Monday, October 09, 2006

Backups with SyncToy

Microsoft SyncToy is the only reason I can find to go throught the pain of installing and updating the .NET framework. After all, it makes sense to download 35MB worth of software and patches just to run a 1.35MB application, doesn't it? This is a simple, yet brilliantly effective application.
You set it up to copy files from one point to another, typically from a hard drive to a removable or networked one. You can tell it to copy only newer or updated files, and synchronise the directories with several other options. it's like an automated, intelligent copy program. Like xcopy with a brain. Thanks to David Young at Funky Penguin for this tip.

4 comments:

Mark said...

Why is all that .net stuff worth it again? Is SyncToy that good?
Was wondering if you compared it to Syncback (free version).
It does a pretty great job at sync and has very granular configs.
I schedule it with task scheduler.

Maybe there are other solutions as well, just checking. Thanks

Donn Edwards said...

I haven't tried Syncback but Synctoy is the only utility I have used that was worth it installing the.NET stuff. I'll try Syncback and update this post.

Donn Edwards said...

I hope the scheduling options work, but I'm not going to try it out. The main interface of SyncBack is HORRIBLE compared with SyncToy.

I have uninstalled it already.

Anonymous said...

I also use SyncToy and LOVE it!

.NET Framework is not that bad to install/update. Just grab the latest one with service pack already built in.

For XP - http://filehippo.com/download_dotnet_framework_2/

For Vista - http://filehippo.com/download_dotnet_framework_3/