IHEARTNY1

I currently have a home laptop, a work laptop and will get a Netbook soon.
I have a 120GB USB harddrive and what I normally do is just drap and drop all the files on the 2 laptops into the USB harddrive.

However this takes a long time and also you tend to miss things.

I don't have that much data and the most space taking ones are photos.

Just wondering what solution/application will you guys recommend to manage this backup issue? Is there some incremental solution available.
Ideally it will be great if I can just plug in my USB harddrive into each laptop and it automatically syncs and backups the data (so I can use the files interchangably on each laptop).

kiwiox14

Have you tried Synctoy from Microsoft. Not used it for multiple devices but works great for a single laptop.

Easy to configure to back up particular directories and only backs upo new and changed files substantially reducing backup time.

JadedTraveler

if you search for Backup on here, there are lot of opinions on the various methods.

See 3rd post here for my opinion: Third party XP/Visa Backup software.

And a longer discussion here: Best method to back up a laptop?.

abfab

Memeo Backup will certainly do this. After your initial backup to USB drive, it keeps track of all your files that have changed or been added when the backup drive is disconnected, and then automatically backs them up whenever you plug in your USB drive in, without you having to do anything.

I got a copy free with my Seagate Freeagent USB drive, but it's available to buy and has a 30day free trial.

Im sure there are plenty of other backup programs with similar functionality, but I think its a good recommendation for Memeo that Seagate include it with some of their drives.

IHEARTNY1

Thanks.

From an admin point of view, do I need to wipe out my USB drive and start again or the software can do a sync and work out what is on the drive and what is on the laptop.
When you edit a file on the drive will the application alert you when you plug it back to the laptop?

abfab

I don't know the detailed inner workings of Memeo as I don't currently have it installed, but Im pretty certain you don't have to wipe the USB drive of existing data for Memeo to work.

Im pretty sure you can have backups of more than one computer on the USB drive without them interfering with each other.

You do however have to let Memeo initially do a complete new backup of all the data on your laptop so that it can then keep proper track all your files, and it won't recognise any existing files on the USB drive that were backed up by another method.

You can also choose exactly which folders on your laptop that you want to be backed up and tracked. It doesn't have to backup everything on your computer.

I think the memeo application does tell you how many files are currently waiting to be backed up so that you can decide when to plug your USB drive in.

redbeard911

I use a Western Digital Passport. You can drag and drop, or let the software manage the encrypted data. It keeps separate profiles for different computers. I use it for my work laptop and home desktop.

wdwright

If backups are taking a long time, it is because you are backing up all your files every time, rather than backing up just the changed stuff. I don't like incremental backups that just backup the changes but keep them separately so that you have to look in many places to reassemble the original. The best solution is synchronization software that makes the folder(s) on your backup device identical to the original folders.

When setting up data backups, the first thing to do is to organize all your data files under one folder. For many users this can be your My Documents folder. Or you can create a C:\Data folder and put all your stuff there. In either instance, you create subfolders that hold the data produced by your different programs (C:\Data\Quickbooks, C:\Data\Spreadsheets, C:\Data\ Music, etc. The reason that you are doing this is so that you have only one folder to backup (with its subfolders) and you know that it contains all the data that you have.

When you run synchronization software in a backup mode, it asks "What is different between the original folder and the backup folder" and then copies only what needs to be changed to make them identical. This is a much faster backup procedure. Plus, when you need to restore a file, you just go find it on the backup device and it is right where you thought it would be.

Microsoft's free SyncToy software mentioned in a previous post appears to do this. The synchronization software that I personally use is the $39.95 Synchromagic. I use Synchromagic because I need automated backups on multiple PCs that will send me emails if anything goes wrong. I'd try the SyncToy software to see if satisfies your needs.

To use synchronization software, you would load it on both notebooks. You would then connect the external drive and run the software. It would then synchronize the folder on the external drive with the folder on the notebook