Good SIG meeting last Monday!
The question about backing up files came up, and I mentioned that I’ve used Allway Sync for a number of years and would recommend it. It is free for moderate use, and ‘moderate’ would cover most personal backup needs.
Here is the link with the download and lots of good information: http://allwaysync.com/
I should mention that this is only for Windows, but here is a list of alternatives for Mac if you aren’t already using, say, Time Machine:
http://alternativeto.net/software/allway-sync/?platform=mac
I use it to back up to multiple external drives, and I like it because it stores your files and folders in their native state by default, it allows you to create multiple backup jobs, and it employs an internal catalog for subsequent backups so it can do a faster net-change backup after your initial backup.
It also allows you to exclude specific files, file types and even folders from the backup job. I found this feature GREATLY reduced backup time and file count when backing up the Lightroom catalog, because I could exclude the Lightroom preview files (*Previews.lrdata*)
So check it out — it’s been very clean and reliable.
-Jack