When I set up what is now my new PC from scratch, I also had in mind to solve something for which I never found the time. Automatic backups.
I thought about getting a NAS, but the entry-level models from the most popular brands (QNAP and Synology) are not cheap and are low on RAM and processor, and to be used only for backups is not worth the investment.
This was something that needed to be solved. As time went by, I found myself accumulating very old discs that I had to retire because the risk of them breaking was increasing.
And that day has come, one of the disks is already asking for repair every time it is connected, indicating that it has two more days left. It's time to copy the content and move it to a new disk.
To stop using all these disks for sensitive things I have ordered a 4TB mechanical disk, mostly because it is the cheapest storage. Specifically a Western Digital Red Plus 4TB NAS Internal 3.5" - 5400 RPM SATA Class 6 GB/s, CMR, 256MB Cache. The model number is WD49EFPX-SPC6CN0.
The choice of this model is because, being a 5400 RPM disk, designed for continuous use in a NAS, it is quieter, heats up less and withstands more and better the battle of constant access, writing and reading. The new disk will work permanently in aDocking Station(which also clones disks) as an external disk or will be connected when necessary.
The idea is to make two types of automatic copies. An incremental one (where nothing is deleted when automatic copies are made) and another one where what is deleted from the computer is manually deleted from the disk or vice versa.
The first is for the battle to accumulate all the daily work to manually delete the leftovers at the end of the day and the second to have an accurate up-to-date copy without leftover rubbish.
FreeFileSync
For this I tried FreeFileSync. Although it is not a very user-friendly software and I had to go through their tutorials, and others on Youtube, as well as searching in their forum for some specific things, I was finally able to get it configured as I wanted.
FreeFileSync is a folder comparison and synchronisation software that creates and manages backups. Instead of copying every file every time, FreeFileSync determines the differences between a source folder and a destination folder and transfers only the minimum amount of data necessary. FreeFileSync is open source software, available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It has a free version with all the main functions and a donated version with some additional features.
The most interesting thing is that you can decide how automatic copies are made and set up different types to run at the same time.
Here are the screenshots of the two examples of copies I am using.
The first is incremental. It is the "battle" copy and is the most secure. Everything I keep on the desktop is sent to a folder on the backup disk and will remain there until it is manually deleted. At the end of the day I clean up the desktop and the backup folder where those files were copied to.
The second is bidirectional. As the name suggests, everything saved inside the folders you have selected will be copied to a folder of the same name (previously created) on the backup disk, and everything deleted in either place will be deleted in both folders. The deletion is not final, the files are moved to the recycle bin.
Once you have configured the types of copies you need (I advise you to play around with test file folders that you can delete without fear), the RealTimeSync configuration files are saved for each task.
Then just type shell:startup in the file explorer and paste the two RealTimeSync configuration files there to run at startup.
To make sure it is working as it should, the best thing to do is to pin the icons to the taskbar. If they show red, it is doing its copying work and if they show grey, the destination disk was not found or is not connected, so you will need to connect it.
If you have enough space of your own on an online server, you can set it up to make copies via SFTP or even store them on Google Drive.
*This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.
