Might I humbly suggest HoboCopy? I wrote it to be a very simple version of Robocopy with the added benefit that it can copy files that are in use. Useful if, like me, you can never remember to close Outlook when you’re done for the night.
http://www.pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Craig/HoboCopy.html
Encryption: TrueCrypt (www.truecrypt.org). Unfortunately, you don’t have to throw money at it, nevertheless works like a charm.
Cylindric said: “for example, someone cataloging all their images in Picasa/Lightroom/etc and then deleting all the jpegs off their PC”
This is why I have to deinstall Picasa for my mother-in-law; the idea that those things only add, display and sort metadata is probably something most users can’t get their minds around yet.
I use SyncBack from 2BrightSparks on my Windows machines. The free version I use at my various clients to backup code to a USB flashdrive. The paid for version I use at home to backup to an external USB HD.
I use this rsync method already on my file servers. Mirroring doesn’t help prevent filesystem corruption or accidentally deleted files. Then for windows computers(win32 not x64) the powertoy from MS synctool works great and is able to be automated.
Time Machine. It’s a beautiful thing.
I use to use tar with my Mac. I had it set with cron to do a backup three times per week with rotating sets of data. I could have used rsync, but this way, I could compress my data as it is tarred, so it didn’t take up so much room on the drive.
However, I’ve switched to Time Machine which can’t be beat. It’s completely automatic, and it is extremely easy to restore a file after you delete it. I can even restore individual emails and address book entries. How cool is that? I have a 160 Gigabyte FireWire drive on my desk backing up a 80 Gigabyte hard drive. I am thinking of getting two more and see if I can rotate between them. That would allow me to take one drive “off site” in case of a meteor attack.
(A meteor attack is a term to explain what happens if the physical location where the computer is located is destroyed by a meteor crashing through the roof, fire, or flood. Off site backups allow you to recover in such an incident. Yes, of the three disasters, a meteor is probably the least likely, but it’s the most colorful. Thus, helps people remember and think about it.)
For PCs, I recommend Mozy. I find that it doesn’t work well with Macs, but it’s great for PCs. And, the backup is off site, so you don’t have to worry about a meteor attack.
Worth mentioning these freeware solutions for Windows.
Drive Image XML
http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm
XXClone
http://www.pixelab.com/
But let’s face it. I’m a Windows user. When I have a problem, I buy software.
English translation: “I’m an idiot.”
For instance, about 5 minutes of surfing brought me an easy to install Free Software version of rsync for Windows at http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=pagemasterPAGE_user_op=view_pagePAGE_id=6MMN_position=23:23
Being Free Software, I do not have to worry about:
o purposely hidden security or privacy holes (malware, callhomes, etc) that no one knows about.
o accidentally hidden security or privacy holes that only highly-motivated sociopaths with hex editors and kernel debug tools can find.
o digging into the kid’s college fund to purchase it.
o having to do so again every time Microsoft releases a new OS or Intel comes up with a new hard drive communcations standard.
Backup:
1.) Use Vista’s native backup to image entire drive to a second HD periodically
2.) Use Vista’s native backup to image entire drive to an external USB drive less frequency and store it offsite
3.) Use Vista’s “media” backup solution for data files like mp3, docs, and pics (saves a version history like Time Machine or source control)
4.) Periodically store all media files offsite
I’ll have to second foldershare. It’s free and it just works. I have it installed on all of my home computers and one of my computers at work and it keeps copies of my photos and other personal files up to date and in sync with minimal fuss.
It has the added benefit that I can pull pics off my camera on any of my computers and they’ll be available soon on the other ones.
For the technically inclined, a great, free utility that will make mirror copies of a drive (minus Registry/system files/meta files: you can use NTBackup for that) is XXCopy at www.XXCopy.com – I’ve been using this one for the past year now and it’s great. the /CLONE option uses incremental backup strategies.
As some one said a mile up higher, once you are burned you learn. I lost both my HDD’s with in 6 hours, my wife lost her laptop HD 2 days later. Maximum irony, oh yeah. So I went out and bought 2 500G sata drives, as well as an external 500G drive. Raid 1 for the box and a weekly full back up. I may have to start doing a daily incremental as I am now using it for more than music and video storage. Thanks for all the info on other programs…
C
Three words Jeff: Windows Home Server.
Works like a dream and its hassle free.
I’m a Windows user. When I have a problem, I search like heck for freeware. If and only if I can’t find any freeware that does what I want, I reluctantly, reluctantly pry open my pocketbook for software. This seldom happens.
One time that it did though, was when I paid for MirrorFolder (http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/index.php). I have Acronis TI I like it, but I think it’s a bit bloated for an app I run every day. MirrorFolder is lean and mean, and a real Swiss-Army knife for backups. All my documents are RAID-style mirrored to an external drive, and also periodically backed up to a network drive, all without any intervention. I set it up, then just forgot about it, and it has yet to let me down. Well worth the $40.
So, uh, I might be late to the party but I just wanted to ask you why you changed your font to the completely unreadable mess it is today. Thanks 
For an open source solution that is very worth looking at you might have a look at Restore http://restore-backup.com. Currently the # rated enterprise backup solution on Sourceforge.
You have a computer. It came with a hard drive in it. Go buy two
more drives of the same size or larger. If the drive in your
computer is SATA2, get SATA2. If it’s a 2.5" laptop drive, get
two of those. Brand doesn’t matter, but physical measurements
and connectors should match.
Brand does matter. Get two completely different brands so that when the first one dies due to a design or manufacturing problem, the second one doesn’t die of exactly the same thing at about the same time (IBM Deathstars anyone?). Increasing survivability through diversity costs very little, but can save your data in the long run.
Or you could try Norton Save Restore/Norton Ghost/Backup Exec System Recovery (Desktop Edition). P2V and restore anywhere in the Backup Exec edition are great for a moving to a new computer without losing your old system.
Do you know of a software than can sync files, pictures etc on multiple hard drives.
So if I add or modify a file in one hard drive, it automatically updates it on other harddrives.