file backing up question

[nomak]

Im getting a quite large collection of home photos and I routinely back them up to my external hard drive once a month.. I want to make sure that I get every file from my pc's picture folder on to the pic folder on my external hard drive.. I do a properties check on the pc and the external hard drive and notice small file differences.. the folder counts are the same but the file amounts are different.. I am thinking it is just thumbnail files but cnat go through the thousands of pics and folders I have just to verify that.. so is there a batch file or program prefrerably freeware that I can use to make sure I get every file and that it only copies the new files I add to my collection and not do a copy all and paste to the external device because when I do that I get hit with the twnety different prompts in vista dont copy, copy but keep both or skip or what ever else...yada yada yada vista stuff..anyone on with help on this situation is greatly appreciated.. thanks..

 

[vsboxerboy]

You could try using the built into windows breifcase function. Basically it sets up one folder as a watch folder and then will update the breifcase (which would be on your external) with any changes made to the folder. I tried it out a while back and did what I was looking for but I'm not 100% sure about all the details, you might want to google it, but it's worth a look.

 

[DeaconFrost]

This is exactly how I use SyncToy on my wife's computer, only we send them to our server instead of an external drive, but that doesn't change anything with SyncToy. You'll probably want to use the Echo option when setting up the folder pairs.

I found, for several reasons, it is much easier to not use the "My" folders, but that probably shouldn't change anything with SyncToy.