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I've made a decision and here's my report.
First of all thanks to all for your suggestions. I looked at all of them. At first, I thought... should I post this question on Calguns? What do gun owners know about IT backup processes. Well it turns out gun owners know everything.
I said I wanted to pay for something but mainly that was to avoid junkware from free Windows apps. Linux is the exception so when ocabj posted GNU tar as a solution, I thought of course, LINUX/UNIX something. GNU tar looked a little too technical for me but I found RSync instead. This is a Unix-like utility that does run on Windows (through Cygwin) More on this below.
RSYNC
rsync is a utility software and network protocol for Unix-like systems (with a port to Microsoft Windows) that synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer by using delta encoding when appropriate. It also has the option to provide encrypted transfer by use of SSH. SSL encrypted transfer can be done via Stunnel wrapping. Quoting the official website: "rsync is a file transfer program for Unix systems. rsync uses the 'rsync algorithm' which provides a very fast method for bringing
remote files into sync."[3] A feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols[citation needed] is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction, eliminating the message latency overhead inherent in transmitting a large number of small messages.[4] rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.
I tested it with a few small files and it worked. Then I did a full backup and immediately did an incremental backup to test.
Machine: Desktop running Windows 7 Pro.
Backup device: Western Digital 1 Terabyte External Drive >>>connected via USB port
First folder size=25GB Backup: New Full Backup (every file was copied as new) Time approx 3.5 hours
First folder size=25GB Backup: Incremental
Time approx 1 Minute (yes minute)
Second folder size=50GB Backup: New Full Backup (every file was copied as new) Time approx 1.5 hours
Second folder size=75GB Backup: Incremental Time approx 2.5 Minutes
The second folder was a mix of mainly files, but included movies and music too. It was pretty fast for what I was expecting. The incremental process just checked to see if anything was new, and there wasn't, but it only took minutes. I don't know why the First folder took so long compared to the Second. I have no complaints.
So this works for me and I'm certain it will work on my other Windows machines. I'll get to those backups soon. And the money saved will go towards ammo (What else?)
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If you are interested in trying this out for yourself, here are the details (assuming you have Windows).
-You'll need Cygwin installed on your Windows machine. This allows Windows to run Linux/Unix utilities.
**-This guy has a very good Youtube tutorial that made it very easy for me to install and test. Just follow his lead to get it set up.
-If you're not technical at all, then I'll share this...there's a part where he is showing the "backup.bat" file and walks through the contents. You have to make this on Windows Notepad and "save it as a .bat extension. That creates the script you run for this backup.
Writing the script took a little trial and error. You have to ensure your paths to your folders are exact.
Here's what mine looks like: (I downloaded the 64 bit version)
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Desktop" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Documents" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Music" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
The Youtube tutorial shows only one folder to a backup location. I wasn't sure how to do multiple folders so I simply made a new row for
each folder--all in the same .bat file. (If you know of a better way please say so) Otherwise this was fast enough for me, and it
worked like a charm.
First of all thanks to all for your suggestions. I looked at all of them. At first, I thought... should I post this question on Calguns? What do gun owners know about IT backup processes. Well it turns out gun owners know everything.
I said I wanted to pay for something but mainly that was to avoid junkware from free Windows apps. Linux is the exception so when ocabj posted GNU tar as a solution, I thought of course, LINUX/UNIX something. GNU tar looked a little too technical for me but I found RSync instead. This is a Unix-like utility that does run on Windows (through Cygwin) More on this below.
RSYNC
rsync is a utility software and network protocol for Unix-like systems (with a port to Microsoft Windows) that synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer by using delta encoding when appropriate. It also has the option to provide encrypted transfer by use of SSH. SSL encrypted transfer can be done via Stunnel wrapping. Quoting the official website: "rsync is a file transfer program for Unix systems. rsync uses the 'rsync algorithm' which provides a very fast method for bringing
remote files into sync."[3] A feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols[citation needed] is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction, eliminating the message latency overhead inherent in transmitting a large number of small messages.[4] rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.
I tested it with a few small files and it worked. Then I did a full backup and immediately did an incremental backup to test.
Machine: Desktop running Windows 7 Pro.
Backup device: Western Digital 1 Terabyte External Drive >>>connected via USB port
First folder size=25GB Backup: New Full Backup (every file was copied as new) Time approx 3.5 hours
First folder size=25GB Backup: Incremental
Time approx 1 Minute (yes minute)
Second folder size=50GB Backup: New Full Backup (every file was copied as new) Time approx 1.5 hours
Second folder size=75GB Backup: Incremental Time approx 2.5 Minutes
The second folder was a mix of mainly files, but included movies and music too. It was pretty fast for what I was expecting. The incremental process just checked to see if anything was new, and there wasn't, but it only took minutes. I don't know why the First folder took so long compared to the Second. I have no complaints.
So this works for me and I'm certain it will work on my other Windows machines. I'll get to those backups soon. And the money saved will go towards ammo (What else?)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you are interested in trying this out for yourself, here are the details (assuming you have Windows).
-You'll need Cygwin installed on your Windows machine. This allows Windows to run Linux/Unix utilities.
**-This guy has a very good Youtube tutorial that made it very easy for me to install and test. Just follow his lead to get it set up.
-If you're not technical at all, then I'll share this...there's a part where he is showing the "backup.bat" file and walks through the contents. You have to make this on Windows Notepad and "save it as a .bat extension. That creates the script you run for this backup.
Writing the script took a little trial and error. You have to ensure your paths to your folders are exact.
Here's what mine looks like: (I downloaded the 64 bit version)
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Desktop" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Documents" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
c:\cygwin64\bin\rsync.exe -rt --verbose "/cygdrive/c/users/jc/Music" "/cygdrive/E/JC Desktop Backups"
The Youtube tutorial shows only one folder to a backup location. I wasn't sure how to do multiple folders so I simply made a new row for
each folder--all in the same .bat file. (If you know of a better way please say so) Otherwise this was fast enough for me, and it
worked like a charm.
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