recommend an app to snapshot & restore a folder? (like version control?)

[ottenm]

Hey All-

Can anyone recommend a lightweight app that can watch one of my folders for changes to the files or sub folders and give me a restore/undo so I can backup to a previous version(s)?  Not sure what to call it, and hoping for something minimal (little to no learning curve).  I thought of writing a script to just snapshot periodically with WinZip or 7Z, but figured there's probably something a little more integrated out there.

Thanks for any suggests-

[Curt]

ehh... are you telling that the particular folder is to never be changed? Protected?

[40hz]

What's in the folder you're interested in. Docs? Or things like settings and executables?

[ottenm]

It's my "front burner" folder, just a random collection of junk I"m working on in some capacity.  Documents, code, pics, some exe's, etc..  The files do change, so I'm looking for a backup/archiving app that takes and save snapshots so I can restore a file back to what it looked like, say, 3 days ago.  Or maybe restore another file that's been deleted.

Sorry if it's not making sense.  I know there's backup utilities out there, I just haven't had any experience with them and don't know of one that would save periodically, or whenever files change, without intervention.

Thanks!

[Tinman57]

Hey All-

Can anyone recommend a lightweight app that can watch one of my folders for changes to the files or sub folders and give me a restore/undo so I can backup to a previous version(s)?  Not sure what to call it, and hoping for something minimal (little to no learning curve).  I thought of writing a script to just snapshot periodically with WinZip or 7Z, but figured there's probably something a little more integrated out there.

Thanks for any suggests-

  Comodo Backup (Free) will synchronize folders.

[nosh]

Try FileHamster.

[40hz]

+1 with Nosh. If you're new to version control, FileHamster is the easiest to start out with.

If you just want to sync folders, there's dozens of really good (and free) sync managers out there. You can find a bunch fo suggestions here.

[MilesAhead]

Especially if there are a large number of files in the folder tree, using the OS folder change notification tend to bog the system.  A version control as suggested, or just zipping up the folder tree, may be simpler. If you use Restore Points Shadow Explorer freeware gives a way to retrieve old versions from restore points.

Vax VMS operating system had file versioning built into the file system.  Glindra
tries to make simulating this behavior simpler.  But it's command line based.  I used it for a short time. It's just that I tended to forget about it since it wasn't intrinsic to the file system.

[peteg05]

Hi,

I can really recommend AJC Active Backup. I use it for years for the same purpose and it saved me a lot of times.

Its very easy to set up and to use and doesn't tend to bog the system even if you have a quite a few folders to backup / watch. And its fast and saves space because it only saves what have changed and not the whole file everytime you make changes to it.

http://www.ajcsoft.com/active-backup.htm

Included is the free AJC Revision Archive

http://www.ajcsoft.com/revision-archive.htm

There is an important option to backup open files so AJCB makes a snapshot the moment you save a file even it is still open in the application. This feature will not work with every type of file because some applications lock there files when they are open but then AJCB will make a snapshot as soon you close the application and the file is unlocked.

Have a great day.

[tomos]

Real-time sync is mentioned in this review of FreeFileSync -
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=29999.0

I'm not sure if that means monitoring, if it does, it's free/open-source - and gets a good review from IainB.

[ottenm]

Thanks a million for all the contribs!!  Got File Hamster taking snapshots all day, and easy to restore earlier versions.

Thanks all around!

[springro]

I'll second AJC active backup! 

[milligans]

Sorry if it's not making sense.  I know there's backup utilities out there, I just haven't had any experience with them and don't know of one that would save periodically, or whenever files change, without intervention.

Thanks!

I don't know an application that can make a screenshot of every program, but I am familiar with AOMEI Backupper, which supports incremental backup, and you can restore parts from a backup, such as, recovery a software to its previous version from a backup.