Backup software with direct access to individual files

Question

I need some help to find software for Windows 7 that will backup files to an external harddrive which stores the folder structure and allows direct access to the files. By direct access I mean I can navigate to a given file directly on the drive without any software besides the OS.

I also want auto backups and during subsequent backups the ability to store just the files that have been modified. A continuous backup that monitors for file changes would also be nice.

Using backulist+ on my Mac, I didn't think this would be such an issue to find windows software that does this.

All the backup software I've tried so far stores the backup in one big file that you need the backup program to open. The one exception I saw was Seagates toolkit but it will only work on Seagate drives (I have 2 WD drives I'll be using.)

Been spending many hours trying different software but no luck. The last software I tried was Acronis True Image 2018 (the full version trial). It's options are nice but it still stores files in one big file.

Hoping the community here can help speed my search. To summarize I'm looking for, backup software that:

1. Stores and allowes direct access to the file and folder structure
2. Can have scheduled backups that store only files with changes since the last backup
3. Continuous backup would be nice
4. Not an online backup. Need to store to external drives.
5. Paid or free

Answer 1

Try APBackup 3.9 software. It has two backup modes - it can save all files into a ZIP archive or just copy files into the folder/drive so you can have direct access to these files. Also APBackup has full/incremental backup modes. I think you can use SYNC mode in your case. You can configure a backup task to start on fixed schedule or when any source file is changed. APBackup 30 days trial version is a fully functional.

Answer 2

I am the author of AJC Sync and this will do what you want. The basic edition costs $29.

It will sync the your folder structure to the backup location of your choice (e.g network, external hard drive, cloud, FTP) and preserve the same structure allowing you access to the files. It will only backup files that have changed each time and you can define the logic/patterns etc. In addition you get a built in diff view so you can see what has changed in each file. You can also optionally keep an archive in a 3rd location which stores files that were deleted or overwritten by the backup and keeps multiple versions. Using this you can get back to any older version of a file if you make a mistake. You can do manual or scheduled backups. You can also choose to encrypt/zip files.

See www.ajcsoft.com