Currently running a secondary windows machine as a server for ark/minecraft and as a plex server. I want to begin backing up my media and am starting with an external hard drive for on site physical backup.
My question is, what is the best way to go about this? I want to be able to back everything up initially and then just query what is there and backup only what is new instead of trying to redo the entire library over and over again. I also want to be able to see each file on the external as a would in the main system.
Aside from just copy and pasting, is there a way to do this? Can I automate it? Any advice would be appreciated.
Take a look at the links below, set up a command with the switches you want. Then create a simple bat script with the command you want(it might only need to be two lines). Finally, if you want to automate it, you can stick it in task scheduler.
You also could look at full backup solutions, there are tons available. Many are meant for a full OS backup, not just a couple folders.
If you were running *nix, I would recommend rsync, but robocopy is what is built into windows.
Robocopy is very good. If you want to go graphic and the possibility to sync both ways, there is SyncToy. It is a freebie and once you define your folder pairs (with options), you can schedule / start it via cmdline / batch file.
Oh i forgot, you could install Deltacopy on your windows box (it is an RSync server) and use an rsync script from a linux box. I do this a lot and on the Linux box, i keep as much as 1 year of backups storing only the difference between the syncs.
I would prefer something a bit more “casual” if you will. I am not knowledgeable enough about scripting to be sure that I don’t mess something up. From my understanding of my research, I am more so looking for an imaging program to mimic and determine differences between the two places saving a media libraries contents.