SyncToy - Backup User Data

^What Jim said

Phone Man said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

What I would love to find is a sync program that can also copy the files that were synced in a backup to another drive or folder.

In SyncToy you just set up different parings. Some of my data is backed up to 2 external drives (I & X)

Attachment 301088

Jim

I can do that with FreeFileSync but it won't give me what I want. Here is an example of what I want:

I have Folder 5 (out of ten folders) on HDD E paired with Folder 5 (out of ten folders) on HDD F.

I add two files to Folder 4 and change three files in Folder 5 on HDD E.

When I run the syncing program, it will copy the two new files in Folder 4 on HDD E to Folder 4 on HDD F and the three changed files in Folder 5 on HDD E to Folder 5 of HDD F and delete the older version of the three changed files in Folder 5 on HDD F.

What I would like is to have an additional copy of the two new files and the three changed files that got sent to HDD F also sent to Folder 10 on HDD E. Then I could send only those files to a cloud backup service.

(Complicated, isn't it?)

Try SyncToy then

Jeannie, how Sync Toy works, depends on how tou set up rge folder pairs. It will copy the files different if you set it with different settings. I think Golden covered that in the tutorial I kinked to. And, uncomplicate your life, it makes everything better.

essenbe said:

Jeannie, how Sync Toy works, depends on how tou set up rge folder pairs. It will copy the files different if you set it with different settings. I think Golden covered that in the tutorial I kinked to...

You all are missing the point. I took another look at SyncToy and it works the same as FreeFileSync, other than FreeFileSync having at least a couple of extra features I like (folder pair comparison separate from syncing and the ability to send deleted files from the folder being synced to to a folder other than the recycle bin or being permanently deleted). Both depend on folder pairing to determine what files and folders are sent where. Basically, no matter which method you choose, you wind up with two folders that are essentially identical. That's fine for backing up a HDD to another HDD where you want an identical copy but don't want to spend the time necessary for a complete clone (not to mention the added wear and tear on the destination HDD from frequent cloning).

What I also want is only a copy of what was sent to the destination folder to also be sent to another folder. I only want that data in that folder so it couldn't be considered a folder pair. The reason behind that is both of my local backups are subject to loss from fire, storm, flood, theft, etc. (mechanical or other failure of one backup HDD is reasonably mitigated by having a duplicate backup on a second HDD). I can avoid loss from those scenarios by also having offsite backups. I used to keep a third backup in my safe deposit box at my credit union to reduce the amount of loss possible from losing both local backups. However, any data added or changed since that backup was made would be lost. I was depending on Carbonite to fill that gap and to serve as a second backup to backup the HDD in the safe deposit box should it decide to go belly up (face it, HDDs do die). Unfortunately, after the size of a backup on Carbonite exceeds 200GB, Carbonite throttles the connection. Most of the time, that isn't too large of a problem but I frequently dump large amounts of data onto my computer. When that happens, it takes forever for Carbonite to upload it and it's starting to be unable to keep up keep up with what I'm adding to my data drives.

The only way I can ensure I will not lose data added or changed since the backups in my safe deposit box were made, should I lose both local backups, is to have a cloud backup to fill that gap. I have not found any other cloud backup that is as reliable as Carbonite so I needed to modify my backup strategy. I have already added a second backup on a second HDD in my safe deposit box so I don't need Carbonite to backup that data anymore. What I do need is a way to have Carbonite to backup only the data that is added or changed between the offsite backups (I generally swap out the drives in the safe deposit box with the local backup drives once a month; more often if I dump large amounts of data onto my computer) so I can reduce the amount of data kept online to well below 200GB so my upload speeds won't be throttled. Since Carbonite also backs up data using folder pairing, I need to have only the data that FreeFileSync (or SyncToy, if I was using it) sends to a backup drive also sent to a dedicated Carbonite folder on a drive in my computer and have Carbonite backup only what is in that folder. Whenever I swap out my offsite and onsite drives, I would then delete the data in the dedicated Carbonite folder. Carbonite has 30 day versioning so the data that had been uploaded would be deleted 30 days after it is deleted from the dedicated Carbonite folder on my computer. That would easily keep the amount of data on Carbonite at any given time well under 200GB, avoiding throttling.

essenbe said:

...And, uncomplicate your life, it makes everything better.

Honey, that is the whole idea of all this. Right now, I have to manually save all new and changed files both to their destination on my computer and to the dedicated Carbonite folder (I haven't cleared out all the files I already have on Carbonite yet; I want to make sure I'm consistently adhering to the double save workflow first). It's fairly easy to do in some programs but a little more difficult in others. If I could find a file sync program that could do what I'm wanting, it would dramatically uncomplicated my life.

You really do need to uncomplicate things

Golden said:

You really do need to uncomplicate things

That's why I have a computer; to uncomplicated things. I have ADHD and it literally takes a computer for me to manage my life. I have to keep my finances as uncomplicated as possible, including having most the few bills I have paid automatically. Ridiculous as it may seem, sitting down and writing checks to pay bills is daunting to the point I used to have a horrible credit rating until I started using auto bill pay and using a computer to track my finances. I would never be able to find any of my records if I didn't have them on my computer (ironically, I was anal about keeping good records at work but I couldn't carry that over into my personal life).

I also have a lot of physical books, music CDs, DVDs, etc. that I just don't have the room to store physically and physically keep track of so I'm slowly moving all that over to my computer (all the CDs are already done and I'm past the halfway point on my books). All my data is critical (or it wouldn't be on my computer) so I need to ensure I won't lose any of it.

You should be able to follow the tutorial on Sync Toy. Is your backup drive seen in computer and is it formatted NTFS? If so, create a folder on it call it whatever you are backing up. For example Music. Open sync toy, click create new folder pair. In the left Folder click the browse button and navigate to the folder you want backed up like My Music, in the right part of the pair click the browse button and navigate to the folder you just created, Music, click next and select which you want. For a straight backup select Echo. It will copy the left folder to the right folder, and additions or deletions in the left folder will be duplicated in the right folder. Click next and give the pair a name. Make it descriptive enough so you know which one you are doing. Then click finish. Select the name you just created in the left column and click run. It should copy left to right. It will work with folders, partitions or entire drives if you want to set it up that way.

for syncing folders without mess try
folder actions for windows , a very clever bit of kit and no going back to manually sync,