Sync, sync, sync, synchronization!
Once upon a time, I was using a U3 USB disk for backing up some of my important business files, amongst other things. It was running with CruzerSync and whenever I’d plug the disk in and enter my password for the drive, CruzerSync would open. If I entered my password there, synchronization would start. CruzerSync was a good program and I would have continued to use it, but, alas, the time came for me to upgrade and then buy a new computer with Microsoft Vista. My version of U3 for my Sandisk Cruzer does not like Vista. So bye-bye it went.
That, along with the need for backing up files in our TV control room, meant I needed to find new synchronization software. I ran a Google search and downloaded the first thing I found: Allway Sync.
I really liked this software and ended up installing the mobile version for use on two jump drives. One to be used only in the TV room to occasionally backup Avid project files and the other mine for business files. I also installed the regular version on my desktop and made about four partnerships for it to backup on a schedule, but only when the files changed. However, I apparently recently exceeded one of the limits of the free version and was told:
Measurements indicate usage in excess of typical personal requirements. Please consider obtaining the Pro version of Allway Sync.
Of course, that’s bull… I mean, I just take a lot of photos. That wasn’t the only problem I had with it, apparently even though Vista shows your photos, music, and video folders separate from documents, they still have a shortcut somewhere under there. But Allway apparently had a problem and it didn’t like this, so the backup I had for the documents folder would always hang waiting for me to ignore the three errors. Other than that, it was a good program and I currently still have it on the TV room USB drive.
But I needed something else for home. So I searched again and I found SyncToy.
I love this program! It is only 1.29 Megabytes and is completely free with no restrictions.
My only complaint about it so far is that when you exclude folders, you have to manually exclude all subfolders. I really don’t want to bother backing up the EA Games folder in my Documents folder (for the Sims 2), so I had to uncheck each folder. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it takes some time when you’re first setting it up. But it is so easy to get synchronizing:
1. Start the program and select “Create New Folder Pair.”
2. Browse your computer to pick your “left” folder, the source folder, and click next.
3. Do the same for your “right” folder, the destination folder. Click next.
4. Now decide which action you want, there are five possibilities: Synchronize, Echo, Subscribe, Contribute, and Combine.
a. Synchronize will copy new and updated files and folders both ways, keeping the folders the same, along with renames and deletions.
b. Echo is what I have chosen for most of my pairs and will copy files from the left to the right, keeping all your updates, renames, deletes, etc., the same on the destination as the source.
c. Subscribe is when updated files on the right are copied to the left. (This could be used if you want to backup from a USB disk to a hard drive, etc.)
d. Contribute, from what I can tell, this works like Echo, only no deletions.
e. Combine, of course, combines new and updated files both ways. There are no renames or deletions.
5. Select your option and pick next.
6. Pick a name for this folder pair. Nothing fancy, this will just appear in the sidebar of SyncToy, helping you to identify what’s what.
7. Click Finish.
You will now see the folder pair, selected on left, with all the information spelled on the main screen. You can now preview and/or run the selected sync job as well as make changes to the job.
To exclude folders, click on “change options” and then “select subfolders.” You can also mess with other options. On the pair I am setting up now, I am synchronizing files between my laptop and the USB drive, so I am going to uncheck “active for run all” so that when I do a “run all” my laptop will only backup to the external drives across my network and not worry about my USB disk. Oh, that’s another reason I love this program — I can actually backup wirelessly over my network from my laptop, through the desktop, to my external hard drives. Just have to set it up with proper folders then make sure all three items are turned on, of course.
So when I preview a run of all folders? (Click for full view.)
Easy enough… and when I actually run it… even easier.
Now the really cool thing, too, is that I can schedule this. It’s not necessarily built into the program, like some others, but into Windows. There are directions from the help option along the top of SyncToy for both Vista and XP, but in a nutshell for Vista:
1. Open the Task Scheduler and create a basic task.
2. Fill out the basic stuff like name and description, time you want the task to run, etc.
3. Tell it that you want it to start a program and find the program SyncToy.exe. You might think this would be in the Program Files folder, right? It’s not, at least in Vista, it’s in your username > AppData > Local > SyncToy.
4. Then to get it to run automatically after the program starts, enter in ” -R” without the quotes, with the space.
So every day at 10am, the program opens on my desktop, backs up files, then exits. Nice, aye? Much easier and lighter than Allway Sync, really.
So, yes, check it out!
