Hi Laurence; I have used Karen Kenworthy's Replicator for years on my two hard drive computers as well as networked computers and it works very well; http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp However, I have never used it on an external drive, so I can't comment on its efficacy under that situation. Bill Lee ----- Original Message ----- From: "laurence grignolo" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 11:16 AM Subject: [PCSOFT] slow back up by drag and drop to external hard drive > PCSOFT Digest - 26 Oct 2007 to 27 Oct 2007 (#2007-255)I have an external > hard drive and on a regular basis I try to backup photos and documents > from my pc. I do this by opening the external hard drive window and > dragging/dropping my "photos" and "documents" folders into the external > hard drive window. This means all the photos and documents are copied > again, not just the new ones and this is very time consuming since they > are large folder. > Is there any way to just copy the new files that have not yet been backed > up so the process is abbreviated? > Thanks for any suggestions, > Laurence Grignolo "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column. http://freepctech.com/rode