Backup Desktop Files

Hi there. I'd like to ask for suggestions of any backup software, that can easily/simply backup any files and folders on my PC (W10)? I have tried using the backup software that is included in W10 but it is so slow to do, and I was hoping another backup software might be faster. My computer is very slow (even after two reformats, and disabling software from start up) with everything it does, so I was hoping to backup files/folders, ready for if I choose to purchase a new one. I have tried the Karen Replicator software, but found that this one doesn't backup complete folders.
Any suggestions/help will be appreciated.

 

There are numerous choices!

For local backup - I've been using FreeFileSync for years. It's pretty fast. And no need to close apps/files beforehand.

For cloud backup - I like Mega. You get 20GB free just for signing up. It's known for privacy/security - although my own private docs and spreadsheets, I password protect them first before backing up / uploading anyway.

 

You really need to identify what files must be backed up before choosing which backup system. Family photographs for instance are irreplaceable if lost but Windows and other software are easily replaced. The choice of backup systems is extensive and can get quite complicated but just to get you started I would highly recommend you look initially at the built-in File History. With this you just choose the folders you want backed up, for how long and where you want the backups stored and Windows will do the rest automatically. For this to work satisfactorily you must of course ensure that there is a drive permanently attached to the system with sufficient free space to store your backups. This feature rarely gets a mention but is by far the easiest way to get effective backup started.

 

Have you considered disk imaging software like Macrium Reflect? You can use it to backup the entire hard drive & can browse an image to recover individual files & folders if you wish. It will also save desktop files.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I have downloaded and tried the FreeFileSync software and tried to use it. The problem I am finding is that I can select a desktop folder to sync, and select the drive I want it to go to. But when I start the process it seems to be synchronizing the whole desktop folders. I even went through the help on their website, and thought I had followed their "basic usage", but it still does the same as my first attempt. I also see something about files going to the recycle bin, I'm not sure what that's all about. I must be doing something that isn't quite right, I just don't know what that could be.

 

Thank you for your reply. It really is just photographs/movies/music/PDF's/text files/etc, that I have saved over the years. I am not too concerned about Windows itself and software, because as you say, they're replaceable. I must admit to not knowing that there is a File History in Windows 10. I shall have a look into that.

 

Thanks for your reply. I had considered disk imaging, but I'm really not too concerned about doing images of the whole Windows system.

 

There are many good backup tools. It depends upon your needs and priorities. For example, whether you want something very simple with a nice GUI, or whether you want more options to configure things exactly as you want them, whether speed is important, whether you want logging, etc.

Personally, I like Microsoft's own Robocopy, which is free and included with Windows. There's no GUI, but you can create all the backup routines in a .bat file that you can edit when needed and right-click to run as Admin. It's powerful, incredibly configurable with loads of options, and can be very fast as you can set it to use multiple threads.

For something simple, some have been mentioned already, and there's also Microsoft's free SyncToy. It is now officially discontinued, but it works on Win10 and you can still find it to download it.

For full disaster recovery, use a disk imaging tool such as Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect.

 

1. FFS will sync only the folder(s) you selected. The default is to include all subfolders and files within. You can, however, exclude particular subfolders as well as particular files - either by specifying specifically or using 'wildcards'. You can type in the rules, or you can right click on the particular folder or file and choose exclude from the context menu.

2. FFS has different types of 'syncing'. For example, if you select "two way" between folders A and B - and you deleted a file from A, then FFS will delete same file from B, to keep both folders in sync. FFS gives you the choice of deleting files to the Recycle Bin or deleting them 'permanently'.

 

You asked about data backup, but I'd like to echo the recommendations above that you do a system backup as well. In my case, a system backup takes about 5 minutes to do and a full restore takes slightly less time. Imagine when something goes so wrong that you can't even boot to Windows at all. With Macrium (or other equivalents), you just boot into its rescue disk, click restore, and 5 minutes later, everything back to "just so" (depending on how recent your backup) -- or days of reinstalling and recustomizing not just Windows but also browser and all its extensions, plus all other apps and their recustomization?

My setup: nightly data backup (FFS), weekly cloud backup (Mega), periodic system backup (Macrium).

 

I suggest https://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.html or http://robomirror.sourceforge.net/