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Any recommendations for free software backup programs that work on Windows? (beehaw.org)

submitted 10 months ago by thestarfraction@beehaw.org to c/foss@beehaw.org

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Anyone know of any user friendly, FOSS, backup programs that work on Windows? If they were cross-platform that would be a bonus. Asking for a friend (no really, a family member)

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[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Free but not open-source, Microsoft's own SyncToy. Used it for years to do weekly backups to SD cards. You can set multiple source/target combos and run one or all with a button thereafter.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't trust SD cards with being backups. Data retention on Flash is a finicky issue, and SD cards are the worst of them all. Even SSDs have been known to suddenly lose their data when not powered on for some time. HDDs and DVD-Rs still have the best retention rates... but still don't forget to follow 3-2-1.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fair points, but the question was about software.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

True. On the software side, SyncToy seems to have been abandoned in 2021. Sounds like a reasonable candidate to get picked up by PowerToys, but who knows.

What would be the current equivalent, FreeFileSync?

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago

Surely it's available from somewhere reputable still ... not like it was getting frequent updates before 2021. I was using it through May, when I switched to KDE, so I never looked into alternatives after that. Oh, well. I tried. 😁