Workstation Backup Solution

you can also use SyncToy if you only need to syncronize  specific folders

Files have differant attributes the y are  hidden, system, Readonly and archive
when a file is edited / changed it change the attrib to "a" archive this is what backup s/w uses to differentiate between what has been changed and thus needs to be backed up.


The first time will be a FULL backup therafter only what has changed will be backed up.
This can be done as follows

xcopy32 c:\. /i/y/s/m e:\"Or whatever your external drive letter is"

/a      Copies files with the archive attribute set. This switch does not change the attribute.
/m      Copies files with the archive attribute set, and turns off the archive attribute.
/d:date      Copies files changed on or after the specified date.
/p      Prompts you before creating each destination file.
/s      Copies folders and subfolders except empty ones.
/e      Copies any subfolder, even if it is empty.
/v      Verifies each new file.
/w      Prompts you to press a key before copying.

All depends what type of backup you want.

If you want to do full hard disk image you can have a look at Acronis TrueImage
http://www.acronis.eu/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
which I use personally and I'm quite happy. You can do full image of the hard disk once a week and then incremental or differential backups every day.
In addition to that it allows you to mount image of the backup, so you can access files you have in computer image.
As free alternative for disk imaging software you might check:
Clonezilla - http://clonezilla.org/
or
Drive Image XML - http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

If you want to have file level backup I would recommend GoodSync:
http://www.goodsync.com/
which I use as well to replicate changes between my desktop computer and laptop as I tend to use both for my activities, so need to have recent version of documents on both of those.
This software can compare folders on 2 computers and replicate changes only, so it's quite efficient.
You can also have a look into free alternative for GoodSync:
http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/.

For full backup I use ShadowProtect ( http://buy.storagecraft.com/Backup-Software-for-Windows-Desktop-Operating-Systems-C18.aspx ).  It's easy to use, bulletproof, and once it's set up it's "set and forget."  It also lets you mount backups as drives and access individual files.  I do a full backup weekly and then incremetal backups a couple of times daily.  Restores (which I've had to do) are a matter of booting to a CD, accessing the restore you want, and letting it go.  Acronis is an equivalent product, so you may want to look at both.  These are image programs, so they look for drive level changes for incremental backups.

If you are interested in individual file synchronization, I concur with qf313k.  I use GoodSync religiously.  It's an exellent product for individual file sync and also has some automated features that let you sync to backup (I back up to NAS) automatically.  The link is http://www.goodsync.com/land/land.php?affid=20egs&frm=frame18&gclid=CNn47Pja7KgCFcYbQgodMzSJEA

Finally, if you're sharing files and want sync, or want instant sync between several systems, I recommend DropBox.  It's simple to use and works very well.  

http://www.dropbox.com/

Experts,

Thank you all for the valuable replies and recommendations.

What I actually need is to have a backup on a daily basis of only the changed content of my files. So I guess the system will take a full image of the directory I have my work on, then update it with only changed content on on wards (synchronize).

My files are sql databases, code files, .net projects, and office files and adobe pdfs and psds.

Hope most of you stand on a specific software so that I don't get confused :)

Thanks!

The tools I mentioned should fit exactly...

rindi,

Let me try it out and get back to you please!

Thanks,

rindi,

Does any backup application have any encryption option?