That will download the current version of the FreeFileSync Windows Setup program. Instead click where it says 'Download FreeFileSync #.# Windows': īe careful, sometimes there ads on the page with big buttons that look like you should click on them. Go to the FreeFileSync Download page, but be careful, see below. In 2018 I started using FreeFileSync which has many advantages (see the link at the bottom for the reasons I like it). I recommend at least weekly as well as just after downloading new pictures from a camera (before you format the camera card).įor 12 or more years I had been using a Microsoft program called SyncToy. Because they're incremental (you only backup files that are new or have changed) the backups are very quick so you should do them frequently. To avoid loosing them when it happens you need to make frequent incremental backups. As I said, I'm going to have to read up on them.The hard drive on your computer contains your personal documents and pictures, it IS GOING TO FAIL, it's just a question of when. I hope that makes sense and that I have not made a lot of false assumptions about how rsync snapshots work. Depending on how short a delay you choose for the RealTimeSync-triggered sync, every version of a file you save can be automatically backed up, not just the most recently saved version at the end of each period of x hours. Accordingly, it allows you to recover from screw-ups on a much more granular basis. The backup is triggered not by the passage of an arbitrary amount of time but rather by the sync itself (which itself is triggered, with a user-configurable delay, by RealTimeSync as soon as it detects that a folder it's monitoring has changed). In the interim, I can say that one thing I like about FreeFileSync/RealTimeSync is that it can be set up to make an age- and/or number-capped archive of time-stamped backups of files that are overwritten or deleted by a sync. *I'm also going to look into Odroid's current offerings. When I'm over the crunch, I'm going to try to find out more about rsync snapshots* - and again, I know next to nothing about rsync - and will follow up with a reply that isn't too full of extraneous.

I've really appreciated your replies but have been super-busy since my original post.

Freefilesync user manual