Straight copy backup software

iMax

Does anyone know of any backup software that will just do a straight copy of files to an external drive ?

I'm using Vista's backup which is great & does the job but I need to be able to view the files on the drive, not the compressed backup set.

Free would be preferable.

Thanks

Capt'n Midnight

Vista's backup compresses !

Dos 5 didn't , and NtBackup for NT , 2000, Xp, 2003 doesn't compress, all it does is put the files one after an other in microsoft tape format (mft)

on earlier versions you open the back program into restore and choose the option to catalog and browse to the file.

Other than that have a look at robocopy - a utility to replicate files from one drive to another - set retries and wait to low values.

robocopy c: d:\backup *.* /mir

And very important you will NEED to backup the system state with a proper backup program or ntbackup if you want the registry to work again. - so do that as WELL


Alternatively you can backup off line , ie. when windows is not running by using various cloning programs, again they will generate a single image you can't see into

Spunj

Try SyncBack Freeware from http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

I use it myself and it does a lot. From the site:

"SyncBack is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronize your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive."

iMax

Thanks chaps !

JDxtra

+1 for Robocopy.

Very customisable if you don't mind using command switches.

tech

Cobian Backup software

Capt'n Midnight

JDxtra wrote: »

+1 for Robocopy.

Very customisable if you don't mind using command switches.

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc160891.aspx
there is a "GUI" which fills in the command switches for you
but you still have to know what they do

iMax

Spunj wrote: »

Try SyncBack Freeware from http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

I use it myself and it does a lot. From the site:

"SyncBack is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronize your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive."

Thanks for this. An excellent piece of software & amazingly free. My only problem is that it continually syncs the two drives so if I delete something it is automatically replaced leading to full drives, but that's most probably my doing.

BostonB

I use Karens Replicator myself. Just prefer the way I can control the sync better. I'd love to write my own as I find all of the sync applications a bit clunky.