Hands on: Taking the pain out of backup

We’ve discussed backup media and devices many times, but this time I’m looking at some affordable or even free software to automate the process. Depending on your requirements, it may not be backup software you need.

The two types of backup
There are countless backup programs, including those built into recent versions of Windows. Most offer two types of backup: either a complete image that allows you to restore your entire system onto a new disk, or selective backup of certain files.

The latter can be used by anyone just wanting to back up their documents and photos, for example, and many programs can automatically find certain files, regardless of their location on your disk(s). Then whether you’ve chosen a complete image or selective files, the software normally creates a single, large backup file that is also often compressed. Job done. Or is it?

I have a few problems with this approach. First, the single large backup files are usually proprietary to the backup program, which means you need to have the same program in order to restore the data. I find seeing a copy of the separate files and folders more reassuring than trusting that everything’s contained within this single backup file, even if some tools allow you to ‘browse’ the contents. It’s also more useful if you need to instantly access certain files when the backup media is connected to another machine. I’m additionally wary of any program that says it’s going to find, say, all the photos on your system without asking where they are.

What I really want is software that makes an exact duplicate of specific folders I choose. Any changes in the original folders should be reflected in the backup destination and you can browse the files and folders in the backup. This will not only allow you to easily verify everything’s backed up as it should be, but also let you quickly access it on another system.

What I’m looking at isn’t backup software; it’s file synchronisation.

Taking exact copies
File synchronisation simply makes an exact copy of files in one location and stores them in another. It was originally designed for people who regularly use more than one computer, to ensure certain files were kept up to date on both systems.

But file synchronisation can be used to make selective backups. Rather than syncing from a desktop to a laptop, you could sync to an external hard disk and use that as a backup. Any changes to the original files would be reflected on the backup and you would always have instant access to them in their original format. Let’s see how two options measure up in practice.

Synchronising with Synctoy
Microsoft’s free Synctoy utility is a ‘Power Toy’, which means it’s free to use but not covered by Microsoft’s technical support.

Synctoy was originally developed for backing up photo collections, but can be deployed on other types of data such as document or music files. The latest version at the time of writing was 1.4, compatible with Windows Vista and requiring .Net Framework 2.0. You can find more information or download it from www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/synctoy.aspx.

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