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I use the built in backup utility for Windows 7 because it's automated and flexible enough to allow me to schedule a daily shadow copy backup of particular files and folders directly to a separate internal RAID 0 array (2 x 1TB). It's also lightweight and stays out of the way.

For off-site backup purposes, each week I copy the contents of the internal backup from the RAID 0 array to an external 1 TB drive. I then store move this drive to a different building.

The copy from the internal backup to the external backup typically works like this:

  1. mount and erase contents of external drive
  2. highlight "file" on internal drive, hit CTRL+C
  3. CTRL+V on root directory of external drive

Is there a better way to synchronize? Microsoft's SyncToy application does a pitiful job, and often leaves the folders not truly synchronized... which completely defeats the ability to use the backup's restore feature.

Steven Pickles
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  • I actually have a NAS that I backup my servers to. The size of one of the backups (legacy) uses Acronis and is 60GB. I enabled FTP on the server and use a batch file to FTP it over to the NAS. For smaller files I use Robocopy and good old XCOPY in DOS. Why not just do a separate scheduled backup to the external drive? – Travis Jun 26 '13 at 14:59
  • How many systems are we talking about here? Do we need network backup? What kind of security? – Journeyman Geek Jun 26 '13 at 15:01
  • @Travis - More than one scheduled backup is not an option using the built in Windows 7 backup utility. – Steven Pickles Jun 26 '13 at 16:36
  • @JourneymanGeek - This is just one system. Network backup is an option, but the duplication issue still remains. The external drive is whole-drive encrypted using TrueCrypt. – Steven Pickles Jun 26 '13 at 16:37

2 Answers2

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You can target an external device with Windows Backup. At our company we use 2 external drives for off-site backups. One stays connected to the NAS device, and other is off site or in a firebox. Every day they get swapped after the backup finishes.

Nathan C
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Why don't you just use wbadmin cli to create another scheduled task backup job exclusively for the external drive? Schedule it to run the day you typically move the external drive to the different building (assuming you don't want to go a completely different route).

Personally, I'd use MKSBackup found here: http://www.magikmon.com/mksbackup/wbadmin.en.html and set it up to schedule the job weekly to the external drive with email notifications to you that it worked. That way you'll know when you unplug the drive that the weekly backup is on it.

Hope that helps.

TheCleaner
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