Looking for what I’d call an incremental backup solution primarily for user data stored on Windows systems. Windows 7 is essential but newer versions could come into play. By incremental, it is meant that whenever a file is modified the backup medium is updated accordingly. Keeping track of multiple versions of files might be interesting but not essential.
Something that is concerning is that unlike most cases of user data on Windows systems this case involves extensive use of hard links. The only Windows supported file system known to support hard links is NTFS. It seems that most backup solutions are agnostic about the type of file system used for the backup medium (storage). This implies that the file system cannot be relied upon to provide support. It is also quite doubtful that even if NTFS is used for the backup medium that simply having support for hard links would do the job.
The question is what is WD Smartware, or for that matter WD Backup, going to do to back up hard links contained in the file system that is being backed up?
