Disc Copy Tools - Recommendations?

Hello,

What are other photographers using to copy Backup Discs to each other (eg. Duplicating my primary backup drive to a second and third backup). 

Of course you can just copy and paste, but I don't want to copy everything, I just want the Delta's copied to the backup discs to save time in the process.

Any recommendations?

Hey Hank

I've been using GoodSync for many years to backup to hard disks, RAIDs etc.

It's menu driven and you select what you want to copy and to where. You can create any number of whats-to-where, name them and use them as you wish, when you wish.

Tim

This whole process has evolved over the last few years. Depending on what post processing software you use, the alternatives you want are usually built in. I place all my post process pics in a "new" folder. That allows me total control over where and what I do with them. Problem most forget is even with high rez jpgs, there is loss when copied. I tend to "move" rather than copy. I have a separate SSD where I place all my work. In fact, I have one for pics and one for video. They are relatively cheap these days and are great insurance. My preference is Samsung Pro 1 terabit. 

There are a number of syncing tools available, synctoy is recently discontinued and used to be a popular choice.  I use freefilesync, which compares drives and copies changes across to you backup disc.   Works quite well.

4 hours ago, bill1946 said:

Problem most forget is even with high rez jpgs, there is loss when copied. I tend to "move" rather than copy. 

This is incorrect. Copying any file, including a jpg file, will result in an identical file at the destination assuming you are copying with the operating systems file manager, or another backup utility you will get a bit-perfect copy. The OS or file copy utility does not know if you are copying a JPG, DOCX, or Zip file. Alteration of the bits would result in corrupted files.

I am guessing that this invalid idea that the JPG will lose data comes from the experience of >Editing< the jpg file. The JPG compression algorithm uses lossy data compression when it is re-encoded. If you edit and alter a JPG in a photo editing appy and then re-save the file, there could be some loss. But not from a file copy.

We use an app called Syncovery to do all our backup on a relatively small scale (Total data 6 – 8 TB). I have both a third internal hard drive for dedicated backup and an external HD for off-site storage which I backup to every 2 weeks. Once set up, this app is extremely easy and quick to use. I'm not a big fan of backing up to the cloud.