I am looking for a Windows XP app that does incremental backups.

I would like the application to copy from a current folder to a backup
folder only files that have changed since the last backup.

For each file that has changed I would like the previous version to be
left in the backup folder with a version number appended to the file
name. After a while, the contents of the backup folder might look
something like this:

myfile.txt
myfile001.txt
myfile002.txt

The current version and all former versions are left in the folder.

It would be nice if the app could handle trees of directories (folders
within folders within folders . . .).

I thought that this would be an easy app to find but I have tried for
more than an hour with Google and CNET. I found a couple but either
they would not run at all or leave previous versions behind.

Thanks very much for your help.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

AJC Directory Synchronizer and AJC Active Backup will do this for you.

AJC Directory Synchronizer can sync files that have changed to a backup
area.  Files that are overwritten can be archived.

AJC Active Backup monitors realtime for file changes and archives the files.

Both of these products use our unique archive system.  An archive can store
an unlimited number of previous versions of a file.  You can get back any
version and see what has changed between versions.  It is very compact
because it is compressed and only stores the changes to a file each time it
is added again.

Please read more at:
http://www.ajcsoft.com/ProductsAJCDirSync.php

http://www.ajcsoft.com/AJCActBk.php

--
Andrew Cutforth - AJC Software - www.ajcsoft.com
The best folder synchronize and directory compare tool available.
AJC Active Backup instantly archives every file you edit giving you
unlimited undo and automatic revision control.  Never lose your data again.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Andrew wrote:[vbcol=seagreen]
> AJC Directory Synchronizer and AJC Active Backup will do this for you.
>
> AJC Directory Synchronizer can sync files that have changed to a backup
> area.  Files that are overwritten can be archived.
>
> AJC Active Backup monitors realtime for file changes and archives the file
s.
>
> Both of these products use our unique archive system.  An archive can stor
e
> an unlimited number of previous versions of a file.  You can get back any
> version and see what has changed between versions.  It is very compact
> because it is compressed and only stores the changes to a file each time i
t
> is added again.
>
> Please read more at:
> http://www.ajcsoft.com/ProductsAJCDirSync.php
>
> http://www.ajcsoft.com/AJCActBk.php
>
> --
> Andrew Cutforth - AJC Software - www.ajcsoft.com
> The best folder synchronize and directory compare tool available.
> AJC Active Backup instantly archives every file you edit giving you
> unlimited undo and automatic revision control.  Never lose your data again.[/vbcol
]



Thanks much for the prompt answer to my posting.

I downloaded the AJC Directory Synchronizer and its companion app for
accessing an archive.

The programs are apparently designed for working only with text files.

I realise now that I gave a misleading example in my original posting.

The example should have been something like this:

myfile.xxx
myfile001.xxx
myfile002.xxx

where the "xxx" indicates an unspecified data format - it could be
"txt", "doc", "zip", "bin", or anything else.

I am not interested is comparing revisions - I only want to save old
versions of files that have changed instead of having to archive whole
directories full of files just for the sake of one or two files that
have actually changed.

I am beginning to think that no such app is available.

If anyone knows of one, please let me know.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

TRy Relativerev backup from Datamills. It will do incremental backups
and keep as many as you want but it will not renumber the way you are
asking. You can set the time intervals and types of files and it just
does its thing.

Ian Singer

--


 ========================================
=================================
See my homepage at http://www.iansinger.com
hosted on http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=10623894
All genealogy is stored in TMG from http://www.whollygenes.com
Charts and searching using TNG from http://www.tngsitebuilding.com
I am near Toronto Canada, can I tell where you are from your reply?
 ========================================
=================================

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

These programs will work with any type of file, not just text files.

With AJC Active Backup you just have to tell it what files patterns you want
it to monitor and backup.  Any sort of file at all can be stored in the
archive with multiple revisions.

--
Andrew Cutforth - AJC Software - www.ajcsoft.com
The best folder synchronize and directory compare tool available.
AJC Active Backup instantly archives every file you edit giving you
unlimited undo and automatic revision control.  Never lose your data again.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Dantz Retrospect.  It keeps snapshots of every backup you do
(full and incremental), when your backup device is full, it
"grooms" according to a pre-defined system or a system of
your choosing; this allows you to keep some snapshots and
delete others to make room for new ones.  You could have one
snapshot for every month  or one for the last 20 days or
anywhere in between.

I have used it for years with a usb hard drive and have
always been very pleased.

But - you should know that the help menus are very poor, the
user interface is unclear and it can be a real nuisance to
set up.  But, once set up, performance is easy to maintain
and flawless.

If you were to purchase the program, I would fully suggest
making use of the free tech support they offer for the first
30 days and have them set up scripts for you.

Louise

koehler@btinternet.com wrote:
> I am looking for a Windows XP app that does incremental backups.
>
> I would like the application to copy from a current folder to a backup
> folder only files that have changed since the last backup.
>
> For each file that has changed I would like the previous version to be
> left in the backup folder with a version number appended to the file
> name. After a while, the contents of the backup folder might look
> something like this:
>
> myfile.txt
> myfile001.txt
> myfile002.txt
>
> The current version and all former versions are left in the folder.
>
> It would be nice if the app could handle trees of directories (folders
> within folders within folders . . .).
>
> I thought that this would be an easy app to find but I have tried for
> more than an hour with Google and CNET. I found a couple but either
> they would not run at all or leave previous versions behind.
>
> Thanks very much for your help.
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Take a look at DoubleSafety (http://www.doublesafety.com/).

This will store a number of incremental archives to let you restore any
version you want.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]