# Looking for some kind of backup/copying program

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 24, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781 "2011-01-24T13:49:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/1 "2011-01-24T13:49:29Z")

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I’ve got two external drives, one of which should be a mirror of the other. It is currently about a month behind the changes of the other drive (in other words, there’s a month’s worth of data more on one drive), so what I’d like is a program that can compare all files on both drives, and whatever’s missing from the one must be copied.  
Any programs that can do this? I’m sure if I’d thought of this from the start it wouldn’t be a problem but now it might be… I really don’t want to go through hundreds of folders manually.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/2 "2011-01-24T14:14:04Z")

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Keeps my drives properly BU’d without much effort:  
[http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html](http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html)

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**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/3 "2011-01-24T14:33:36Z")

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I use the freeware [SyncBack.](http://download.cnet.com/SyncBack-Freeware/3000-2242_4-10413802.html)

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**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/4 "2011-01-24T16:09:57Z")

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For Mac, use [Carbon Copy Cloner.](http://www.bombich.com/)

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**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/5 "2011-01-24T16:26:43Z")

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Microsoft also has synctoy which serves me well when dealing with USB thumbdrives.

Note that if the drive you are backing up is the main system drive with the OS, and you actually want to keep your OS and programs safe, you’ll need something more robust like Acronis’s backup software.

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/6 "2011-01-24T16:33:32Z")

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I use [Goodsync](http://www.goodsync.com/) myself. It’s easy to set up and very powerful. I’ve found it to be more reliable and flexible than Synctoy.

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**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-some-kind-of-backup-copying-program/568781/7 "2011-01-24T16:48:50Z")

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I use [Rebit](http://rebit.com/).

Beware of Synctoy. I used it for a while then, much to my dismay, I found it did not copy all the hierarchical levels of folders. Sometimes folders within folders would be empty in the copied location. This freaked me out, as I was archiving my artwork. I guess there’s a reason it’s so fast.