hard drive - What is the simplest free physical solution to backing up files from multiple computers?

07
2014-07
  • pedromillers

    I don't want to consider cloud, as none are free beyond a certain amount of gig, and I have put files on bitcasa before that have just infinitely gone missing.

    I have also been bitten by physical drives, ie. storing stuff on an external drive that one day dies and loses everything with it.

    I have got to the point where I used about 4 seperate laptops - each laptop is good for different things so I've ended up accumilating documents/music/downloads on all of them.

    It would be good if there was a hard drive that had some kind of RAID set up built in. 3 disks, all replicating eachother. But then I suppose if you lose it or the whole thing gets run over by a truck..

    Ahh.. I will stop contemplating and leave you guys to tell me about something simple I've completely overlooked.

    I've also got potentially duplicate files if there's an easy way to address that issue.

    • Answers
  • spuder

    You are looking for a free physical solution to backing up your computers? Aside from stealing hard drives, that is an oxymoron and there is no real answer. (Except for one which I'll mention at the bottom).

    Here are some 'inexpensive' options:

    If you have an old computer and drives laying around

    If you are willing to invest a few hundred dollars one time into your backups

    In conclusion I'd recommend Crashplan Desktop Free. It installs on Windows, Mac, Linux and lets you backup to any other computers running the same software. This is what I use. I backup to my old computer and I have a second backup that goes to a co workers home computer. Everything is encrypted.

    Crashplan Desktop could be free if you have a lot of generous friends that don't mind if you backup to their computers.

    Other crashplan, you will need to purchase or recycle hard drives which will involve money.

    Also see

    Software to backup data and files on a Windows computer
    How to store and preserve lots of data?
    3 - 2 - 1 Backup Rule

  • wolfo9999
    1. Get a NAS.
      • For windows: Get a program called Allway Sync. It is free and will synchronize 2 or more folders. Setup bidirectional syncing between the NAS drive and a local folder. That way you can still get your files even if you are not online.
      • For Linux: Setup rsync to do bidirectional syncing between the NAS and a local folder. If rsync isnt for you, you can use Synkron, a multi-platform folder syncing tool.
      • If you want data backups, use a cronjob with cp and your favorite compression standard on your NAS machine.
      • If you want data redundancy, meaning if you delete file X its still on the NAS, change those syncing programs to do a bidirectional sync, but not allow them to delete files. This will keep any new file on the NAS until you delete it manually.
      • If you want hardware redundancy, use RAID. This is encouraged along with the 2 previous options.
  • Pablo678

    I have about ten computers in different locations based on different motherboards, so your problem is very familiar to me. Over the years I have developed a largely free backup system which satisfies me. It relies partly on hardware (not free), partly on software (free) and on careful organization. On-screen all my computers now look exactly the same and behave in exactly the same manner.

    Hardware: All computers have only one small hard drive, the smallest but fastest SSD I can find at the time, each formatted with a 32G primary partition. Anything remaining is left unused to speed up cloning. This drive contains only the system (XP in my case) and all registered programs but no portable programs. This drive is cloned as a backup (I use Acronis, but free cloning software is available from http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx)

    All data and portable programs are kept on external USB drives, one of which travels with me where ever I go. The new USB3 1TB drives are excellent for the purpose and if you buy or build a computer, you should make sure that it has USB3 ports.

    Software: Other than the cloning software for the system drive, no commercially or freely available software is used for backing up data. Everything is done with simple home-made batch programs for complete control over what is backed up and how it is backed up.

    Organization: The system depends on meticulous organization of the data, especially on the drive that travels from one computer to the next and which turns out to be the hub of the system (G:XFER on my system). The way I have organized the data will not suit everybody and this is something you have to work out for yourself over time. There should, however, be one folder on your XFER drive which contains the masters of all programs you regularly use so that each computer can be updated when the need arises.

    As for hard drives dying, you should, of course, have backups of your backups.

    Advantages:

    • Secure. If you catch a virus, your clone will get rid of it.
    • Off site backup storage.
    • As customizable as you can get.
    • Independent of bugs and "features" of supplied software.
    • Cheapest possible solution as far as hardware is concerned.
    • No other expenses.
    • Easily upgradable to exploit latest technology.
    • Does not rely on anyone's computer other than your own.
    • Faster than any other method.

    Disadvantages:

    • You have to learn a tiny bit of batch programming. Not much of a disadvantage.
    • Organizing your data does take time, often a lot of it. But it also saves a lot of time.

    • Related Question

    What files should be excluded from a complete Windows backup?
  • Questioner

    I'm starting to use CrashPlan to backup my Win 7 PC. I've got it writing to my external HD (for quick local restores) and to CrashPlan Central (for offsite storage). I'd like to backup my entire C:\ drive (the only partition) in a way that:

    1. Preserves all of my installed software and configuration, but
    2. Avoids backing up log files and other ephemeral / temporary files that are regenerated during normal operation of the OS.

    Which files and/or directories should I be excluding from backups? I'd like to make this a community wiki, so that we could all contribute towards a definitive list.

    Here's a list of regular expressions identifying the directories and files that CrashPlan excludes on Windows by default listed at http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/articles/admin_excludes:

    .*/(?:42|\d{8,})/(?:cp|~).*
(?i).*/CrashPlan.*/(?:cache|log|conf|manifest|upgrade)/.*
.*\.part
.*/iPhoto Library/iPod Photo Cache/.*
.*\.cprestoretmp.*
*\.rbf
:/Config\\.Msi.*
.*/Google/Chrome/.*cache.*
.*/Mozilla/Firefox/.*cache.*

.*\$RECYCLE\.BIN/.*
.*/System Volume Information/.*
.*/RECYCLER/.*
.*/I386.*
.*/pagefile.sys
.*/MSOCache.*
.*UsrClass\.dat\.LOG
.*UsrClass\.dat
.*/Temporary Internet Files/.*
(?i).*/ntuser.dat.*
.*/Local Settings/Temp.*
.*/AppData/Local/Temp.*
.*/AppData/Temp.*
.*/Windows/Temp.*
(?i).*/Microsoft.*/Windows/.*\.log
.*/Microsoft.*/Windows/Cookies.*
.*/Microsoft.*/RecoveryStore.*
(?i).:/Config\\.Msi.*
(?i).*\\.rbf
.*/Windows/Installer.*

    Other excludes:

    .*\.(class|obj)
.*/hiberfil.sys
(?i).*\.tmp
(?i).*/temp/
(?i).*/tmp/
.*Thumbs\.db
.*/Local Settings/History/
.*/NetHood/
.*/PrintHood/
.*/Cookies/
.*/Recent/
.*/SendTo/

    • Related Answers
  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    CrashPlan isn't really meant for the type of full-system backup you're describing. It's meant for backing up your data. Even if you were to come up with some sort of master list of non-ephemeral Windows files and back everything up completely, you still wouldn't actually be able to restore it on a fresh installation because Windows wouldn't allow you to replace system files and all the other files that are in use while Windows is running. It's also not going to play very well with the various DRM schemes that applications/games use.

    If you really want a full-system backup like you're describing, you're going to need to use another product based on disk images that supports bare-metal restore.

    Don't get me wrong. I love CrashPlan and use it for all the computers in our house. But you have to use it for what it was intended for which is preventing you from losing data, not applications and system configuration. If you have specific applications that you really don't want to have to re-configure on a fresh install, analyze them individually and figure out where their configuration settings are stored. Then back those files up explicitly. If you're lazy, backing up the AppData folder in your user profile will get you 99% of the way there.