Need some help with backup software..

[Hearly]

Ok, I finally got work to break down and buy me a USB external HD for backups instead of killing the network with backups.

Normal way I do it, is just have it copy all files over, and overwrite any existing files.
(want to be able to access them immediately if a failure)

I have just 1 directory I'm worried about backing up, does anyone know any software that would just check to see if the file exists and is the same date/time skip it and only replace any files that have a newer date/time than what is already on the other drive?


Thanks

[TStyle]

Hearly,

If you use Windows you could try SyncBack http://www.2brightsparks.com/ (They have a free version and paid versions - I've found the free version to work just fine for my needs)
I use this myself to backup to my external hard drive. You can create "profiles" that tell it which directory to look at and where you want the files backed up to and what you want done with the files (backup/sync/etc) based on modified date or file size.

Hope this helps.

[Downdude]

Acronis True Image will also do what you want. It is a paid app but it's on sale for $24 on amazon Acronis v2010. It does fast backups w compression and will do incremental backups and does scheduling. Works in windows xp, vista and 7 with full support for usb hdd.

[wildph]

These suggestions make use of rsync, which will only copy changes/modifications on each backup run.

1/ The free software "Deltacopy" might do what you're asking, although I see it's aimed at over-the-network backups.
ref: http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

2/ Alternatively you could try the windows version of grsync:
ref: http://grsync-win.sourceforge.net/



XW

[giddiani]

Genie Timeline Free might be what you are looking for.
http://www.genie-soft.com/free_products ... eline.aspx

[Greymist]

You guys are doing it the hard way. Hearly, just use the command line tool xcopy in a batch file (assuming the USB drive always maps as a specific drive letter).

xcopy source destination /D /E /C /Q /Y

Edit:
For example, if your USB drive is always e: then have a .bat file with the below line in it which you can double click or schedule in a task.
xcopy c:\the\source\folder e:\backupstuff /D /E /C /Q /Y