What's the best way to backup 50,000 files?

[OM]

Somehow... I've got 50,000 files in my folders.
What's the best way of backing these files up?
What I need: an incremental backup solution.

I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

I tried using so far that came with a new external hard drive I bought:
sloooow!

I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is, let me just
copy the files onto my new hard drive.

I've been here for 5 hours now.
It's still friggin copying files. : (

I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

The data itself is only about 10GB.

Thanks.


OM

 

[James Silverton]

Hello, OM!
You wrote on 23 Jan 2007 10:37:52 -0800:

O> I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
O> My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

O> I tried using so far that came with a new external hard
O> drive I bought: sloooow!

O> I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is,
O> let me just copy the files onto my new hard drive.

O> I've been here for 5 hours now.
O> It's still friggin copying files. : (

O> I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

O> The data itself is only about 10GB.

Real backup software will help. Dantz (now Emcinsignia)
Retrospect takes just over an hour to backup a 10GB disc to
another hard disc and there may be faster programs.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

 

[Jon LaBarge]

There is also Norton Ghost, which is not a bad idea to create a 1 to 1 image
of your hard drive and all configuration settings.

 

[Ron Martell]

Somehow... I've got 50,000 files in my folders.
What's the best way of backing these files up?
What I need: an incremental backup solution.

I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

I tried using so far that came with a new external hard drive I bought:
sloooow!

I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is, let me just
copy the files onto my new hard drive.

I've been here for 5 hours now.
It's still friggin copying files. : (

I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

The data itself is only about 10GB.

Acronis True Image will create a backup of your data and then
incrementally update it. http://www.acronis.com

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Somehow... I've got 50,000 files in my folders.
What's the best way of backing these files up?
What I need: an incremental backup solution.

There are many, and BackupPlus is one as long as the data output file does
not exceed 4 gig. This is a limitation of the ZIP format backup plus uses.

I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

I tried using so far that came with a new external hard drive I bought:
sloooow!

I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is, let me just
copy the files onto my new hard drive.

I've been here for 5 hours now.
It's still friggin copying files. : (

Wrong way to do it. In the first place, if there are any errors, the copy
utility will just give up and go away, with no record of where it stopped or
why. Use FileSync from FileWare for this instead.

Also note, if you were considering this, that copying boot files will not
make a disk bootable.

I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

The data itself is only about 10GB.

You need to be aware of the size handling limitations of any software you
use.

Disk imaging programs like Acronis TrueImage don't have such limitations and
can work very well.

HTH
-pk

 

[Val]

Another good backup program is Cobian
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
It's free and pretty easy to set up.

Val

 

[Enkidu]

Somehow... I've got 50,000 files in my folders.
What's the best way of backing these files up?
What I need: an incremental backup solution.

I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

I tried using so far that came with a new external hard drive I bought:
sloooow!

I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is, let me just
copy the files onto my new hard drive.

I've been here for 5 hours now.
It's still friggin copying files. : (

I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

The data itself is only about 10GB.

I would try and find out where the files are. It's possible that they
are Temporary Internet files, and if you clear them out using Explorer,
you may see an improvement. Any small files in the root or temp or tmp
directories?

Yes, the backup time is related to the number of files, so all the good
programs mentioned by others are likely to be slowwwww through no fault
of the programs.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Zilbandy]

Somehow... I've got 50,000 files in my folders.
What's the best way of backing these files up?
What I need: an incremental backup solution.

I tried Windows backup: this needs a floppy!
My laptop doesn't have a floppy. : (

I tried using so far that came with a new external hard drive I bought:
sloooow!

I thought... before I figure out what the best solution is, let me just
copy the files onto my new hard drive.

I've been here for 5 hours now.
It's still friggin copying files. : (

I assume the problem is to do with the number of files?

The problem has to do with the software you are using to do your
backups. I use Acronis True Image Home v.10 with an external USB2 hard
drive and I can make a complete backup image of my c drive in under 13
minutes. That's 14.7 gbytes of data in over 76,000 files. True Image
makes image backups really fast, especially the newest version 10.
Plus, you can restore single files from the image if you want to.