best program to sync data

Baxter

Baxter

Baxter

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has anyone got any recommendations of programs to sync data from one drive to another?
i have a computer set up as a media centre with a 2tb hdd, had a look yesterday at how much is being used and decided to start backing it up to a external hdd. Now I could manually copy everything but thought it would be a lot easier if i could just install some software which will scan certain folders and sync them onto the external hdd.

Cheers
 
+0 :p

Can't say I've tried the above

I just use robocopy, it's part of windows already


robocopy /e "c:\source folder" "d:\backup\destination folder"

first time it will copy everything, after that it'll just copy new and updated files
 
Ah but it won't give a summary of what's about to be done!

Sometimes I have done a summary in FFS and noticed files that were being echo copied over to be deleted from destination because they weren't at the source and realised that I had delete them accidentally when I didn't mean to at some point so simply copied them back from the destination to the source and ran the sync.

Stuff like that, FFS is more useful and the reporting comes in very handy for seeing what's going on!
 
Khaaan! said:
Ah but it won't give a summary of what's about to be done!

Sometimes I have done a summary in FFS and noticed files that were being echo copied over to be deleted from destination because they weren't at the source and realised that I had delete them accidentally when I didn't mean to at some point so simply copied them back from the destination to the source and ran the sync.

Stuff like that, FFS is more useful and the reporting comes in very handy for seeing what's going on!
Click to expand...

That's why I use the /e command, it only copies one way and leaves the source alone
 
Khaaan! said:
Free File Sync

Get ready for the incoming +1 posts...!
Click to expand...

+1

FFS is perfect. Easy to use and is fast. I use it on a daily basis for all sorts of syncing needs.

It also comes with another tool caled RealTimeSync which will automatically run a predefined sync routine when it detects changes in files to a specific folder.

I use RTS to automatically copy my lightroom library to my netbook whenever the netbook is switched on
 
I think you have misunderstood bledd :p

FFS also leaves the source alone but, if I deleted or edited a file from the source 2 days ago that I didn't mean to change then the FFS summary screen will show that and I'd realise something was off and cancel the change request for that file and restore the original before continuing the sync task.

I could set FFS to only append to the destination or mirror both ways for only changed files but for backup purposes echo sync from Left>Right is the best but that would just pile on to the disk usage each time, much better having a 1:1 echo sync from left to right, just like robocopy, but with proper reporting before the sync takes place so you see what's going on.
 
Last edited:
bledd. said:
+0 :p

Can't say I've tried the above

I just use robocopy, it's part of windows already


robocopy /e "c:\source folder" "d:\backup\destination folder"

first time it will copy everything, after that it'll just copy new and updated files
Click to expand...

+1 but i tend to use xcopy to backup all my files, create a simple batch and set it to run every week in task schedular
 
Another great feature of FFS is, using my example above, you could click the action icon sitting between the source and destination columns to flip the action for that file or folder so if by default it was echoing left to right you could echo it right to left if the one on the right is newer or you wanted to revert a change.

Pretty neat stuff!
 
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