File synchronization software.

[wildest_jjk]

Hi,

I am thinking about using an online backup system for my desktop computer. However a lot of them say that the subscription only includes one PC. To get around this I am thinking of using some sort of file syncing software, one that was suggested to me is SyncToy to sync the files on my laptop to my desktop. This would then allow me to just backup my main computer and it will include the laptops files as well.

Anybody have any better suggestions for file syncing software? Or any better ways of doing this?

Thanks.

 

[wildest_jjk]

Thanks for the response. There are an awful lot of threads there! I have had a look at a few but am still none the wiser to be perfectly honest!

Would this combination be better than synctoy for example?

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Windows Live Mesh is great too

I don't use this for my Music / Video backups, but it's a great tool for keeping multiple machines sync'd.

You can have an online storage space too if you wish.

I use mine to keep a latest set of installers for things like CCleaner, Firefox and a load of other programs. Works perfectly for me

Thanks for the response. That is another option then, not sure how it compares with robocopy though.

Yeah there are quite a few threads. What Windows do you have? If Windows 7, you'll automatically have Robocopy I think. If you let me know what you want copy, from where and to where, I can set up a sample batch script for you to try out.

Have a look at the Microsoft link I posted, it's the Robocopy manual and can tell you about options Robocopy offers.

Yer I do have windows 7. That sounds great and I would really appreciate it. How come you use this instead of something like synctoy or windows live mesh though?

I also need to exclude certain folders though as well.

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Have been using this for a couple of years now i think

robocopy "\\servername source" "local path destination" /MIR /np /ndl /nfl /LOG+:"log output path.txt" /r:1 /w:1 /tee

Can't remember exactly what the options do but the wait and retry options are changed so that it times out quickly if the source is switched off

Thats another things I should add, it would be over my network and I would need it to be automatic. Not sure what the line does but maybe someone else can explain. Can robocopy sync over network and automatically?

 

[wildest_jjk]

Thanks again for the response. The problem is I need to backup basically a whole partition excluding a couple of folders. Surely that will be quite a lot of work compared to a GUI that can do it?

Also it is automated right? Sorry if you have answered that already! I just don't want to always have to worry about setting it to sync myself!

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Right ok I will give it a go and see what it is like If you don't mind helping me of course!

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

So here is my attempt. No idea if it is right or not, also removed the p from the end of your command. Dunno if that was a typo? Correct me if I am wrong! So as the destination is a networked computer I have put it into the command like that. Not sure if that is right though either.

robocopy D:\My Documents "\\James-PC\Laptop" /S /TEE /LOG+:"D:\log.txt" /NP /PURGE /R:3 /W:3 /ETA
robocopy D:\My Music "\\James-PC\Laptop" /S /TEE /LOG+:"D:\log.txt" /NP /PURGE /R:3 /W:3 /ETA
robocopy D:\My Pictures "\\James-PC\Laptop" /S /TEE /LOG+:"D:\log.txt" /NP /PURGE /R:3 /W:3 /ETA
robocopy D:\My Videos "\\James-PC\Laptop" /S /TEE /LOG+:"D:\log.txt" /NP /PURGE /R:3 /W:3 /ETA

Also do I need any other commands? Such as /mir? Or even /MT? I have heard that using multi threading speeds up the backup massively. Again this could all be wrong!

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

I use robocopy for my backups of music, videos, photos and folder I wish to keep.


Live mesh is what I use to keep a folder up to date on 8 different computers without any interaction.

Hmm I really am not sure what would be better then? The scenario I have is 1 desktop and 1 laptop. I want to back these up safely. However as I said in the first post I am looking into cloud based backups. This would only be for one computer though because you are charged extra for more. So I wanted to sync the laptop files that need backing up to my desktop. I can then just backup my desktop to the cloud. I will also take system images and store these on an external hard drive.

That seems to be the best solution at the moment. However I am not sure the best way of getting the files onto my desktop. I presume robocopy would still be better than live mesh? I just need it to run at all times and detect changes automatically.

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Lol now I am confused. So for syncing my laptop files to a folder on my desktop PC I should now use live mesh?

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Thanks for the response. The thing is with live mesh I think it only syncs the files to your personal folders. I want to be able to back up/sync selected folders on my laptop over my network into a specific folder on my desktop. So not sure which would be better? Surely still robocopy?

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

do you really need your files backed up in the "cloud"? if you want to access them in a browser from anywhere then it can be handy.

but if not, just stick to using robocopy.

Thanks for your response. The reason is because external hard drives are not exactly safe. Storing backups for two devices on one external hard drive isn't really a great solution. I could go with a NAS device such as netgears readynas. However a cloud solution is much cheaper and has advantages such as security, offsite and browser access.

So from what I have been looking at I think yes really. But I am all for suggestions.

Thanks again

 

[wildest_jjk]

Right so the options are:

• Robocopy
• FreeFileSync
• SyncToy
• Live mesh

Can they all run continuously and synchronize themselves? Can they run over my home network? Can you select specific files and folders and sync to a specific folder on the networked PC?

EDIT: Just to add the ultimate goal is to essentially have my laptop backed up to my desktop, so that I can then backup my desktop to the cloud.

 

[wildest_jjk]

Anyone?

Thanks

 

[wildest_jjk]

Yes to everything for synctoy. Can't speak for the others.

Thankyou that's very helpful

 

[wildest_jjk]

Thanks for the response, isn't dropbox limited space though? Or would it not be this way?

 

[wildest_jjk]

Yep. 2GB but you might be able to get more this way: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18370973&highlight=dropbox & http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=55007&replies=75

How much space do you need? I still think a Robocopy script would be your best option; it'll work over a network and you can set a task that exectutes the batch script to run every hour or something.

Well it will be about 100GB initially then of course it will be incremental. To be honest I think it still sounds the best option. The only other one is SyncToy really. I can't see that any others will be suitable.

The thing that concerns me most is the scheduling of robocopy for example. I was hoping the syncing will be checking all the time!

Thanks again

 

[wildest_jjk]

OK, forget Dropbox then. I think you're looking at Robocopy or Synctoy then.

I've just looked on Wikipedia's Synctoy page. There's a link describing how to get Synctoy to run automatically; it is done by scheduling a task to run, so the same as I've been saying about Robocopy.

You could get Robocopy to run every hour or two hours, depending on how frequently data might get changed. When Robocopy runs it can compared the source files/folders to the destination files/folders. If a file or folder in the source location has been changed, i.e. been deleted, renamed, updated or in the case of a folder had new files added, then Robocopy will update the destination copy. If there's been no change in the source files and folders then Robocopy will leave them alone.

True. The files could be zipped into a 7z file, as bledd. described earlier, and password protected to give some level of protection.

So for the laptop to desktop sync it is still sounding like robocopy. However just going back over the thread bledd did mention about live mesh. Was there a reason that this was not a good idea? Live mesh is also continuous I believe?

Going off of my original topic slightly I could use dropbox in replacement of carrying a memory stick around with work on? That could be very handy and saves the loss of memory sticks

Also the 7z archive sounds quite interesting for archiving purposes. Does it compress much more than standard zip then or something? It definitely sounds like something I might be able to make use of for other things. Just not my solutions at the moment!

Thanks again.

 

[wildest_jjk]

Not sure. I've not used Live Mesh so I can't really answer for it.

Yep. I use it to send stuff to work so there's no bother with email or pendrives. I tend to use Dropbox for documents and a pen drive for larger programs.

I've not seen bledd's script yet but I do know that the 7-Zip interface has several levels of compression. I think the 'Ultra' level of compression is meant to be quite good compared to .zip. I'd be surprised if bledd's script didn't allow for the specification of what compression level you wanted.

I have tried live mesh just because everybodys experience with it seems to be positive. Its also because it is continuous which I think is better for this situation! I will post back here how it goes and if any problems arise.

I am definitely going to use dropbox for my work documents. I would like to get the extra storage if possible though because I think that will be well worth it! I tried the dropbox link that you posted and downloaded the .exe on there. But I am not sure if that is how I get the extra storage? I went on the overclockers link and that seems to be from the beginning of this month as well. So is it over now?

Cloud storage of the Dropbox type would be the best for what you want to achieve - the synced folders are continuously monitored, and any changes/additions/deletions are immediately copied to your online storage and automagically propagated to any other machines running the software. The downside of course is cost, so if you go down this route you might also want to check out the alternatives - Sugarsync, Spideroak, Wuala are some examples that spring to mind.

If security is a serious issue, Spideroak or Wuala would be your best bet, as they perform client-side encryption and nothing ever leaves your own system unencrypted - Dropbox does encrypt your files, but the encryption is performed by them at the server end, and they could in theory gain access to your data, although it's their company policy not to do so (for whatever that's worth).

If you just want simple machine to machine syncing on your local network, check out FreeFileSync - it's faster, more reliable and has many more features than SyncToy, which has always left me considerably underwhelmed whenever I've used it. It also incorporates a realtime syncing component called (unsurprisingly) RealtimeSync which could be handy if you want your folders continuously monitored rather than periodic syncing on a schedule, although I've never used it personally so couldn't vouch for its ease of use or effectiveness.

edit: just noticed that FreeFileSync was in fact mentioned earlier in the thread - IMO it's currently the best of its type, although there are plenty of other options (free and commercial).

Thanks for your response. I am looking into backblaze for my main cloud storage system. This is because it is cheaper and has much more space than the others, as well as being encrypted. Overall I need to store quite a bit of data (two computers).

FreeFileSync might be another option in terms of syncing my laptop to my desktop, but I am just seeing how live mesh works for now!

 

[wildest_jjk]

So far live mesh has been both good and bad. For a start I don't think it runs on startup meaning continuous synchronization isn't possible until you manually start it? I might be wrong with this.

Also one thing I realised is that any modifications that you do in either folder will affect both. That is of course the point of windows live mesh however I don't want any changes to be made on the desktop. As this is in a sense a backup to my desktop no accidental changes should be represented in the source folder!

So by the looks of things its probably back to either FreeFileSync or robocopy. I believe they both have a features to only make changes in one folder to be reflected in the other, but not the other way around.

Backblaze is really a dedicated backup system, rather than a means to sync/access common data across multiple locations or machines, although I'm sure it's fine if that's what you want (you could also check out Crashplan as another option).

Incidentally, if you want client-side encryption for your work documents synced with Dropbox (or one of its alternatives), have a look at SecretSync - 2GB free, which might be enough for your needs, and up to 1TB if you're willing to stump up the cash.

Thanks for the response. You might not have understood what I am doing, so I'll explain briefly here Sync software backups up certain folders from my laptop to desktop. Cloud based storage then backs up my desktop which will also include my laptop. Don't know if that makes sense?

The thing with dropbox I don't really know how it works yet. Do you have to install it on every machine? Or can you just work on documents by downloading from dropbox, making changes and then sending it back up? With the encryption methods to use alongside dropbox will they work on any computer I am on, or do I have to have special software installed everytime?

Thanks again

 

[wildest_jjk]

Thanks for the response. I will have a look at crashplan then. What do you use robocopy and dropbox for?

Thanks