Posted by Bill Pelzmann on February 1, 2010 at 3:47 AM
In Nat Coalson's workflow seminar there was a discussion about backup software options. SyncToy, a free Microsoft utility was mentioned. I've been using it for the last month and find it perfect for my needs. I had never heard of it before and want to make certain that others are at least aware of this free utility.
I have relatively simple needs and do not want to use incremental backup software or set up a complex automatic backup system. My current image data set is just at 1TB. All files are stored on two 1.5TB external USB drives, which I would like to keep in sync with the least amount of hassle. The 2nd, drive is always offline, except during a backup copy. Up until now, I was just copying folders or files manually as needed. But, of course, it is a pain to keep track of all the updates, and I get lazy and fall behind.
SyncToy lets you define folder pairs and save templates of the backup options for each. Obviously I want all additions, changes and deletions on the master to be reflected in the backup. I have all my images organized by state. So at the end of the day, I plug in the backup drive and select any states that have had changes. There is a preview option that shows what changes will be made. It takes almost no time for the report to display. The total backup time obviously will vary with the number of new files copied.
Bottom line: SyncToy has been easy to use, reliable and fast. My backup disk is hardly ever online, and the price is right.
BTW: I also have a third complete set of images on smaller capacity hard drives stored offsite, and a fourth set of RAW images on DVD.
CAUTION: Don't ever rely on having only one backup copy of your images. A few years ago I bought a 1TB Western Digital external drive when that capacity was relatively new. In the process of copying 600GB of files to that drive, I got an write error message. I wasn't too worried, until I discovered that only 20GB had been copied to the new drive, AND my old drive was unreadable!!@@@# Ultimately I did not lose a single image. However, restoring that much data from DVDs was a pain, and of course you start from scratch with all the editing if you only have RAW files. A painful lesson, but it would have been much worse without that third DVD copy.
Thanks again, Nat. Your SyncToy recommendation has been a real time saver. Most importantly, my backups are being made regularly!
PS: What are you guys with DROBO systems doing to back up those drives?
Posted by Mel Ladewig on February 1, 2010 at 10:08 AM
I have been using a similar tool called SyncbackSE for quite a while. It cost $25 for 5 seats and has been well worth it. It can backup, synchronize and restore and has the ability to synchronize with an FTP server if you keep your files remote that way. I bought this before the Microsoft SyncToy was published.
I use a Buffalo Terastation and have been using it since about 2004. Its the MASSIVE 1TB model, which doesn't really seem that massive anymore. Its a simplified user friendy network attached storage device similar in concept to the DROBO. I use the terastation as my local backup and keep a third external drive offsite. The disc status is displayed on the front of the device terastation and shows red if full or damaged. I keep an eye on that. My primary drive is in my PC.
By using synchronize rather than RAID mirroring, you can ensure you don't lose both data sets simultaneously.
One of the things I liked about syncback and my terastation was that the terastation has a built in FTP server capability and syncback does synchronization and backup across FTP. When I was traveling, I could backup my work documents to the terastation at home automatically each night.
Thanks for the advice guys. I have about 6TB available on the Drobo but my plan is to backup my stuff to external also and leave it offsite at someones place.
RichieV
Posted by Mel Ladewig on February 1, 2010 at 10:26 AM
I keep my third disk on my desk at my workplace. I know that wouldn't work well for Richie, but I think its a reasonable solution for alot of us.
One thing I learned about external drives, ipods and network drives is that you want your mapped network drives to be high letters. If there is no available letter after the attached drives, the ipod goes into a restore death spiral. It seems to affect usb drives that are not permanently attached too.
Posted by Don Grall on February 1, 2010 at 11:44 AM
I've been using SyncToy for about a year and a half with good results. It's quick and easy and allows me to manually manage my files rather than depend on an auto solution which I never seem to be able to trust.
Posted by John Mumaw on February 1, 2010 at 11:46 AM
Another enthusiastic two year user of the free SyncToy.
No need to spend big $$$ on so many needed photographic/computer peripherals, and SyncToy is a fine example of that philosophy.
The only thing it lacks is automatic backup, which is of no concern to me.
Thanks all for the heads up on SyncToy. I have been looking for a good free utility for windows to use for backup, now that I have my Drobo. A few questions... What are the problems with automatic backup? If that sucks, what is the purpose of the tool? I can drag and drop my own folders to my drobo manually, so I thought the purpose of a tool was to automate that? =)
Posted by Brian Jackson on February 1, 2010 at 1:05 PM
I've been using the Syncback freeware version for a year or two and it's worked perfect for my needs.
Posted by John Mumaw on February 1, 2010 at 4:33 PM
What are the problems with automatic backup? If that sucks, what is the purpose of the tool?
Nothing wrong with that feature at all (at least in my case). I just don't need it, so this free tool is just right for me. If you need an automated backup system, then SyncToy won't work for you. I used to just drag 'n' drop my folders for backup as well, but found that a simple click on 'OK' was easier (after initial setup), along with the added security via redundancy checks that not a single image was missed and no corruption of files occurred.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on February 1, 2010 at 5:16 PM
Ditto on John's comments.
With a manual drag and drop, I found myself not catching all of the changes. It is essentialy "automatic" after turning on the backup drive and the two clicks of starting SycToy and selecting the appropriate folder pair.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on February 1, 2010 at 6:23 PM
Are any of you guys doing any type of data validation? I'm really anal about backups, but I recently had some corrupt files propagate all the way through my entire backup stream. I'd love to hear how others are handling this.
Posted by Momo Vuyisich on February 1, 2010 at 7:51 PM
Thanks for the info Bill. I will try it.
Posted by Koveh Tavakkol on February 1, 2010 at 11:05 PM
Dido... Thanks, going to download it and try it now. =)
Posted by D J Kuklinski on February 3, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Ditto . . . I just downloaded and ran the program. Now I'm a campy hamper . . . or is that a happy camper.
Discussion
13 repliesDownload and technical details here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en
I have relatively simple needs and do not want to use incremental backup software or set up a complex automatic backup system. My current image data set is just at 1TB. All files are stored on two 1.5TB external USB drives, which I would like to keep in sync with the least amount of hassle. The 2nd, drive is always offline, except during a backup copy. Up until now, I was just copying folders or files manually as needed. But, of course, it is a pain to keep track of all the updates, and I get lazy and fall behind.
SyncToy lets you define folder pairs and save templates of the backup options for each. Obviously I want all additions, changes and deletions on the master to be reflected in the backup. I have all my images organized by state. So at the end of the day, I plug in the backup drive and select any states that have had changes. There is a preview option that shows what changes will be made. It takes almost no time for the report to display. The total backup time obviously will vary with the number of new files copied.
Bottom line: SyncToy has been easy to use, reliable and fast. My backup disk is hardly ever online, and the price is right.
BTW: I also have a third complete set of images on smaller capacity hard drives stored offsite, and a fourth set of RAW images on DVD.
CAUTION: Don't ever rely on having only one backup copy of your images. A few years ago I bought a 1TB Western Digital external drive when that capacity was relatively new. In the process of copying 600GB of files to that drive, I got an write error message. I wasn't too worried, until I discovered that only 20GB had been copied to the new drive, AND my old drive was unreadable!!@@@# Ultimately I did not lose a single image. However, restoring that much data from DVDs was a pain, and of course you start from scratch with all the editing if you only have RAW files. A painful lesson, but it would have been much worse without that third DVD copy.
Thanks again, Nat. Your SyncToy recommendation has been a real time saver. Most importantly, my backups are being made regularly!
PS: What are you guys with DROBO systems doing to back up those drives?
I use a Buffalo Terastation and have been using it since about 2004. Its the MASSIVE 1TB model, which doesn't really seem that massive anymore. Its a simplified user friendy network attached storage device similar in concept to the DROBO. I use the terastation as my local backup and keep a third external drive offsite. The disc status is displayed on the front of the device terastation and shows red if full or damaged. I keep an eye on that. My primary drive is in my PC.
By using synchronize rather than RAID mirroring, you can ensure you don't lose both data sets simultaneously.
One of the things I liked about syncback and my terastation was that the terastation has a built in FTP server capability and syncback does synchronization and backup across FTP. When I was traveling, I could backup my work documents to the terastation at home automatically each night.
RichieV
One thing I learned about external drives, ipods and network drives is that you want your mapped network drives to be high letters. If there is no available letter after the attached drives, the ipod goes into a restore death spiral. It seems to affect usb drives that are not permanently attached too.
No need to spend big $$$ on so many needed photographic/computer peripherals, and SyncToy is a fine example of that philosophy.
The only thing it lacks is automatic backup, which is of no concern to me.
Nothing wrong with that feature at all (at least in my case). I just don't need it, so this free tool is just right for me. If you need an automated backup system, then SyncToy won't work for you. I used to just drag 'n' drop my folders for backup as well, but found that a simple click on 'OK' was easier (after initial setup), along with the added security via redundancy checks that not a single image was missed and no corruption of files occurred.
With a manual drag and drop, I found myself not catching all of the changes. It is essentialy "automatic" after turning on the backup drive and the two clicks of starting SycToy and selecting the appropriate folder pair.