frapper Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I'm looking for a basic file back-up app that's simple, free, and hopefully has a wizard. This is for an 85 year old man who purchased a new computer and needs to back up his entire C: partition onto his Seagate FreeAgent external USB drive. I live 'up north' and he lives in Florida, otherwise I'd make a house call. No compression needed. I just want a mirror of all his files on the external.I use Syncback for my drives, but the freeware version doesn't include a wizard for making backup profiles. I think he'd get lost in the profile jungle. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frapper Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 (edited) Edited April 28, 2011 by frapper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I went on a search and ended up at the wikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_softwareafter looking through the columns "windows" "GUI" and "last updated" the list is pretty short.I remember Tweaker talked about Cobianhttp://download.cnet.com/Cobian-Backup/300...4-10071828.htmlit mentions easy for a novice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I'm looking for a basic file back-up app that's simple, free, and hopefully has a wizard. This is for an 85 year old man who purchased a new computer and needs to back up his entire C: partition onto his Seagate FreeAgent external USB drive. I live 'up north' and he lives in Florida, otherwise I'd make a house call. No compression needed. I just want a mirror of all his files on the external.I use Syncback for my drives, but the freeware version doesn't include a wizard for making backup profiles. I think he'd get lost in the profile jungle. Thanks!What's wrong with using Windows 7 backup? I've never understood why some people feel compelled to make a byte for byte copy of their entire C: drive. To me it's a waste of good disk space considering there's so many good alternatives out there. (both paid-for and freeware applications). If he just bought a new computer, the built in backup feature included with Windows 7 is quite capable and probably will be "simple" enough for your friend to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Hello,Don't the Seagate external hard disk drives come with backup software on them that you can install to the host computer?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Tushman, the gentleman in question has an XP computer with his files. Frapper is trying to help him with an easy to use backup so he can access those files from his new windows 7 computer.Most of us would just locate the files and drag and drop what we want into an external drive; unfortunately, this gentleman can manage to botch up simple instructions so frapper wants something idiot proof.Goretsky, maybe the Seagate backup software would work but frapper needs to test it to see how it works so he can prevent some errors when the gentleman clicks on the wrong thing (and from past experience, we know if there is a way to do something incorrectly, he will choose it). Frapper doesn't own a Seagate external drive and neither do I so we can't try it and see what sort of problems the gentleman can get into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frapper Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Yes, it's XP. And apparently the Seagate does come with backup software that he's miraculously found and it already using it! I told him to just do a straight copy/backup. No compression so the files are easily accessible. Thanks for the ideas, guys. Appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Hallelujiah! No need for us to install Cobian and test it out! I'm sure you are breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frapper Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Hallelujiah! No need for us to install Cobian and test it out! I'm sure you are breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning.And planning the next 99 steps. I don't think I want to be a puppeteer when I grow up. That's what I feel like doing this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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