Backup your SD card!

[Paladin]

Hi, just a reminder to everyone to back up that SD card data to your computer someplace. You should do this in a regular basis. All your programs settings reside on there as well as media etc? If this goes bad you lose a lot of settings and data.

Just create a backup folder on your computer, plug your Android device in, and mount it as storage, then simply copy everything in that folder to your backup folder. Easy to do and you will be thankful you did!

I just had a minor corruption problem and lost some data but had most backed up. You never think about it until something like that happens then you wish you had.

 

[Cory Streater]

Excellent advice and something I often forget to do, I wish there was a simple & inexpensive app that only backed up the card and only updated changes each time thereafter. I don't really like recopying the entire card each time.

 

[Gekko]

Excellent advice and something I often forget to do, I wish there was a simple & inexpensive app that only backed up the card and only updated changes each time thereafter. I don't really like recopying the entire card each time.

1. use Windows Briefcase with sync "Update" function.

EVO/microSD Card---------------------->PC/Windows Briefcase

2. in my years and years of using SD cards - i've never had one go bad. any data on my SD card is secondary and a copy from elsewhere OR the data is not critical so i'm not worried about it.

 

[azkevman]

Another good tool is Microsoft's 'Sync Toy'. I use it for several devices it works great, and is free.

 

[UTnick]

There are already reports of sd cards going bad so this is very important. Mine went bad and I didn't have a backup. I lost some good picturesque that was all I cared about. Anyway, I back my card up now.

ps
I took the bad card to Sprint and they gave me a different one so now I have someone else's pictures.

 

[curthibbs]

Excellent advice and something I often forget to do, I wish there was a simple & inexpensive app that only backed up the card and only updated changes each time thereafter. I don't really like recopying the entire card each time.

I've been using a simple, inexpensive, disk-to-disk backup & synchronization program called Second Copy for well over 10 years now. It will do this and much more, and has been very reliable.

I also use it to back up my PC's hard disks to my NAS (Network Attached Storage) device.

you can find it here: Second Copy: Secure your data with automatic backup software

 

[Cory Streater]

Thanks for all your recommendations guys.

 

[AndroidOne]

Another good tool is Microsoft's 'Sync Toy'. I use it for several devices it works great, and is free.

Is this one of the MS Power Toys collection? Don't recall that one out of the top of my head.

Hey Gekko, thanks for the Briefcase suggestion, I eliminated that shortcut long ago and had forgotten all about it. Good idea.

 

[PreGk]

Anyone figure out a way to automate a backup? i.e.- wirelessly transfer SD card data to a designated folder on a PC?

 

[azkevman]

Is this one of the MS Power Toys collection? Don't recall that one out of the top of my head.

No, it is separate from the power toys collection.

Download details: SyncToy 2.1

One of the great things is you can run specific backup sets from a batch file, so you can have it run when the drive is mounted. I use this method for automatic USB thumb drive backup, as well as backup of my smartphone devices when mounted.

 

[AndroidOne]

Excellent tip, thank you much.

Already Googled it after reading your original post and sent it my desktop... will install and setup later.

 

[jsedano]

0 Backup

Anyone figure out a way to automate a backup? i.e.- wirelessly transfer SD card data to a designated folder on a PC?

After I bought my android phone I reached this thread looking for a backup solution for my SD card, but I was unable to find a backup tool to automatically copy my SD card to my PC every night. So I coded it myself:

You may want to try 0droid.com

Regards,

 

[Paladin]

After I bought my android phone I reached this thread looking for a backup solution for my SD card, but I was unable to find a backup tool to automatically copy my SD card to my PC every night. So I coded it myself:

You may want to try 0droid.com

Regards,

I was using SyncToy and it works well but having an automated way, wireless yet, is just AWESOME!!!!

Thank you for making this!

A few questions;

After the first backup will it only backup files that have changed like SycnToy does? That saves a ton of time. If not can you do this please.

Will it keep an exact mirror image (like echo on SyncToy) so if files have been added/deleted on the SD card it reflects on the backup folder? The idea is if the SD card was formatted and you copied this backup folder back to it, it would be the same exact files (image) as the last backup.

I will buy this right now!

 

[jsedano]

Thank you for making this!

A few questions;

After the first backup will it only backup files that have changed like SycnToy does? That saves a ton of time.

Will it keep an exact mirror image (like echo on SyncToy) so if files have been added/deleted on the SD card it reflects on the backup folder.

Put this on the market and I will buy it.

Yes, yes and yes.

-Up to date files already in the PC are not copied again.

-Files deleted on the phone are deleted on the computer if you configure so. There is an option to prevent such deleting; for example, imagine you delete something in your phone by mistake... if it is deleted also in the backup, you gain nothing. So deleting files on the PC is a configuration option (that I use to keep disabled in my own phone).

-And it is in the Market! Just follow the links on 0droid.com or search for "0backup".

 

[Paladin]

I already bought it!

 

[jsedano]

I saw it. Hope it meets your needs.

 

[Paladin]

Can we have an option to have multiple backups? That way I can still use the delete items on the phone option for a mirror image but could go back to a previous backup folder to retrieve something I may have deleted if need be.

I know the first time they are created it will be a full copy. We would only need a few.

 

[zmann]

My back up pro. App catolog. Back up to card and/or online storage.

Evo-lution

 

[jsedano]

Paladin,

did you finally made it work? I've got a confusing message from adroidcentral.com saying that you posted here about an error message, but I can not see it.

If the error message that 0 backup gives is "permission denied", most probably you did not gave write permissions to the shared folder (otherwise, if the password was wrong, you would have been told when you browsed the server). Did you follow the instructoins in 0droid.com? What OS are you using?

About the cycling of the backup to have more that 1 copy... I studied it, but did discard it. Most probably dealing with it is not a problem for you, but I though it may be harder for oher less experienced users.


Regards,

 

[Paladin]

Hi, I got past that error, it was a write permission on the share.
I was backing up and got a phone call come in. I dismissed the call but the backup just got stuck at 60%. I waited a long time but it never continued. I stopped and re-started it but it got to 60% and stopped again.

So I deleted the folder it was backing up into and re-started it. It seemed to go so far but then I got a text message and it stopped again. Something is messing it up if a call or text comes in and it does not continue.

I am going to try again tonight but I have not got a full backup yet.