I would like to setup an automated backup to my external hard drive each time it is connected to my PC using Synctoy 2.1. I just have some questions I would like answering first. My external HDD is used in conjuction with my WD Media player and therefore spends most of its time in the living room, I only intend to plug it into the PC once per week. When I do this I would like it to automatically backup all the specified folders directly to the HDD. How do I assign a permanent drive letter to an external HDD and how would I setup an automatic backup on plugin to this drive using Windows 7 home edition.
Synctoy 2.1 auto backup to External HDD
- Thread starter Viral
- Start date
Windows tends to remember the drive letter assigned to a particular device - so, in the Start Menu type Disk Management. Click the entry that appears.
Find your USB drive and assign it a letter of your choice. In future this should stick whenever you reconnect it.
As for SyncToy automatically syncing when it is attached is a little more difficult. As far as I know you still need to use SyncToy with Scheduled Tasks for any kind of automation.
Scheduled Tasks in Windows 7 supports a whole myriad of events - not just times and dates. The problem is finding the right event for the attachement of a specific device - i.e. it could be complicated!
You could possibly write a script and have it run via the drives Autorun - although allowing stuff to run on its own from removable media can be a security risk.
Find your USB drive and assign it a letter of your choice. In future this should stick whenever you reconnect it.
As for SyncToy automatically syncing when it is attached is a little more difficult. As far as I know you still need to use SyncToy with Scheduled Tasks for any kind of automation.
Scheduled Tasks in Windows 7 supports a whole myriad of events - not just times and dates. The problem is finding the right event for the attachement of a specific device - i.e. it could be complicated!
You could possibly write a script and have it run via the drives Autorun - although allowing stuff to run on its own from removable media can be a security risk.
If connecting the drive to different USB ports on the same PC, then Windows will often consider it to be a different drive, so you'll need to set the letter once per port, but it will remember subsequently.
Setting up the automation should be pretty straightforward using a script or batch file. I definitely wouldn't have the file autorun, not just for security but also you wouldn't want your backup to be automatically overwritten if you e.g. connect the drive to another PC. Similarly if you're sync allows deleted files to be erased from the backup, you don't want to have something instantly overwritten/erased if you connect the drive aiming to restore a corrupted/missing file. I suggest you simply have the batch file in the root of the HDD so you can run it manually once Win pops-up the contents upon connection.
Make sure you include a procedure to check that the backup completed successfully e.g. include a "pause" line at the end of the manual batch so you can see any messages before the cmd window closes. Or maybe have it log to a txt file which you check.
Setting up the automation should be pretty straightforward using a script or batch file. I definitely wouldn't have the file autorun, not just for security but also you wouldn't want your backup to be automatically overwritten if you e.g. connect the drive to another PC. Similarly if you're sync allows deleted files to be erased from the backup, you don't want to have something instantly overwritten/erased if you connect the drive aiming to restore a corrupted/missing file. I suggest you simply have the batch file in the root of the HDD so you can run it manually once Win pops-up the contents upon connection.
Make sure you include a procedure to check that the backup completed successfully e.g. include a "pause" line at the end of the manual batch so you can see any messages before the cmd window closes. Or maybe have it log to a txt file which you check.