Hard drive back up

[Piff]

Currently have a NAS drive and back up with "Cobian Backup 10".
PC is windows XP and built in backup on a schedule didn't work last time I tried it (a couple of years ago).
Hard drive is 500gb but is only 55gb full.
Cobian is set to only back up changes after the initial full back up and is set to back up "my documents" "desktop" & "internet settings/favourites"
I think the biggest bulk is "my documents" at 15.7gb
The NAS has a 1TB hard disc and is not being managed well by Cobian as in 2 years it has filled up the disc 3 times resulting in me having to re-format the disc. It seems to put over written files in a trashbox which it doesn't then clear.
The system should be automatic & not require manual intervention

I've recently wiped the NAS drive and today I've cleared 7 zip files from the trashbox. The drive now has 5 zip files left on it:-
30/8/13 11.6gb
31/8/13 11.6gb
1/9/13 11.6gb
2/9/13 11.6gb
3/8/13 21.4mb

Altogether, I'm not happy with the arrangement.

I have an older pc with a 500gb hard disc sitting unused. Is it possible to mount this hard disc in my current pc and set it to "mirror" my current hard disc automatically?
Is there alternative (free) back up software better than cobian?

 

[Merc Owner 2B]

Free version of syncback is very good.

Setting up a mirrored array has it's own problems so I would avoid in your case.

Mount the spare disk in the host pc and set synback to automatically copy the required folders to the spare drive. Could be everytime you shutdown or on a daily/weekly routine

Keep it simple for reliability.

 

[Messa]

All the features of Acronis but for free.....

Best free backup software and Norton Ghost alternative - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

 

[balge]

Easeus is very good