Program to do file by file backup of only new or changed files

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I backup certain folders on both of our laptops via wifi to a usb drive hanging off of our router.

I have been using Karenware Replicator but some windows 10 update has farked it up so the program usually says “not responding” after a while and slows down so much the backup never completes.

I’m stuck looking for an alternative backup program for Windows 10 that will do a file by file backup, to a network drive, and can be set to only backup new or changed files, replacing the files on the backup with the changed ones as needed.

Can anyone recommend a program that works like this?

Kallen Web Design

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See my answer to you on the Karen’s Replicator thread.
Please don’t duplicate posts.

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Check out Best Free Backup Software for Windows | MiniTool ShadowMaker and Best Free Backup Software for Windows 11/10/8/7 – EaseUS® Todo Backup Free and Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition.  All have free and paid versions. There are others too.

--Joe

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try Microsoft’s own tool – SyncToy. It may no longer be officially supported, but you can find it at CNET and other reputable locations.

my understanding is that SyncToy is the guts of the synchronization MS installed with SkyDrive – and then OneDrive. Could be wrong about that – oh well.

SyncToy was originally an XP Powertoy. I still use it today.

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SyncToy is a fantastic tool, but it is reliant on .NET Framework 3.5, which will lose support in 2029, so don’t expect to be able to use it forever. Microsoft have also removed the download from their website, so you’d need to risk getting it from a third party website.

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Check out https://bvckup2.com/ I use the old free version and love it. Even the free version has a bunch of nice features although I don’t see it available for download on their site any longer.

Never Say Never

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Back when backups were usually limited to cumbersome tape drives (mainframes as well as PCs), the standard practice was to do incremental (only changed files since xxx) backups to save time and space.

It’s a great idea.  BUT… in the event of a complete restore, or even a partial restore of several incremental backups ago, it is an absolute necessity to restore each incremental backup in exact reverse order!  If one is missing or the order isn’t correct, there’s a good chance something will be screwed up or, at a minimum, not the most current version.

For what it’s worth, I stopped doing business with a local carwash that offered unlimited washes for a recurring monthly charge.  About a year after I started, I was informed that my credit card company denied that months’ charge.  3-4 months earlier, that card had been compromised and the CC company sent me a new one with a new number, which I then updated theirs and various other sites that used that number.  Apparently, they did a restore of an older version of their car wash/credit card file and thought the old one was still valid.  I’m guessing they lost or missed the update activity to my account during a recovery operation, possibly using an incremental backup and recovery.

These days, with the cost per gig so incredibly low, I have multiple SSDs to perform weekly clones of my C: drive to.  I also have multiple 3TB bulk-storage drives to perform quarterly clones of that to as well.

Plan B: put all your backups in the cloud.  Note: I personally refuse to use the cloud for anything due to potential security risks.

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KWD wrote:

I have been using Karenware Replicator but some windows 10 update has farked it up so the program usually says “not responding” after a while and slows down so much the backup never completes.

Hi KWD:

What’s the version and build of your Win 10 OS shown at Settings | System | About | Windows Specifications, and do you use Microsoft Defender as your primary antivirus?

I use Karen’s Replicator v3.7.6 on my Win 10 Pro v21H2 machine to back up my entire C:\Users\<myusername> folder (changed or new files only) once a week to a removable 500 MB USB backup drive and it ran correctly today. I have my backup job set to move deleted items to the Recycle Bin, and I sometimes notice that I’ll start seeing a high number of failures if I start running out of disk space. All I have to do is empty the Recycle Bin on my USB backup drive (i.e., while it’s plugged in to my computer) to free up additional disk space.

I did have an issue about a year ago where the job didn’t run because the Destination folder on my backup drive was supposed to be at D:\Dell Win 10\…, but for some reason my USB backup drive is now recognized as E: drive when it’s plugged in.  I changed the Destination folder in the job settings to E:\Dell Win 10\… and it works fine now.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1706 * Firefox v101.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2203.5-1.1.19200.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.9.198-1.0.1689 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.6758 * Karen’s Replicator v3.7.6
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I believe I have resolved this issue, and here is how:

I installed an open source program called “freefilesync”.  https://freefilesync.org/

It had the same timeout problems.

This turned the issue away from karen’s replicator, to something else.

Recently I had switched to my older (but not old) backup router because my newer one needed rebooting too often.

I swapped in the newer router and hooked up the same usb3 hard disk to it.

Freefilesync was able to complete the backup with no issues, and very quickly.

I conclude my older router is the issue.

I will use Global Exclusions option to cut down the time on my replicator backups though, because replicator spends an awful lot of time backing up various firefox and chrome temporary files.

Thanks all.

Kallen Web Design

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KWD wrote:

I conclude my older router is the issue.

Probably because it required SMB1 to communicate with the attached USB drive like my “older but not old” Linksys router (i.e. I can’t access the 2TB USB drive attached to it without SMB 1.0/CIFS Client File Sharing Support being enabled.)

Since the router still works just fine for everything else, I don’t plan on upgrading to a newer one until Microsoft actually removes the SMB1 binaries (which will supposedly happen sometime later this year.)

Or, if they actually do release the “out-of-band unsupported install package” to restore SMB1 functionality they promised, I’ll download/install that and keep on using it as is.

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KWD wrote:

I swapped in the newer router and hooked up the same usb3 hard disk to it. Freefilesync was able to complete the backup with no issues, and very quickly. I conclude my older router is the issue. I will use Global Exclusions option to cut down the time on my replicator backups though, because replicator spends an awful lot of time backing up various firefox and chrome temporary files.

Hi KWD:

Good catch. I don’t have to back up multiple computers so I plug my external hard drive directly into my computer instead of plugging it into the USB port on my router. I only do larger backups once a week or so (important files are copied manually to a removable USB thumb drive immediately after use; my external USB backup drive is only used for weekly backups of C:\Users\<myusername> with Karen’s Replicator and creation of the occasional full disk image with Macrium Reflect Free) so it’s not much extra work for me. I also prefer keeping my external backup drive disconnected and stored in a safe place when it’s not in use just in case my computer is ever infected with malware that could spread to connected devices.

I have my default Firefox browser configured to clear my browsing history on exit at Privacy & Security | Browser Privacy | History | Use Custom Settings for History | Clear History When Firefox Closes | Settings.  I clear everything on exit except my Browsing & Download history so I can easily search for sites I recently visited from my address bar (see attached image – on occasion I clean my History and Downloads manually at History | Show All History), so that reduces the number of unnecessary files that Karen’s Replicator has to sync during my weekly backups. My MS Edge (Chromium) browser has a similar setting at Privacy, Search and Services | Clear Browsing Data | Choose What to Clear Every Time You Close The Browser.

I also run a disk clean to purge my temporary system files by running a Custom Clean with CCleaner Free just before my weekly backup with Karen’s Replicator (note that I don’t use any of the other bloated, buggy features that have been added to this utility in recent years). It’s not unusual for CCleaner to find anywhere from 200 MB of 500 MB of temporary files that have accumulated in my hidden C:\Users\<myusername>\AppData\Local\Temp folder within a single week, and most of these temp files seem to be created by my MS Outlook 2019 email client (see attached image). I’ve thought of using Global Exclusions in Karen’s Replicator to exclude this AppData temp folder from my backup job, but purging the temp files in that hidden AppData folder has never caused an issue on my Win 10 laptop so I’ve decided to stick with my weekly disk cleanup instead.

I don’t know how often you run backups with Karen’s Replicator or how many computers are backed up to the external USB backup drive connected to your router so none of this may be applicable to your situation.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1706 * Firefox v101.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2203.5-1.1.19200.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.9.198-1.0.1689 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.6758 * Karen’s Replicator v3.7.6 * CCleaner Free Portable v5.92.9652
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

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Sky wrote:

SyncToy is a fantastic tool, but it is reliant on .NET Framework 3.5, which will lose support in 2029, so don’t expect to be able to use it forever. Microsoft have also removed the download from their website, so you’d need to risk getting it from a third party website.

I have only 4.6.1 on my PC and it seems to work just fine.

And to venture a superlative nothing is forever.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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The built-in tools RoboCopy and XCopy ,.SyncToy can each do the job –
Robocopy – SS64
XCopy – SS64

SyncToy

Also check out GoodSync , Gs Richcopy 360 and Syncback , all have file by file back up and can copy the changes only without having to copy the whole folder again , also have a byte-level-replication

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Phil F

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