Whoosh said:
I notice that Windows Backup, Acronis and others I've used dump all my
folders that I'm backing up into one proprietary folder of that software's
design. Is there a backup program that just mirrors the folders and can
do it incrementally so it only touches things that have been modified
since the last backup? I don't care about compression. I want to see the
mirror myself to check things myself.
Whoosh:
You might want to look into the Casper 5 disk-cloning program, one that we
highly recommend to many PC users as a comprehensive backup program.
Note that the Casper program is a disk-cloning, not a disk-imaging program.
As such it is designed to create a precise copy of one's "source" HDD - a
mirror if you will - with all the data immediately accessible on the
"destination" HDD, i.e., the recipient of the cloned contents of the source
disk. For all practical purposes it creates a "snapshot" of the disk it has
cloned.
The significant advantage of the Casper program (in our view) is its rather
remarkable ability to create "incremental clones", using what Casper refers
to as its "SmartClone" technology. Understand that the "incremental clone"
is a complete clone of the source disk. The result of this incremental clone
process is that it takes the user only a fraction of the time to create
subsequent clones of the source HDD than it would otherwise take using the
typical disk-cloning methodology.
Since the program has this unique capability (at least in our experience as
compared with other disk-cloning programs) of recognizing *only* the change
in data that has occurred from its last disk-cloning operation it will
proceed to "do its work" on that basis.
The program is designed to be used on a routine, frequent basis. Hopefully
the PC user will invoke the program on no less than a weekly basis (or even
more frequently) so as to continually maintain an up-to-date comprehensive
backup of his/her system. When the program is used in this fashion the
disk-cloning backup operation takes only a fraction of the time to complete
the operation as compared with other disk-cloning disk-imaging programs.
Bear in mind that this "incremental cloning" process we speak of results in
a *complete* clone of the source disk, not a mere incremental "file".
So you can see what a valuable incentive this is for users to systematically
& routinely backup their systems with the Casper 5 program - knowing that
the expenditure of time to complete the disk-cloning operation will be
relatively slight. Surely this is a strong incentive for a user to maintain
his/her complete system in a reasonably up-to-date fashion. Obviously the
amount of time it will take to complete this "incremental" disk-cloning
operation with Casper will be dependent upon the total volume of data being
cloned as well as the additions, deletions, configuration changes, etc. that
had been made since the previous disk-cloning operation. So the user is
encouraged to perform these disk-cloning operations (either manually or on a
scheduled basis if desired) on a relatively frequent basis since by doing so
the expenditure of time in completing the operation will be relatively
trifling.
Again, keep in mind that the recipient of the clone - the destination HDD -
will be a precise copy of the source HDD with all its data immediately
accessible in exactly the same way one would access data from their source
HDD - their day-to-day working HDD in most cases. And the destination HDD,
should it be an internal HDD or installed as a internal HDD from an exterior
enclosure will be immediately bootable & functional without the need of any
"recovery" process.
I don't know if this is the type of backup program you're seeking. In any
event Casper has a trial version (somewhat crippled) available at...
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/
so you may want to give it a try.
Anna
