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I'm going to Plus One on using a NAS.
I have just had a friend ask me if I can do anything with his unresponsive WD external USB drive. Normally I would have removed the drive, put it in a cradle and tried to recover what I could - no way! WD drives now have the USB interface as part of the drive electronics.
As mentioned below a NAS is a single point of failure and could be stolen. However I have been using NASs for 20 years or more and have never lost any data, despite several disk failures. Their seamless integration with cloud backup services means that in the event of the worst, you lose at most maybe a day's worth of data.
Having been victim of a fire at the office I was confronted with the loss of 4 months enterprise data due to someone having forgotten to take tape cartridges off-site.
Try to find a NAS that can pull data from your computers, no need to install software on each one.
I use Duplicati on Linux and Macrium Reflect for 'whole machine' PC backups and pull user folders (Documents etc.) via a Robocopy script that runs on a PC that is always on.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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I don't bother with backing up individual files locally; only entire partitions/drives.
-Macrium Reflect to an external USB every day. (free, once you have the drive)
-Backblaze subscription ($94/year for the 1 year retention plan) for the event of malware. Above Macrium images get backed up with it.
The Macrium images can be mounted as normal drives for restoring indvidual files if necessary.
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Oh Baby You Found Some Good Stuff.
Indeed.
Thanks
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It all depends on how much data you can afford to lose. Daily, weekly, real time? Before I retired, our source code repos (on the network) were backed up nightly on a weekly rotation, and a month-end retention for 2 years, and a yearly backup forever.
Our boss also subscribed later on to an offsite, real-time system that hooked into file system writes so every change was sent out offsite.
My workstation was my responsibility, so I opted to disc image weekly to alternating external drives. I used a free utility, DriveImageXML. Pretty handy.
After retirement I still image my drive, however now it’s monthly and rotating over three externals.
I’m using Paragon drive utilities - the paid version - because it has some features I needed (once). It’ll do incremental and differential backups if you need that.
Free software is nice for some lesser utilities, but I don’t mind paying for something I use regularly. We all like to be paid for our work, right?
There are plenty of utilities out there: many options. Consider your objectives and the answer will become clear.
Cheers,
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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Hi, I'm not sure what is your goal for a backup software, but maybe you could also be interested in the rewamped "Cobian Backup". From few months the original developer has started a new cloned and modernized version called "Cobian Reflector".
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I'll add another downvote to Acronis. They ruined their UI first (dumbing it down well beyond usefulness, inflating wasted real estate), then proceeded to introduce the stupidest problems to the backend. I stopped updating at 2019. I can list far too many serious problems. Whoever's running the show there simply doesn't "get" backups. Just don't.
One thing I've done for as long as I can remember is to set up NAS and keep my backups some physical distance from their sources. After all this time it still seems like a good idea. I recently built my own. It might not be feature-rich, but for this job I don't need it to be, and it was way cheaper. I'd avoid single-disk solutions, though, because you'll out of commission when you need to upgrade and potentially face a new problem of how to transfer your existing data.
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Thank you one and all.
I'm still working on my instant internet expert badge for this one
Looks like the magic words I'm after are...
I'm still a little unclear on the industry's definition of "sync" in this context. Brain assistance is welcome
I think I need an ounce of vocabulary confirmation/education: Does the Phrase, "...From Outside The Operating System..." means that I will boot from their CD-Rom (whatever) and they will do the activity without using Windows (or whatever) ? i.e., Have they have written their own minimalist OS that does enough to make a solid duplicate on another disk drive ?
If my understanding of that concept is correct, are any of these packs actually giving me a Bit-For-Bit perfect copy of one disk on the other ?
At this moment, my goal is to have my entire 1TB hard disk from my old computer duplicated, bit for bit, on some external drive so that I can search (and use, when needed) those files from the previous five years; without having to use that old computer or its OS.
From looking at the comments here, and several different vendors, I think these packs that do their work from "outside the operating system" (if I'm understanding the jargon) are the ones I want.
Again, my thanks to everyone. This is actually helping me.
And
Please correct me before I blow up the world or something.
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Festivity coordinates. It's huge! (6)
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Galaxy ?
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Four hours last night, no solution. Four minutes tonight... YAUT!
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Good clue
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I had (quickly, without looking for other options!) come up with XMASSY ... am so glad that's not the answer! 
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Should have just posted a link: Galaxy[^] 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Banging my head against werq. The hardware isn't working. It's not really my responsibility, but one of the hardware guys has all but washed his hands of the situation, and he was the lead.
We're right up at the deadline too - which is Friday. The thing is, I had my software done about a month ago.
I did my part. So why do I feel like crap about this? 
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Don't. Never take the blame for another's failure. That is a road to hardship. It's OK to feel sad, like, "I'm sad the project didn't get done. It would be nice to see my awesome work at work!" But anything more than that - 😬
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I realize that on an intellectual level, but emotionally it's just hard for me to divest.
It's probably vestigial from when I used to take projects personally early in my career.
I've moved past it for the most part, but when projects go south I really don't like it.
I also think part of that comes from when I worked as a consultant, doing "project rescue", I've seen more bad morale than any single person should have to. meh.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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My first job as an engineer was to do time studies to improve work flows. Within a week I realized that the morale on the floor was so bad nothing would increase productivity unless things went terribly south, which would have pushed people to quit... Yay! (Not.)
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That sounds horribly familiar. I'm glad I don't do "project rescue" anymore.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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honey the codewitch wrote: I also think part of that comes from when I worked as a consultant, doing "project rescue",
In a previous job, me and other 3 guys were called the "Firemen squad" because we were always the ones called when things got too hot for the "normal" guys. We could guess how bad a project was, depending on how many of us were asked to overtake a project.
It was very satisfactory to be one of them and to save the day, but at the end of the day, it was continous stress, we sometimes did not even get a simple thank you (not to say a real rise)... Once the team started falling apart, I tried to avoid being the last in the sinking boot.
It is OK to be "affected" if something goes wrong, that's not a bad thing per se. The "bad" thing starts when it goes too far and you feel guilt even when it is not your fault. It is not easy, but it does really pay at the end, to learn how to say "go to hell and ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) yourself". Even though I am much better at it than before, I still have a long way to go.
I can only tell you: Patience and Resilience (focus in yourself, here and now. For the rest: .i..)
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I agree with David.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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I feel you totally - even we are 9 developers working together, and we have also the customer providing the infrastructure on it's own, I always have to fight this crappy feeling when something somewhere goes wrong...
Just can't help it...
"If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." ― Gerald Weinberg
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In part it's because we're creative people. We make stuff to be used.
I get a kick every time someone uses one of my applications; I suppose it validates us to an extent, and proves that we're useful people. But like an artist that paints a picture that's locked away in a vault, when our creations are not seen / used / appreciated it's frustrating. Not in an arrogant, "look at me, I made that" way but just "it's doing what I made it to do" sort of way.
When I was a trainee programmer some ( ) years ago and my first commercial program (batch, on an IBM370) went live, my boss didn't tell me until weeks later. I was really annoyed, I couldn't understand why she'd not told me. Then I realised that I was writing code because I enjoyed it, the rest of the team did it just to pay the bills.
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Quote: Go to ParentIn part it's because we're creative people. We make stuff to be used.
Exactly. There is little at work more demoralizing than my work not going to production, especially since it's all by request - I'm not just making up pet projects to do. Things are changing for the better though and several of my completed projects are in review. For the first time in my life I see the point of good organization of management and employee pools.
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The short answer is because you're good and care about the overall project. Having pride in what you do is a real strength.
The longer answer is that it's tough for us to call it 'done' unless we see it in the wild. You may know it's 100%, but there's the piece that it doesn't feel done.
I'm in the same boat, to some extent. Though we're dependent on an outside vendor for Monday's soft launch. Their part is laughable, but critical, and have nothing. They don't care. Though I preach accepting things out of my control, I don't really live it. It still drive me nuts.
My advice is to never stop caring, but know when it is just time to sit back and watch the trainwreck.
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