When Syncing Is a Good Thing

By Wayne Maruna

     No, This is Not Another Sermon on Image Backups      

    If you read my articles with any frequency, you’re tired of hearing me preach about doing regular system image backups. So take comfort in knowing this article is not about that.  It’s about an easy way to safeguard just your data (documents, pictures, music). An image backup is a great way to protect you if your hard drive crashes or gets corrupted by malware, but truth be told, it is not the best solution to protect you in situations where your motherboard gets fried due to a lightning strike, power surge, or a power supply that goes rogue.  Those events usually spell at minimum a new motherboard or maybe even a new PC.  In those cases, chances are you’ll not be restoring from a full image backup, since trying to restore Windows on a machine with different hardware is usually a recipe for disaster.  And if a new machine running Windows 7  is called for and the old machine ran Windows XP, don’t even think about trying to restore an old image backup.  While it is possible to recover data from within an image backup, there are easier things in life to do.  So ideally, in addition to an image backup, it’s good to have a separate data backup folder.  And if I can’t talk you into doing the occasional image backup, then data backup alone is an absolute must.

    Online Data Backup       

    The easiest way to regularly backup your data is with software designed to do that in unattended mode.  This may be software that accompanies an external drive, but what if you have elected not to purchase an external drive because it just seems too complex?  For starters, there are services that you can subscribe to that will back up your data over the internet onto their servers when your computer is on but not in use.  Carbonite and Mozy are two of the better known services.  Cost runs about $59 per year for data-only backups with unlimited space on Carbonite, and start at $72 per year on Mozy for up to 50GB of space.  For the average user, 50GB would be more than enough space unless you are a major pack rat.

    Do It Yourself       

    But there is a cheaper option.  For this, you still need some sort of device to store the data on, and I am going to suggest a simple flash memory stick (aka thumb drive, key drive, pen drive.) They come in varying capacities and are priced accordingly.  You can get 8GB units for $10 or less, 16G for $20 or less, and 32GB for $40 or less. You’ll need to determine just how much space you need.  I’m a heavy computer user, yet my Documents (exclusive of photos and music) can be backed up in about 2.5GB of space, and my photos folder, which holds over 4,400 files, will also fit in about 2.5GB of space.  It’s my MP3 music folder that breaks the bank, with 2,400 files consuming almost 9GB of space.  Still, all that would fit on a 16GB flash drive that can be had with a little hunting for $20 or less.  But note that 'your mileage may vary' applies here; I've seen people with over 60GB just in music files. If you're a photo packrat, you may also need something with more capacity.  Check your folder sizes in 'My Computer'.

   You’ll also need software.  I use a nice little program called Allway Sync.  Yeah, I know, it looks like there should be one less L and one more S in there, but that’s what they call it.  It is completely free for home use and only $20 for use in commercial settings.  You can download it from www.allwaysync.com.

            With the software loaded, you stick in your flash drive and configure the program.  That is a one-time process. Basically you tell the software what folders you want to back up, and to where you want to back them up.  Check in My Computer to find out the drive letter assigned to the flash drive; that’s your destination.  The important part of configuring the software is to tell it whether you want a one-way or two-way synchronization.  I choose a one-way sync, so that anything I add to or remove from the hard drive’s source folder gets duplicated onto the flash drive, but not vice versa.   Be careful to select the correct setting.

The program works by comparing the files in the source folder on the computer’s hard drive with the files in the target folder on the flash drive.  If it finds a file on the hard drive that is not on the flash drive, or if it finds a newer version on the hard drive, it will copy it over to the flash drive.  You can run the program either manually or in automatic mode.

            Running the program in manual mode is easy.  Plug in the flash drive, open the program, and click on Analyze.  It will scan for changes and report what it plans to do, for example, 15 new files and 25 changed files will be copied over to the flash drive.  If that seems right (and you can delve into the details if you wish), then you click on Synchronize and the job gets done.  It takes literally just a minute or two after the initial backup since only new or changed files are getting copied over.

            You also have the option of leaving your flash drive plugged in permanently and setting options to perform automatic synchronizations.  This can be done anytime you make an addition or change, or you can set it to occur on a time table varying from every two minutes to once a day or even once a month. 

            For my own part, I choose to make the backups manually because I’m concerned that if I leave the memory stick in the computer, a lightning strike or power surge could take out the flash drive along with the hard drive.  You can put a reminder into your calendar to plug in the flash drive and synchronize the data on a schedule appropriate for you.  Other than the one-time purchase of the flash drive, there is no ongoing cost as there is with an online service.

I’m sure there are other applications that do the same thing as Allway Sync, but I’ve never seen a need to go search for them.  The program works great and the price is right.