Recommended local constant back-up?

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LDFerguson

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Wondering if anyone can recommend a backup program that will constantly back up data from my PC onto a local back-up drive?

My idea would be that I would make an initial back-up copy of the relevant files, e.g. My Documents and all e-mail in Outlook, then leave the external drive plugged in whenever the PC is in use. It would automatically back up any changes to the specified files / folders, as distinct from my having to manually back up at regular intervals.

I think Apple have such a set-up, which is wireless. Anything similar for a PC with Windows XP?

I'm reluctant to use online back-up due to the sensitive nature of some of the data I hold.

Thanks.
 
You can schedule Window’s built-in backup utility (or use something like SyncBack) to do it automatically once a day, if that's frequent enough? Tutorials [broken link removed] and here (after you've made your initial backup, you'd set it to perform a daily 'incremental' backup, i.e. one that just updates anything that's changed).

I don't know of any free utility that you can schedule to run more frequently than that.
 
I think DrMoriarity has it right, except to say that many external hard drives come with backup utilities on a hidden partition on the hard drive.
Some of these utilities allow you to encrypt the data, but that's usually a manual operation.
Other utilities allow for automated incremental backups.
I think some will allow you to specify an automatic backup when shutting down, but I'm not certain of this.

One other thing you should consider is the security of your information.
Some backup solutions have encryption facilities hard wired into their motherboards and allow for "transparent" encryption, i.e. once you're logged on to your computer, you can simply backup data without worrying about the encryption.
Like most things you have too research what's right for you, but if data security and retention is your goal, you need to look at this.
The reason is that while the data on your computer is protected to some degree by your login password, the data on an external hard drive is not usually so protected.

Which brings me to the hard drive itself.
I have spoken to a data retrieval company and they suggest discrete encrypted containiners as opposed to whole disk encryption.
One reason for this is that encrypting the whole disc can in theory cause problems if some data becomes corrupted, because of the way encryption writes data back to the disk.
The other reason is that the procedure to recover from a corrupted encryption header is difficult enough without having to do so before you can access the HD - a lot of planning is needed to prepare for this.
Having the data encrypted in pockets on the hard drive means it is protected within the operating system but the entire system is otherwise unchanged.
This leaves the swap file as a source of unencrypted data should the laptop be stolen.
However whole disk encryption deals with this, taking the risks above into account.

HTH

ONQ.
 
LDFerguson said:
... I think Apple have such a set-up, which is wireless ...
Click to expand...
This is Apple's Time Machine / Time Capsule combination which after some teething problems has settled down to work well. Time Machine is built into the OS, Time Capsule is the add-on.

March 2009 review here - http://gizmodo.com/5170096/apple-time-capsule-review
LDFerguson said:
... Anything similar for a PC with Windows XP? ...
Click to expand...
I have been unable to locate anything similar for Windoze but I acknowledge my Windoze 7 know-how is zero.
 
Many thanks all. It's somewhat humbling to be asking basic questions on Askaboutmoney. :) But the level of knowledge that others have and are willing to share is great.

I've come across a hard drive that appears to feature encryption and in-built software as suggested above. Western Digital My Passport Elite.

Anyone got any hand-on experience of this device and its software?
 
Vaguely disturbing that the reviewer considers a small grey box sexy, but whatever does it for you, I suppose. Maybe his idea of an orgy would be to be locked in [broken link removed]. :)
 
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