Backup for Windows - Mirror + Reverse Incrementals

Question

I'm looking for Windows backup software that will copy specific workstation folders to a server.

I would like it to be centrally administered instead of administered from the workstation.

It needs to be able to handle open files - especially Outlook pst.

And I would like the server to store the backups in a mirror + reverse incremental style. This is important to me. The following is from Wikipedia:

A Mirror + Reverse Incrementals repository is similar to a Full + Incrementals repository. The difference is instead of an aging full backup followed by a series of incrementals, this model offers a mirror that reflects the system state as of the last backup and a history of reverse incrementals. One benefit of this is it only requires an initial full backup. Each incremental backup is immediately applied to the mirror and the files they replace are moved to a reverse incremental. This model is not suited to use removable media since every backup must be done in comparison to the mirror.

I think rsync can be run on Windows, but I would prefer a native Windows app with a Windows look and feel.

Suggestions?

Answer 1

Synctoy?

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Answer 2

Do Acronis or SyncToy really do Mirror and Reverse Incremental? If so, they aren't saying so on the websites.

Answer 3

I like Robocopy ("Robust File Copy") for copying. It is a command-line directory replication command. It was available as part of the Windows Resource Kit, and is introduced as a standard feature of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Robocopy cannot copy open files however, although Wikipedia on Robocopy notes you can use VSHADOW or DISKSHADOW for this and then Robocopy the files.

Answer 4

Looks like ViceVersa covers all my requirements.

Answer 5

I used Robocopy in a production environment to do a cascading backup of 1TB of digital photos, across three machines. Although it can't copy open files, it logs problems and you know what was missed. For me, this was hardly ever an issue.

I ran my daily backups by placing command like tis in a bat file, and running it scheduled tasks.

robocopy <srcDir> <destDir> /e /w:1 /r:1 /NDL /NP /COPY:DAT /TEE /LOG+:log.txt

Here are the option definitions I chose:

/e - copy subdirectories
/w:1 - wait 1 sec before retry
/r:1 - only retry once
/NDL - don't log directory names (makes clean log files)
/NP - don't display progress (makes clean log files)
/COPY:DAT - keep the good timestamps
/TEE - output to console and logfile (useful because you can watch it run)
/LOG+:log.txt - append the log to the file "log.txt"

It is included in Vista but you can download it here Also, this download comes with a useful guide which has better instructions than you get on the command line.