File copying software to do this kind of work… in Windows 7 32 bit

Question

I need a software (Windows 7 32bit) to help me in this process:

1. I have my documents, music, video clips, movies, pictures in my hard disk. These will not be scattered around the system. But will be inside C:\Senthil\

2. At the end of every week, I want to plug in an external hard disk and run a software that should make sure whatever is inside C:\Senthil\ is also present in the external disk. Files deleted from C:\Senthil\ should be deleted there, and new files should be copied etc... at the end of the process, every bit inside the source folder in my internal disk should be inside my external disk.

A couple of important requirements and points:

• I do NOT need multiple versions or historic versions. I don't need the previous versions of my files. I only want the latest copy to be present in my "backup".

• Incremental backup makes sense. If files were not touched since the last backup, it need not copy.

• The size of my folder will run into GBs and in a year or two will go into TBs. But I will make sure the size of the external HDD is equal to or bigger than my source folder.

• I do not want it to run automatically because when I accidentally delete a file in my source, it will delete the one in the backup (I know this is why we have versioning facilities). I just want to be able to run it manually so that I am in control of when the backup is made and what is backed up. I should be able to pick something from the backup and restore it to the source folder in the above situation.

Is there any software that will let me do exactly this?

Answer 1

In a Windows environment, I would look into Synctoy available from Microsoft. It allows 2 folders to be synchronized manually.

Answer 2

Use robocopy it is included in Windows 7. Microsoft Technet inclues an example of what you are doing