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I'm looking for a simple backup/revision software that will monitor a folder for new changes and make a backup of newly modified files? I have a folder with some text files, a few Word/Excel files and I'd like to keep backup files of them when they're modified. (It's no more than 50 mb).

I'd like what Dropbox does but just locally (not to be stored on the cloud). Thank you.

Edit: I'm on Windows XP. And I'm looking for a freeware app, if possible.

4 Answers 4

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For a simple solution you could:

1) run rsync out of a cron job on a regular basis.

2) use a version control system (like 'git' or 'svn') to track the files in the directory and check them in, which manages the version history well.

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  • I'm on XP. I don't really want to bother with checking in files. Dropbox does exactly what I want, but I don't want to store anything online.
    – Gabe
    Feb 24, 2011 at 16:14
  • Ah, you didn't specify XP in your original post. Feb 24, 2011 at 16:43
  • rsync would still work, btw, but it's a bit harder to automated on a regular schedule on XP. Feb 24, 2011 at 16:43
  • @WesHardaker Does rsync keep track of a folder's revision history (and does it make it possible to revert a folder to a previous version)? Oct 28, 2012 at 20:26
  • rsync doesn't, no, but that's what bullet #2 covered: how to do backups, etc, using a version control system. Oct 29, 2012 at 13:53
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Microsoft has a free utility called SyncToy that's good for this sort of thing.

It can easily be scheduled to run at regular intervals with the system's Task Scheduler.

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  • @Gabriel: FWIW, you can use SyncToy and Dropbox together in creative ways to implement a customized hybrid local+cloud backup strategy.
    – martineau
    Feb 25, 2011 at 11:38
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To answer my own question, I've found FileHamster to be very useful. It's commercial now but there's a older version out there that is free.

Edit: I got tired of the nagging messages on FileHamster and found AutoVer as a free alternative. The developer has recently returned to continue development of the project, with the possibility of making it open-source.

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rdiff-backup you can use as a regular copy (to a local disk) or to a server. It copies only deltas (as rsync), but keeps versions with changes

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