Good solution for backing up?

Software, no idea TBH.
But just here to say that the time it takes to backup will be dependent on the performance of the drives involved, not the software.

I use something called ROBOCOPY, that is if you are using Windows. I mean its free, it's a batchfile. FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK ON THE "How to Create a Backup Script Using the ROBOCOPY Command" BELOW.

How to Create a Backup Script Using the ROBOCOPY Command

Information
There are many paid and free software solutions available to backup critical data and files on a computer system. Many users, however, are unaware of an inbuilt Windows 7 command called ROBOCOPY (Robust File Copy) that allows users to create simple or highly advanced backup strategies.

In its simplist form, ROBOCOPY can be likened to an extension of XCOPY on steroids. Some of the more important features that make ROBOCOPY an attractive backup alternative are:

multi-threaded copying
mirroring or synchronisation mode between the destination and source
automatic retry and copy resumption

The examples shown below are primarily geared towards less experienced users, especially those that are unfamilar with batch file creation and running. More experienced users, however, are welcome to explore some of the advanced functionality offered by ROBOCOPY here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145(WS.10).aspx

and also here:

http://www.theether.net/download/Mic...s/robocopy.pdf

or by simply typing robocopy /? at a cmd window prompt.
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Note
ROBOCOPY is a FOLDER copier, not a FILE copier - the source and destination syntax arguments in ROBOCOPY can only be folder names.
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The general format of the ROBOCOPY command is:

Code:
robocopy <source> <destination> <options>

In the empty Notepad document, the simplist form of the command would look like this:

Code:
robocopy E:\Data1 G:\Backups\Data1
robocopy F:\Data2 G:\Backups\Data2
robocopy F:\Data3 Q:\Backups\Data3
pause

Tip Tip
If source or destination paths contain spaces in them, enclose these in double quotes e.g. "C:\My Data\My Music"


Only the source

E:\Data1
F:\Data2
F:\Data3

and the destination

G:\Backups\Data1
G:\Backups\Data2
Q:\Backups\Data3

are mandatory inputs into the ROBOCOPY command.
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In order to utilise some of the powerful functionality in ROBOCOPY, I need to utilise some options in the ROBOCOPY command line. In this next example I want to edit my existing backup strategy such that:

All sub-folders within my data folders are backed up, even if they are empty.
The backup only copies newer files to my existing backup - this means a faster backup time.
The percentage progress counter for copying is not shown - this neatens the overall appearance of the ROBOCOPY information, and creates a smaller log file.
The information normally echoed to the cmd window is saved to a log file that I can examine at a later stage.

In order to do this, I need to specify some additional options in my ROBOCOPY commands like this:

Code:
robocopy E:\Data1 G:\Backups\Data1 /e /mir /np /log:backup_log.txt
robocopy F:\Data2 G:\Backups\Data2 /e /mir /np /log+:backup_log.txt
robocopy F:\Data3 Q:\Backups\Data3 /e /mir /np /log+:backup_log.txt
pause

Where:
/e = copy all sub-folders, even empty ones
/mir = mirror (check the files in the destination, and only copy newer files)
/np = no progress counter
/log: = create a logfile

Read THIS to see the best free products with pros and cons, and of them I've used EaseUS Todo and it works well for a free product. If you are just doing a one time copy I would just drag and drop.

Too many variables to guess. USB controllers react differently to large single files and multiple small files, either HDD could be fragmented which would slow performance, we just simply don't know the performance of them.
Most I can say is do it and see how long it predicts.

If your USB 3 controllers are good, 250GB should take 6 hours or less based on my experience backing up video files using USB 3.

For usb3 to work all devices in the chain have to be usb3. Usb3 externadrive connected with a usb3 cable to a pc's usb3 ports the the reverse for the other drive you have. Throw a usb2 or 1 in there and it drops to the slowest speed.

Also transferring from usb to usb device throws the pc in as a middleman. It first copies usb#1 then reads it back out to usb#2. This will slow the process down too.

A whole day seems rediculas.

That makes no sense at all -- how can 23 hours be elapsed if you just started the process?

Don't do anything else on the machine and close the other programs while it is copying. You find out by doing a transfer and seeing what the data rate that you get -- yours is not too good at the moment but may improve if you stop other disk access. I can backup that much data in less time with a USB 2 connection.

You certainly implied it when you posted, apparently long after you started. The controllers in Windows XP are not going to be good. A good controller would be something like the native controller on an ASUS Z87 board running Windows 7, which is what I use. Which add in board provides your USB 3 connections?

If you are running XP, what add in USB 3 card model do you have? You obviously need to provide more system information as it sounds like an odd situation that you have there. You do realize that if you connected two USB 3 devices to old USB 2 ports that you only get USB 2 transfer, right?

You said that you are running XP, why ask about Win7 now? Different computer?

Going from one USB2 to another 12MB/s is reasonable. With 2 USB 3 ports (and two USB 3 devices) I would expect three times that or so, although the newest Intel on chip ports seem to be doing better speeds (anecdotally, as I have not done any real testing yet) .

look at the color of the usb port itself. If its blue its usb3. Most pc's and laptops that have usb3 also have usb2 ports