I can see a log on the server and know who hasn't been backing up in a while, and send a reminder email, or even automate the email reminders.

This idea is promising, but I'm wondering what new problem will crop up with it. I'm looking at Vice Versa and SyncBac , for the software, which both have nice features. I'm going to check out BackupPC after seeing it mentioned in this thread.

I've been using SyncBack for my work laptop.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse-feature s.html

I'm happy with it so far. You can configure whatever folders you need backed up, where, when, and it does intelligent checking for whether it actually needs to create backups of files based on any number of file attributes.

NovaBACKUP (PC World Best Buy; offers tape encryption)
http://www.novastor.com/

Cleversafe (GPL'd)
http://www.cleversafe.org/

Genie Backup Manager
http://www.genie-soft.com/products/gbm/default.htm l?AfID=13778

SyncBack (freeware)
http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html

EMC Insignia Retrospect (formerly Dantz Retrospect; PC Magazine Editor's Choice)
http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/

I set up 2 Bright Sparks' product SyncBackSE for a relative, a few months ago. I needed something in a hurry, and that could be "click the button simple" for them. (It offers a lot of configuration options, but appears to have some decent defaults and allows for "profiles" (my word) that a non-expert can simply select and run.)

Simple also to the point of not hanging on open files if the user wasn't clever enough to close them, or Windoze got "stuck" holding an open file handle (can't count the number of times...). SyncBackSE supports volume shadow copy -- it can work with open files.

Note also that it supports AES encryption.

There may well be comparable and/or better alternatives. For $25 and the rush I was in, I said "good enough".

http://www.2brightsparks.com/

I have a "system" for backups which includes:

1. Nightly rsync of my iMac and powerbook to a hard disk connected via firewire to my iMac (runs from cron)

2. Plans to install rsnapshot to shorten the window of exposure from 1 day to 1 hour. Used to use this on Linux with great success, fully expect that this will work well on OS X.

3. I bought 2 firewire/USB drive enclosures, and populated them with PIDE drives. I keep one, and gave my sister one. The enclosures are identical and the drives are partitioned with one Windows partition and one OS X partition. When I see my sister (a few times/year) we trade enclosures. I rsync my home movies/pictures/music to the OS X partition, and she uses the "freeware" SyncBack to back up her data

The only down side to this approach is that I'm limited in backup size to ~140GB unless I'm willing to pony up for a pair of SERIOUS TB sized drives. In general it's not a big deal - I suppose I could end up losing my home movies of my kids - that's what really eats up disk space. Guess I need to archive my tapes to the safe deposit box. :)

The idea that I'll be able to easily recover my data if my house burns down brings me great comfort. The cost is fairly minimal and the level of effort is pretty low, too.

del E:\Images\Older_C.dat
del E:\Images\Older_C.xml

rename E:\Images\Old_C.dat Older_C.dat
rename E:\Images\Old_C.xml Older_C.xml

rename E:\Images\Drive_C.dat Old_C.dat
rename E:\Images\Drive_C.xml Old_C.xml

"C:\Program Files\Runtime Software\DriveImage XML\dixml.exe" /bc /tE:\Images\Drive_C /r- /s- /c /v

Less filling, taste's great. Free for Wingoze http://www.back4win.com/b4win.exe

or use tar gz (*nix/Linux)

Or to recurse everything easily in Wingoze use
http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html/freewa re

In *nix/Linux

find . -depth -print | cpio -pd /dirname -dpmv

Hope I remembered that right!

External hard drive with syncback SE by 2brightsparks. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html Syncback is a SOLID program that you set up to either do a backup or synchronize - I think they have a FREE version, too. I choose to synchronize so it's a mirror image of my music directories. You can set it up to sync/backup on a timed schedule. It really is the BEST solution. Syncback also allows FTP backup/sync. I'm currently in Germany and have a computer in the USA set up to sync with. No compression. SWEET! I also back up with DAT tape and use STOMP PCbackup program. But it's not nearly as elegant as the hard drive with syncback. These external hard drives are now cheap enough and reliable enough to be your secondary storage. I tried DVDs for a while but was not impressed with the final product. You still have to sit there and feed your burner DVDs. The FTP sync works so well, I haven't done the DAT backup in a couple of months!

...If you try to copy the entire C: drive to the external drive using Windows Explorer, the copying will stop when the system encounters a file it cannot copy (for example, a user.dmp file), plus for those who don't turn on the option to display hidden and system files, often things like Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail folders and files, as well as the Windows Address Book, do not get copied...

What is wrong with using zip, or rar compression? Is it really that much of a problem for you? I'm not trying to be an ass but I've never had enough problems with compressed backup files that I stopped trusting them.

You can ignore the rest of my post, I describe what I have been using...

I use the free version of SyncBack on some of my computers. I schedule a "full" of certain directories on each PC to run once a week.
It gets a little more involved and "not as simple" from here on out but it does not have to.
I place the files on a Samba share specific to the PC (each PC has its own hidden share as defined in the Samba config as path = /mnt/hdh1/backup/%m. I have a dedicated user account on the XP Pro machines called PCBACKUP with access to the files I need to backup (power user is typically fine). I run the job via the system scheduler and have it run as the pcbackup user. That pcbackup user is the only one that has write access to that samba share as well. My thinking was if the user of those computers ever had a virus or found the hidden share somehow, they still would not be able to delete it. I also found a simple script that copies the previous backup to backup1 so I always two recent copies I could do the same thing with a cron job on the Samba server as well. Again, I took advantage of extra functionality but using SyncBack or even the Windows supplied backup software does not need to be taken to this level.

You mentioned dvd writing, well, Syncback does not do that and the compression does not allow splitting files to a certain size so obviously, this is not what you need ;)

I will say I can not afford a nice tape drive and a scsi card since its a home system. So I am hosed.

I understand you did not have a backup but there really is cheap ways to backup stuff but you have to plan ahead.

For the basics.. I always create a C and a D drive on any Windows PC I create. Typically C is 10-20GB and D is the rest. This was more for back in the days when you had to reinstall Windows 95-98 all the time to keep it running. That has not been the case since 2000 but I still use two partitions anyway. Put the OS on the C partition and install everything else to D:\Progam Files instead of C. For reinstall times, you can move stuff to D and reformat C at will. Obviously if the MBR is corrupt, you would need other tools to recover or if the HD itself fails, you are hosed if you only use that method.
If possible use a second HD in the same system. Depending on the size, you can back stuff up to this drive. Windows backup and the system scheduler works good for this and is included with W2K and XP (maybe not XP Home, not sure). I only back up the Documents and Setting directory and any "Data" or "Download" directories I may have. I also use a program called SyncBack, not OSS but the no cost version works fine and provides a rsync style backup that can also be run using the Windows system scheduler.
If you have more then one computer in the house, you can share out a drive on each and use Windows Backup or Syncback to backup the above mentioned files to the share on the other computer. If one computer fails, you have the important data backed up to another one. I use this method quite often in small offices I have setup and they have limited money or technical skills. Typical small office PCs do not use more then 5-10GB of the HD and come with at least 40GB drives. This provides more then enough space to backup computers to each other in a small workgroup. Call it cheesy, call it stupid but it works and is far better then nothing.

Even a step further is to use some type of file server. I'd assume if you are at this technical level where you had a dedicated file server, you would already be using some type of backup. I am just bringing this up as it is the next logical step. Either way..
I use a Samba file server with a share for each PC I need to backup. Each PC uses a combination of SyncBack and Windows backup to place files on the server on a schedule. The file server itself has multiple drives and I use rysnc and plain of compressed tars via cron to backup to a different physical disk at least weekly. I do not actually backup the backups of the PCs but the actual shares and the Samba server itself.
I also burn stuff to DVDs when I get about 4.5 worth of unbacked up stuff (isos, my mp3 files, camera pictires etc.) If you wait to long, and try to backup 100GB of stuff you will get bored very quick. I usually take these DVDs to my parents house when I visit them.

There are many many ways to backup data, mine is not the most logical for everyone but it is cheap and is reliable. There really is going to be NO sympathy if you chose to not back stuff up on a regular basis. It is not a matter of if a HD fails, but when.

   

Disk-to-disk backup? In fact, I (ie. my computer!) do it every night. Simple copy command? I think that does not cut it. I'm in a tight development cycle and each day write a lot of code, documents and receieve/generate lots of data files. I need to back up all important data but surely I don't need to make backup of the executable files, temp files, OS system files and such. The solution that I use is simple: I have two hard disks in my computer. The files that I need to have back-up from, are scattered on these two drives. Now, I have made a BackUP directory on each one of these drives and put a copy of all important files in them. So, I have 3 copies of every important files: the original, and two back-ups. In case a hard-disk goes banana, I always have a copy of all important files on the other one. I run the back-up every night. Just need to copy the files that has been changed or the whole new directories made during the day. So the problem is: I need two desinations for each source. I need to be able to select which directories or even which files to back-up (or not to backup) and I need to check which files have been changed or which new files (or directories) have been created. I need to be able to schedule the back ups for midnight and I need to forget about all these details in practice as I have to focus on my work :) How I did it? Well, I tried a script in the beginning but found it difficult to manage over the time and it was very tedius. Now I use SyncBack which is a freeware program with all these features that I need (and more! like FTP and compression to Zip, etc.). QED.

If you require true synchronisation of multiple libraries, then a little rsync is your friend.

rsync is great but if you have a windows system and are looking for a backup/sync client, you might consider SyncBack for syncronizing music libraries. I have a number of Windows XP based laptops and a linux (SuSE 9.1) server. I use SyncBack to keep the Music syncronized between them and it's easier to set up on Windows. It lets you schedule backups/syncronizations, and is really fast and easy to use. It's free,though not open source, and as best I can determine has no spyware or ads. They are working on a pay version but the free version works great. There's even a version which doesn't require installation; just copy it into a directory and start using it.

In case you are wondering, I don't have any relationship with the company or individuals that make SyncBack. It's just a good application I found useful and thought others might too.

Pseudo RAID-1 system. Buy an external USB-2 or Firewire laptop HD and case which can run off the USB or Firewire power (respectively). Get a file syncronizing program like SyncBack from http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html which is a FREE windows syncro tool, or use rsync on unix systems and you can back up your laptop drive nightly, or schedule SyncBack to run every hour, 10 minutes, whatever (1 minute granularity). I live on a laptop myself and used to have the big 3.5" drives that I could back up when I got home, but that was way too much trouble and extra work so I would tend to not do the backup daily because of laziness. I now carry the extra laptop drive with me in my laptop case because it is so small and lightweight. I don't even notice that much of a reduction in laptop life when using the external drive. I maybe lose 10-15 minutes of battery life (guess only - no real measurements).