Which backup/sync software for me?

Question

Preferably free (preferably also for commercial use, but I guess I can live without that; home has priority over work; it's just that I like to use the same tools at both if I can).

Backup to an external USB 3 hard drive at home, but might also be over LAN at work (I'd prefer a home solution if a non-LAN solution offers better features/speed). I will never, ever, ever backup to the cloud - at most just a very local LAN on the same router.

1. I don't need encryption, Zip or other packing or differential/incremental backup.

2. I do need to mirror file deletion & renaming. The backup should be a file for file mirror of the source directory tree.

3. MUST HAVE: I do need scheduling, with the ability to auto-name the back up directories (e.g., daily backup - Mon/Tue... or Week 1, 2, 3 .. or Month - Jan/Feb...)

4. It would be nice to be able to exclude certain file types, which I define.

5. Copying of locked/open files is nice bonus.

6. Speed is a great bonus.

I am currently using Karen's Replicator which is the only program I know that can handle auto naming of backups, but it is showing its age (and, more importantly, does not tun as a service), so I am looking for an alternative. So far, Google is not my friend. Any suggestions?

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[Update] For US $19.95, Backupv2 seems prefect, and I can get the naming that I want with this and this solutions.

Select a pair of folders and Bvckup 2 will make sure that one stays an exact copy of the other. It is light, uncomplicated and really well designed. It is also incredibly fast.

Can anyone offer anything better for free? If not, I hope that this question will have helped others.

Answer 1

If anyone has similar requirements, I can highly recommend FreeFileSync.

Here is a short description of the program:

FreeFileSync is a free Open Source software that helps you synchronize files and synchronize folders for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It is designed to save your time setting up and running backup jobs while having nice visual feedback along the way.

And these are the features:

• Synchronize MTP devices (Android, iPhone, tablet, digital camera)
• Detect moved and renamed files and folders
• Copy locked files (Volume Shadow Copy Service)
• Detect conflicts and propagate deletions
• Binary file comparison
• Configure handling of Symbolic Links
• Automate sync as a batch job
• Process multiple folder pairs
• Comprehensive and detailed error reporting
• Copy NTFS security permissions
• Copy NTFS extended attributes (compressed, encrypted, sparse)
• Copy HFS+ extended attributes and ACLs
• Support long file paths with more than 260 characters
• Fail-safe file copy
• Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
• Expand environment variables like %UserProfile%
• Access variable drive letters by volume name (USB sticks)
• Native 64-bit support
• Keep versions of deleted/updated files
• Prevent disc space bottlenecks via optimal sync sequence
• Full Unicode support
• Highly optimized runtime performance
• Include/exclude files via filter
• FreeFileSync portable and local installation available
• Handle daylight saving time changes on FAT/FAT32
• Use macros %time%, %date%, et al. for recurring backups
• Case-sensitive synchronization
• Built-in locking: serialize multiple jobs running against the same network share

Whoever is interested in the source code, it can be found on SourceForge.

Answer 2

While I still highly endorse FreeSync, if you are willing to spring US $19.99, then I have now moved to a commercial solution.

As per my answers to other questions:

I would highly recommend paying US $19.99 for a personal version of Bvckup 2. I did, and I have never regretted it.

I did a lot of research before choosing it, and what convinced me was partly that it supports VSS, so that it can synch files which are in use, and, especially, the speed, it wins every test because it uses delta copying:

Reduce the amount of data being moved around by copying modified parts of files only. This speeds things up, in many cases dramatically.

.

There is a 5 start review of it at PC World.

If you don't want to spend, or just want to try it out, the last beta, which is quite recent, is available here.

If you still don't like Bvckup2, then I can highly recommend FreeFileSynch, which I previously used. See my long answers to this SR question, and this one and this one too.

To save you the trouble of clicking those links, here is the feature list:

Key Features

Detect moved and renamed files and folders
Copy locked files (Volume Shadow Copy Service)
Detect conflicts and propagate deletions
Binary file comparison
Configure handling of Symbolic Links
Automate sync as a batch job
Process multiple folder pairs
Comprehensive and detailed error reporting
Copy NTFS extended attributes (compressed, encrypted, sparse)
Copy NTFS security permissions
Support long file paths with more than 260 characters
Fail-safe file copy
Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Expand environment variables like %USERPROFILE%
Access variable drive letters by volume name (USB sticks)
Native 64-bit support
Keep versions of deleted/updated files
Prevent disc space bottlenecks via optimal sync sequence
Full Unicode support
Highly optimized runtime performance
Include/exclude files via filter
FreeFileSync portable and local installation available
Handle daylight saving time changes on FAT/FAT32
Use macros %time%, %date%, et al. for recurring backups
Case-sensitive synchronization
Built-in locking: serialize multiple jobs running against the same network share 

Supported Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows FreeFileSync runs natively on all 32 and 64-bit Windows versions:

Windows 10
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2000