How to backup to a network drive?

[NtTech]

Hello. I have a NAS drive on my network and the built in backup software is very bloated, slow and just doesn't really work too well. Are there any good free network backup programs for Windows?


(If it is for Linux and Windows that would be even better )

 

[carnageX]

You could setup a backup copy batch or PowerShell script (xcopy or robocopy for Windows; can't remember what the Linux equivalent is) that runs on a schedule from a server.

 

[NtTech]

Are there any other alternatives, I don't mean to be picky but an incremental backup (something similar to Time Machine would be great). If I did a complete backup daily the drive would fill up very quickly.

 

[carnageX]

You can look into SyncToy, which will only backup changed files. Creating an scheduled backup will require you to setup a task in Task Scheduler: Schedule SyncToy to Run Automatically With Task Scheduler in Windows 7

You can set it up as "echo only", which will only backup from NAS -> backup location rather than sync (changes both directions).

 

[NtTech]

Thanks a bunch! I set it up so SyncToy will do hourly incremental backups. Also is there a program similar to SyncToy for Linux?

 

[Lexluethar]

Robocopy does incremental copies. It will scan all files, but will only copy new data.

 

[carnageX]

Robocopy does incremental copies. It will scan all files, but will only copy new data.

Couldn't remember if robocopy did that or not.

 

[NtTech]

Thank you, I will look into that also.

 

[Lexluethar]

It also supports multi-threading which is nice. My pain point with Robocopy is it scans all items no matter what (so if you are talking millions of items on a drive it takes a long time), but it is free, does multi-threading and has a few switches to help customize the copy.

 

[carnageX]

It also supports multi-threading which is nice. My pain point with Robocopy is it scans all items no matter what (so if you are talking millions of items on a drive it takes a long time), but it is free, does multi-threading and has a few switches to help customize the copy.

I bet SyncToy is just a front-end GUI for robocopy .