I use a number of flash drives to carry important data with me. Is there backup software that treats my USB flash drive as the primary source and backs it up to a hard drive? This needs to work with multiple USB flash drives. Thanks!
Backing Up USB Flash Drive
Software to Back Up USB Flash Drive
I’m not sure that I completely understand your question, but it seems to me that you are looking for software to move the contents of your USB flash drives to hard drives, rather than moving the data manually.
Moving Data to and from a USB Flash Drive
USB flash drives are really easy to use, and even manually it would be straightforward to plug in your USB flash drive, click the icon to open it, then highlight all the contents and drag and drop them on your desktop. From there you can open files or drag and drop again to various folders on the C: drive.
Install an Operating System on a USB Flash Drive
If this isn’t the information that you are after, then perhaps you are interested in storing an operating system on a USB flash drive. As far as “treating your USB flash drive as the primary source” I assume you mean that you would like to boot from the flash drive, the way that you most often boot from the hard drive.
Adjust your BIOS to Boot from the USB Flash Drive
While this is not exceedingly common, it is certainly possible. If you store an operating system on your USB flash drive, then you can adjust your BIOS settings to boot from the USB drive. Before the computer accesses any drive or program it runs a series of processes called POST that are programmed in to the motherboard and allow the computer to self start and check its own settings. This process cannot be duplicated by any drive or program, so in this sense your computer’s motherboard will always be the “primary source”. Once completed, however, you can adjust your BIOS settings to boot from any drive that you want, presumably one with an operating system. You can save your operating system to a CD and boot from there, the way you perform repairs and reinstallations with the Windows installation disk. Or you can install an operating system on a UBS drive and boot from there.
Windows Sync Center
If you have Windows Vista, try the Sync Center which is located in the Control Panel. You can use this utility to set up mobile devices to sync with your hard drive. With the USB drive connected to your computer, go into the Sync Center and set up a new sync partnership. Once set up, your computer and flash drive will synchronize when connected. Changes to files will be coordinated between the hard drive and flash drive. Not all devices are compatible with Sync Center, so this may or may not be an option.
Kate Dubensky | February 27th, 2009
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Wow! Thanks for the thoughtful reply!
My problem is that I want to backup (not sync) the data on my flash drives. That means keeping a historical backup so I can restore old files. The problem I have with all backup software is that they think each flash drive is the same one (i.e., all are on the E: drive). So when I switch flash drives they think I deleted files and replaced them with brand new files. I need backup software that recognizes the drive name rather than the drive letter.
There is some software from torosoftware.com that looks like it could work but they seem to have gone out of business. http://www.brothersoft.com/publisher/torosoftware_59091.html.
Thanks again! Kevin