What's the best tool to use to automatically backup selected folders from Windows to my external hard drive?

Posted by PhD on Super User See other posts from Super User or by PhD
Published on 2013-10-27T21:04:30Z Indexed on 2013/10/27 21:55 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 217

Filed under:

windows-7

|

backup

|

external-hard-drive

|

scheduled-tasks

I have a 1TB external hard drive and I'd like to periodically schedule backups of my "Libraries" in Windows to the external drive. I'd prefer if it could detect what files have changed and periodically transfer them to the drive instead of I having to do it manually.

Is there a way in Windows 7 to do this automatically? If not, what are some external tools (preferably free) that I can use for this?

EDIT: I've used Windows back-up and I find it restrictive for detecting changes and backing up automatically. That's all that I'm aware of. My WD hard drive had something for this but the application doesn't work any more and it wasn't that good either. So, I wish to know what are my options.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about windows-7

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about backup

backup exec - backup to disk offline

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi We are running backup exec 9.1 doing a backup to disk to portable hard disk drives. When we run the backup manually it works fine. But when the backup is setup to run in the evening on a schedule it does not run as the backup to disk folders goes offline and therefore has to be switched back… >>> More
Ideal backup appliance for backup software like Bacula?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm at a small company and we (the IT department of two) manage <100 client computers and a handful of servers. Currently we're using a company's appliance to handle backup; it does a small backup every night and a full backup every weekend, and a guy comes on Wednesday to take an offsite backup… >>> More
Symantec Backup Exec Error on backup

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Recently we have moved some of servers from real servers- into virtual servers. Since then, we are getting errors like the following: Error category : Resource ErrorsError : e000fed1 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status. For additional information regarding this error refer… >>> More
Windows Server Backup - Recover only shows the latest backup

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
We're having quite some trouble at work using Windows Server Backup. We have a HyperV server (Win 2008) running 8 virtual web servers, these are running a variety of OS'es: Win 2003, Win 2008 and a lone Debian. Each virtual server has a separate partition on the physical HyperV server, so e.g. E:… >>> More
Failed Backup Job With Backup Exec 12 and AOFO

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am backing up a Windows 2003 Small Business Server with SP2. We are running Backup Exec 12 with SP4. Recently the backup job started failing on backing up the system state with the following error: V-79-57344-34110 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "System?State". Advanced Open File Option… >>> More