If you have a second hard disk on your computer or on a different computer connected to your computer over a network, then you can use the XCOPY32 program to perform very fast incremental backups. Create and execute a command file with the following commands:
@ECHO off
CLS
ECHO Incremental backup of personal files
XCOPY32 C:\source D:\destination /C /D /R /S > D:\destination\incbacup.log
Source and destination are the directories with your personal files on the source and destination hard disks, respectively. The /S switch will include subdirectories, the /R will include read-only files too, the /D switch without a date will copy new or newer files only, and the /C switch will continue the operation even if an error occurred. Incbacup.log is the name of the log file created by XCOPY32 with the names of all the files it copied. Substitute the appropriate names for the source, destination, and log files on your computer system. For more information on the command line switches see the XCOPY32 command.
The second hard disk has to have sufficient disk space to hold your personal files. You can use the Task Scheduler included in Windows 95 or Windows NT to run the batch file at night to execute the incremental backup. You still need a more comprehensive backup strategy to backup your computer completely. But this method allows you to maintain a mirror image of your personal files effortlessly. The first time the command file executes, it may take an hour or more to complete the operation. But on successive executions, an incremental backup is created in a few minutes.