Fast way to backup project?

It takes 10min for winrar to compress the 170M folder.
Is there any better method?

 

Hi,
I doubt there's much faster alternatives than WinRAR. But you could maybe use some automated mirroring/backup software that copies files incrementally. SyncBack is one good free option. Then manually take archived snapshots of your project periodically?

 

Try 7-zip. If not faster, at least you detach yourself, from winrar dependency.
Speed is affected not only based on compression algorithm, but also on number of files (Unity project may have tons of small files) and of course speed of drive read/write you make compression from/to.
If you have fragmented drive, or low space, it will also affect speed of writing to.
Don't compress directly to memory sticks. Probably will be slowest approach.

 

Unity projects have lots of generated files which speed up builds but can be regenerated when you start a new build.

Try exporting your project as a package you will strip away all of the unnecessary files and keep just the core files you need before compressing the package file (I think you end up with a single .unitypackage file as well).

Ensure you test that loading the package into a new project works before trusting it as a backup.

 

WTH why a rar or zip? Select all your project folders --> right-click --> "export new asset"

Save that somewhere you won't forget or lose... or better yet use version control whether its unity collaborate or git or mercurial.

 

Version control. Because when you need to make a "backup" it only processes the files that have changed since the last time you requested it. Every other solution out there is going to have to process every single file.

 

This ^^^

A "backup" using version control usually takes only seconds.

 

You sleep eight hours or so a day. Why not automate the back up process and run it while you sleep?

If you use version control throughout the day, there is no real need to do backups more often than nightly.

 

Agree.
Besides continuous versioning, myself I run backups only, when major changes are planned. I.e. Unity version migration, or major feature change / implementation.
Then I know, when I open particular backup, it just run out of the box, at selected Unity version.
No need for packages downloading, reimport, or rebuilding whole project.
Also, can apply password on archive, if needed. But probably few need to do that.

 

Why wouldn't you use branches for this?

 

I like having archived copy as well.
That way I can search older individual files and content when needed, rather just lookup for changes.

 

Your version control software doesn't have a browse feature?

 

Thats ok, if I look for specific keywords, with for example nice formatted code in github.
But if wanting look for references in scripts, or open DB files, or browse media files, its usefulness ends there for me.

 

Disclaimer: this is not good enough for anything other than my needs. My approach is to use two physical drives in my laptop and use Windows robocopy to mirror my working folder to an exact copy on the other disk. This allows very fast copy of only the changed files. My working folder is 50gb but typically only a few hundred megs have changed. If a major change is happening then i do a complete copy to a new folder and very occasionally to a different pc in case the laptop gets stolen etc. Good luck!