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I do not have any backup scheme in place on my home computer.
I repent.
Now what ?
Every backup scheme I've tried before has always been marked by
-- Complexity
-- Annoyance
-- Hideously Inadequate restore procedures
-- Space Invaders (I was around before CD-RWs existed)
-- Time Bandits (So many rules you had to sit there and run it yourself)
I used some freeware backup apps, and the authors of these should receive the highest acclaim. Indeed, they should be able to find paid work within a month if not an hour, should they need it.
Still, what will really work, and what will really catch on, is something where...
-- Plug in a USB cable
-- Pop up the app
-- Click once
-- Go to work
-- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet
So how much will such a thing cost ?
Who's making this kind of stuff these days ?
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It's one of my few Win8 letdowns that Microsoft killed "Previous Versions" via Volume Shadow Copy for that.
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I use NTI Shadow: http://www.nticorp.com/en/us/store/shadow_5_windows_estore.asp[^] - I have it set to a number of jobs onto my NAS, but it also works to USB drives (though I haven't tried it). You do have to set up some "rules" in the sense of type of backup, frequency, and so forth, but it's pretty easy to do. They do a trial which might be worth looking at - but the full version is currently pretty cheap.
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Have a look at the BounceBack products from CMS[^]
[edit] if clickty doesn't work try www.cmsproducts.com [/edit]
I think the concept is probably exactly what you're looking for: just plug in a USB drive and it does the backup.
In the spirit of full disclosure: I used one of their products years ago and found an obscure show stopper bug (in my specific circumstances) and their support was an email shrug of the shoulders. I expect they are well over that by now.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
modified 22-Feb-13 2:33am.
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Phil J Pearson wrote: Have a look at the BounceBack products from CMS[^]
Try that again.
My screen says: Page not found
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Ok, see edited post above. Apple broke the clickety, although it still works for me in some browsers. 
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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I use Time Machine on my Mac, but I doubt that's of much use to you. When I searched for "Time Machine Windows", I came across this... so as DaveAuld said, Windows File History looks like a good place to start.
Though, I can stand to lose most of my files. Anything really important I backup to DVD (though such files are rare).
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C-P-User-3 wrote: -- Plug in a USB cable
-- Pop up the app
-- Click once
-- Go to work
-- Come home, spare disk goes in the closet
that's exactly what i do.
i have a Retrospect job that backs up two PCs and a NAS to an external USB HD. once a month, i bring the HD home from work, plug it in, launch Retrospect, tell it to do the monthly job, go away for a while, take the HD back to work the next day.
it also does automatic, unattended, bi-weekly backups to the NAS.
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Chris Losinger wrote: i bring the HD home from work, plug it in, launch Retrospect, tell it to do the monthly job, go away for a while, take the HD back to work the next day.
Copying work-sensitive information has never been easier. 
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disclaimer: lest anyone from my employer get spooked at your suggestion... no, i only store the HD at work because it's easier than taking it to our safe deposit box.
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When they come to take you away, I presume they will search your office as well as your home... 
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Disclaimer: To CL's employers, I was speaking in jest.
Disclaimer: To my employers, I would never do that either.
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that's what I do, backup HD, also, is at work.
Nihil obstat
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Same here. There is a 500GB external hard drive in my desk at work right now with all the important stuff I would prefer not to lose. It's only there for off-site storage.
I use Acronis Trueimage Home. I've used it for years. They had some problems a couple of releases ago but the current 2013 version is great. You can do file backups, partition backups or disk backups. Everything is easy to set up. Just before a new version comes out, you can find people selling it with a rebate that results in an almost zero price.
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"The ones who care enough to do it right care too much to compromise."
Matthew Faithfull
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Robocopy and a batch job run by windows scheduler. Works great!
I have a few USB and eSATA connected 2TB drives with complete copies of everything on my main drives.
Simple, easy and a doddle to restore broken or missing files.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits.
- Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most.
- I vaguely remember having a good memory...
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Buy a USB hard drive: $100.
Write .BAT file to run robocopy: 6 minutes.
Add scheduled task to run .BAT file once a day: 30 seconds.
You've spent $100 or less and six and a half minutes for peace of mind. Cheap.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Great answers, great insight, thank you one and all.
The two absences among the answers were the command line options of...
- Xcopy (Does that still exist ?)
- XxCopy[^] (Free, most of the time, at home.)
From my 30 minute investigation of all these options, Robocopy appears to have replaced Xcopy and is quite possibly Microsoft's response to the existence of XxCopy[^]
With all that in mind, the current winner for the moment is Gary Wheeler[^] along with the others in that camp. (Not that I'm closing my mind to the other ideas, they clearly have merit.)
Okay, So here's what I'm thinking.
Purchase: Two USB External Hard Drives
Write: a bat file that invokes Robocopy
Write: a second bat file, similarly, but does Robocopy to the other USB drive
Name Them: OddBack.Bat and EvenBack.Bat
On odd numbered days, click on OddBack, then on even numbered days, click on EvenBack.
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The only thing I have against xcopy / robocopy is the resetting of file creation date. Plus xcopy has been known to exhaust memory if used from a recovery environment. (very long filenames - Windows Vista and up.)
I'd rather use Winrar and split into manageable parts, with the recovery record flag. More likely to recover corrupted files off DVD.
Q. Hey man! have you sorted out the finite soup machine?
A. Why yes, it's celery or tomato.
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You could do this with a single .BAT file:
@Echo OFF
Set Day=%DATE:~0,3%
Goto Drive%Day%
:DriveMon
:DriveWed
:DriveFri
:DriveSun
Set Drive=E:
Goto Start
:DriveTue
:DriveThu
:DriveSat
Set Drive=F:
:Start
RoboCopy C:\ %Drive% /MIR You'd need to customize the Drive environment variable and the RoboCopy command, but it does alternate drives based on the day.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Use %~dp0 which gives you the path (minus batchfile name) to where the batch file currently running
there are variations too
%~d0 - drive
%~p0 - path minus drive letter
Q. Hey man! have you sorted out the finite soup machine?
A. Why yes, it's celery or tomato.
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I put pictures on Facebook and Google's Picasa, and a few important documents I upload to Google Drive. Everything else I only think are important, but are not really. When I've lost things in the past, I realized how indifferent I was to most of it. Work-related stuff stays at work. Home-related stuff is rarely more than pictures and a few documents. Let Facebook and Picasa save and tag them for me. When I need them again, I can either download them or pay $5 for a CD with all my information.
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