Windows backup tool?

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:01 am

i'm using vista business, and i just bought an external HDD so i can finally back up my music and other files.

the syncing program that they included was only a 30 day trial, so i'm currently formatting it right now, and i'm wondering if the windows tool will suffice or if i should go for something third party.

all i plan on backing up is my "documents and settings" folder, and i would like the program to be able to just sync the external drive to keep it current. if the windows tool is fine for that, great, if not, i'd prefer something free that's actually free.

edit: i also forgot to mention that i want to be able to put other stuff on there as i please. i don't want it to only be a backup of one folder on my HDD.

basically like an ipod with disk use enabled, if anyone actually understands that.

Starman Ghost · Post by **Starman Ghost** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:04 pm

If it's anything like the windows xp backup tool(free!, vista blows!), then yeah, it's more than adequate.

Post by **odditude** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:39 pm

SyncToy has worked quite nicely for me to keep my girlfriend's music collection consistent between two computers, and I'm even forcing it to work over the network. It'll quite happily work between two local drives/directories, and you can have it only sync in one direction and create copies instead of overwriting in case you're worried about accidentally nuking something. You set it up once for each sync job, and then run the job at any time with a single click.

Might work beautifully for your backup job.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:15 pm

the vista backup tool blows, so after some looking, i went with synctoy, and it's looking like it will do the job just fine for me.

i got the 2.0 beta, since the changelog said that the main engine is brand new, and supposedly much better.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:56 pm

yeah I use synctoy to guess what, sync two computers. I have a rev drive (35GB disk) from iomega and use their software "automatic backup pro". you specify folders, it runs every day, copying new files or whatever you specify. it's great for backups.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:01 am

like i said, the software i wanted to use that came with my drive was only a trial version.