Can somebody please explain why subsequent backups take so long. In other words, I originally backed up my "my documents" folder by dragging and droping it to my external hard drive. It took about 15 minutes. I backed it up the next day and it took about 12 minutes. I only added one small text file from one day to the next. Is there something I am doing wrong or is this just the way it is? I want to back up daily. Thank you in advance. Frank
Backup Question?
- Thread starter fmonte
- Start date
Are you overwriting the old files? If yes, then that's why.
I am not sure what you mean by overwrite. All I can tell you is when I drag the folder to my external drive on the subsequent day a pop up message occurs that says: Confirm Folder replacement. This folder already contains a folder named "My documents". If the files in the existing flolder have the same name as files in the folder you are moving or copying, they will be replaced. Do you still want to move or copy the folder? There are 4 choices: Yes, Yes to all, No and cancel. I click on Yes to all. Thank you. Frank
You're therefore overwriting all the original files, so it's copying and overwriting all the files in that folder. If you wana just add newly modified files, sort them by date last modified and copy just the recently modified files.
As Voyagerfan99 says! If you really want to do it manually, you can also look for changed files with the "A" attribute (files that have not been archived) and copy those only. After archiving, the attribute needs to be reset. Proper backup software will do that for you automatically.
I would suggest you get some backup software. There's lots of free stuff out there. I got Retrospect with my WD external drive. Retrospect is a pig to understand but is excellent in use. I can do an incremental backup for a whole drive but I can also configure a little script to backup only changed files in my most used folders into the same backup set, and have a record of previous versions of files. Your cake and eat it too in the shortest possible time.
Possible backup strategies depend on what software you are using and how you are backing up. There are many options but here are a few:
Simple overwrite. If you have some folders or files you want to save and overwrite what is in your backup set, that can be quick but you have no record of the earlier version.
Incremental backup: If you are backing up large drives, you may want to only save changes into the backup set. In order to do that, the software has to compare the dates or attributes of every file before it knows which is a newer version. This should be quicker than the simple overwrite since the software does a quick scan of file attributes and then only overwrites the changed files.
Incremental or normal backup with previous versions: The software not only stores the latest version of any file but previous versions too. A larger backup set.
I would suggest you get some backup software. There's lots of free stuff out there. I got Retrospect with my WD external drive. Retrospect is a pig to understand but is excellent in use. I can do an incremental backup for a whole drive but I can also configure a little script to backup only changed files in my most used folders into the same backup set, and have a record of previous versions of files. Your cake and eat it too in the shortest possible time.
Possible backup strategies depend on what software you are using and how you are backing up. There are many options but here are a few:
Simple overwrite. If you have some folders or files you want to save and overwrite what is in your backup set, that can be quick but you have no record of the earlier version.
Incremental backup: If you are backing up large drives, you may want to only save changes into the backup set. In order to do that, the software has to compare the dates or attributes of every file before it knows which is a newer version. This should be quicker than the simple overwrite since the software does a quick scan of file attributes and then only overwrites the changed files.
Incremental or normal backup with previous versions: The software not only stores the latest version of any file but previous versions too. A larger backup set.
I use syncback. You just set it up and it does everything for you. Lots of options, incremental backup is also an option.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/
http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/
The free version looks OK but you get a lot more neat functionality with the pay versions (naturally, they make it look that way too).
The first item on their comparison list refers to free RAM limiting size of backup set. Have you found that comes into play?
I got the impression it was referring to the number of files allowed in the set, not their sizes. You clearly have not had issues!