Hard drive backup clone

[becom]

I have a customer who has an SSD drive for windows 8.1 and a 2 tb hard drive for data. he wants to clone the data hard drive to keep a backup. I tried synctoy and i found it would not back up some directories as the were libraries move from windows 8 like My Documents My pictures ect. as well as his PST folder. i thought this was because they are open or in use while trying to be synced. Any suggestions on a different piece of software to try...

 

[Vicenarian]

"Clone" as in a drive image? Acronis True Image?

If you just want a file sync, try freefilesync or SyncBack SE

 

[becom]

i will check them out you tried either one
?

 

[Kwan37]

Paragon has some programs for this but there are many solutions out there.

 

[Jonathan]

Cobian backup

 

[Markverhyden]

Syncing is not the same as cloning. Not even remotely. The closest you can get with the two features is something like Windows Storage Server/Home Server. I have not tested a recovery recently but an earlier version of Home Server supported running a recovery that was up to date (relatively speaking).

Maybe some of the third party backup apps support that same feature but I have not looked into them.

 

[todd evans]

I have a customer who has an SSD drive for windows 8.1 and a 2 tb hard drive for data. he wants to clone the data hard drive to keep a backup. I tried synctoy and i found it would not back up some directories as the were libraries move from windows 8 like My Documents My pictures ect. as well as his PST folder. i thought this was because they are open or in use while trying to be synced. Any suggestions on a different piece of software to try...

is this for the purposes of keeping a bootable copy as a back up? If not jsut get something like teracopy and select the user folder (unhiding the hidden folders) and include the hidden folder where the outlook files are being stored. If it doesn't need to be bootable then this will work. Don't forget the auto complete file for outlook. Other wise Acronis has a decent cloning tool

 

[atlanticjim]

It is not clear the data protection level you are seeking but if it is for HDD failure then RAID1. If the machine does not support RAID then CrashPlan with a second drive will work well. If it is for protection from local disaster then CrashPlan with either a backup target drive on or off network. Cloud backup is also available. Prices are reasonable, CrashPlan emails you and or the client reports of the status of the backups. I have been using it for years and it is my go-to solution.

 

[alex32165]

Partition Magic has a very good disk clone wizard. Just insert a destination drive, boot to the disk, pick a source drive, run the wizard and BOOM!

 

[ThanatosOfOne]

Macrium free will do this, and you can even schedule the job in a batch file if you like. I have done it for clients before.

 

[altrenda]

Judging by the responses you have so far, 2 things come to mind.

1 Your question is not clear in what you are trying to do, "he wants to clone the data hard drive to keep a backup." but then you talk about Sync toy, which isn't really a clone or a backup tool, so do you want a sync, a clone or just an automatic backup of the data drive?

2. There are lots of options and everyone seems to have their favorite


"If you just want a file sync, try freefilesync or SyncBack SE"

"Paragon has some programs for this but there are many solutions out there."

"Cobian backup"

"Syncing is not the same as cloning. Not even remotely. The closest you can get with the two features is something like Windows Storage Server/Home Server."

"is this for the purposes of keeping a bootable copy as a back up? If not just get something like teracopy.....Other wise Acronis has a decent cloning tool"

"It is not clear the data protection level you are seeking but if it is for HDD failure then RAID1.... If it is for protection from local disaster then CrashPlan"

"Partition Magic has a very good disk clone wizard."

"Macrium free will do this"

 

[Gary Rockliff]

Just get a paid version of Second Copy and copy the folders he wants to a external drive. The best part about this program is that the copy is in the same folder tree has the local drive, no propriety file extensions to worry about. Best backup program I used.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Just get a paid version of Second Copy....

Or Bvckup. The Beta is free and works great.