File synchronization software.

wildest_jjk

wildest_jjk

wildest_jjk

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6 Jun 2011
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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.
 
Thanks for the response. There are an awful lot of threads there! :P 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 :)
 
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 :)
 
wildest_jjk said:
Thanks for the response. There are an awful lot of threads there! :P 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 :)
Click to expand...
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.
 
Have been using this for a couple of years now i think

Code: 
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
 
bledd. said:
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 :)
Click to expand...

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

MarcLister said:
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.
Click to expand...

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 :)
 
Uhtred said:
Have been using this for a couple of years now i think

Code: 
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
Click to expand...

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 said:
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?
Click to expand...
Because I'm a sad git who likes the sight of a batch script backing my stuff up for me and not some fancy GUI. :D:o

wildest_jjk said:
I also need to exclude certain folders though as well.

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
I'm sure there's a way to exclude certain subfolders with Robocopy. If not we can just have a line in the batch script for each folder that DOES need to be backed up. Robocopy will then work through each one in turn. :)

wildest_jjk said:
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?
Click to expand...
Yep.

"Ability to tolerate network interruptions and resume copying. (incomplete files are marked with a date stamp of 1980-01-01 and contain a recovery record so Robocopy knows where to continue from)" from Wikipedia's Robocopy entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

:)
 
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 said:
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 :)
Click to expand...
Oh, forgot to answer that bit. :) You can set the batch script to run as a Windows task scheduled for whenever you want it. :) Is that automatic enough?
 
wildest_jjk said:
Right ok I will give it a go and see what it is like :) If you don't mind helping me of course!

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yeah. Of course. :) I'm off for an early night now! :o Feel free to post back and either bledd. will beat me to it or I'll try to reply during lunch at work tomorrow. I'll be online tomorrow evening as well. :)

As a treat I thought I'd post one of my Robocopy scripts for ya. :p It back ups my desktops folder from my D: drive to my external hard drive. The "LOG+:"D\log.txt" should be self-explanatory. No idea why I have that. I don't need it. :D It just looks cool to see the CMD window with text moving around quickly! :o

Code: 
robocopy D:\Desktops "I:\Backup12\My Documents\Desktops" /S /TEE /LOG+:"D:\log.txt" /NP /PURGE /R:3 /W:3 /ETA

Forgot to say that I'm up at 6am so if you want to have a go tonight, post with any problems and I'll see if I can reply in the morning. :)
 
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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.

Code: 
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 said:
Thanks for the response. That is another option then, not sure how it compares with robocopy though.
Click to expand...


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.
 
bledd. said:
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.
Click to expand...

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 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Good spot! I must have hit the letter p when I was typing out the [ for the closing code tag. :)

I'll look at your code later on at work. :)
 
Try live mesh and see how you get on with it (Dropbox is another free alternative)

You don't have to pay a penny, just login with your windows live account.

If I save a file in the 'mesh' folder, it will automatically be uploaded to the online drive and the other computers that have that folder.

It's a live sync solution, rather than a backup solution.



I use a mixture of live mesh, robocopy and a bat file that I wrote for making .7z backup files of certain folders
 
I'll dig it out, I made quite a few additions to it and it works really well..

In the first few lines of the file you set your 'source' and 'destination' and 'filename' variables


Then it would create "X:\MarcLister 2012-02-24a.7z" if you ran it again today, it would be called 'b' and so on.

Obviously since they're 7z archives, it's a full backup each time and not a differential/incremental one.

I'll make a thread for it soon and trust you the link
 
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