Need Backup Solution for Various PCs/Drives

[Melodeath]

I am currently running a dual-booting hackintosh with Windows 10 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite. OS X is backed up to an external drive with Time machine, but the Windows 10 side of things is not backed up. I want to fix that.

I figured while I fix that, I should probably also remedy the fact that I have two other, older PCs that aren't backed up, as well as several external HDs I'd like to backup.

I have some redundant copies of important files on various drives, but I'm looking for a more organized and streamlined system, and to backup the things I know are currently only in one location.

I am willing to buy backup software for Windows, but what should I get? And should I just get one giant 6TB drive and backup all of my Windows computers and external drives to it by manually copying and dragging files/folders, or is there a better way?

Thank you for the help!

 

[TRUIE]

Hi,
For sync and backup, I use this freebie : http://www.freefilesync.org/
You have different sync options, you can create different "presets" with different folders/rules...etc.
Hope it helps !

 

[jeb]

Hi! I use syncback pro at work and synback free at home. Pretty straight forward with tons of sync options.
I didn't know about freefillesync! I'll check it !

Jeb

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

I use Acronis True Image WD Edition, it's free if you have a Western Digital HDD.
I've got the OS drive with a clean install, and one where everything is installed, backed upp on an external drive and on another PC.
You can just chose entire drives and it creates a compressed file.
Then you put the bootable version of the app on a usb-stick if you something goes wrong and you can't acces your OS.

Putting all of your eggs in one basket might not be a good idea, but I don't know what the amount of data is that you want to backup.

 

[Melodeath]

Hi,
For sync and backup, I use this freebie : http://www.freefilesync.org/
You have different sync options, you can create different "presets" with different folders/rules...etc.
Hope it helps !

Hi! I use syncback pro at work and synback free at home. Pretty straight forward with tons of sync options.
I didn't know about freefillesync! I'll check it !

Jeb

So these work with a standard external drive? Can I backup the whole PC, or do I need to select specific folders/files for it to backup?

I use Acronis True Image WD Edition, it's free if you have a Western Digital HDD.
I've got the OS drive with a clean install, and one where everything is installed, backed upp on an external drive and on another PC.
You can just chose entire drives and it creates a compressed file.
Then you put the bootable version of the app on a usb-stick if you something goes wrong and you can't acces your OS.

Putting all of your eggs in one basket might not be a good idea, but I don't know what the amount of data is that you want to backup.

I don't have a WD external at this time, but I could get one. So it creates a file of the whole PC, and then you can restore using a bootable USB drive?

At this point, I am considering a RAID NAS-type setup to solve this issue once and for all. I'm tired of worrying about not having backups, so a redundant system would be great

 

[Korwent]

I use freefilesync too, you can config about anything you want to back up,its's really cool!
I personnaly have 2 backups of my projects, one on an external drive and one on another internal drive, both of which I sync using freefilesync.

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

I don't have a WD external at this time, but I could get one. So it creates a file of the whole PC, and then you can restore using a bootable USB drive?

Yeah, one file, and you can choose the compression amount. I've got a few WD Internal HDD's (and a external one), and it was an easy program to use. I guess the app checks for a WD HDD, it probably works with an external as well, but I don't know.
You can set dates for it to do the back-ups. I just do it manually.
Then I put their "bootable media" on USB drive and boot up from USB via BIOS (when I recover the OS and overwrite it).