External HD to backup external HD question

[cwend]

I have two WD My book essential 1.5tb drives. To keep my laptop, which is my only PC now, clean of as much memory, I wanted to use one of the HDs as the drive to hold all my photography stuff and use the other as a backup for my laptop and that HD. Problem is, at least with the software WD provides, there is no option to backup one HD with the other. In otherwords, I can use both external HDs to backup my laptop, but thats it. Does anyone know of a way around this?

[Redneck]

You can use CrashPlan. It's free as long as you use it for local backup and don't upload anything to their servers.

[Redneck]

Or, if it's a windows notebook, SyncToy can keep your drives in sync.

[Rson]

I loath Externals as backup. look into a NAS that is Mirrored. That is backup, if one drive fails, there is another to take it's place.

Here is a reason why. Externals have the crappiest controller known to man, it fails all the time sometimes it fails and shorts the whole drive. Then you are left with 2 options, nothing or pay for a pro recovery (about 600-1200$).

[kenw]

how about something simple: click, drag, drop.....

[georgep6506]

I use a package called Beyond Compare. To say it is wonderful is an understatement. It will look at my primary and backup drives and see what files/folders have changed and it will update them automatically. I have tried other ways, but they just don't work as well for me because I might change one file in this folder, two files in that folder, etc. I hope this helps. Thanks,

[georgep6506]

Also, because of viruses I don't use my laptop drive for my photos anymore. I have had a couple. Most of the times my data drives are not plugged in. So if I get a virus, it cannot reformat a drive that isn't connected. Also, if I am working on my photos on the machine and I see it starting to act strange, I just pull the USB cable out. Having that physical break is a wonderful safety device.