Backup VS Synchronization Software Utilities

I have used many types of Backup software over the years and I have to say, that overall, I’m not impressed. I remember when I bought a hard drive at a swap meet in 1991 and I thought I was getting a deal because a Western-Digital hard drive only cost me $340.00 for a 340 megabyte hard drive. Just imagine (my friend said) only a dollar a megabyte! So a 5 tarabyte drive (= 5242880 megabytes) means that it would cost you half a million dollars if we were still paying a dollar a megabyte like we did in 1991. Today a Western Digital 5 terabyte My Passport Portable External Hard Drive is going to cost you $119.00 dollars. So that is $23.80 terabyte and not ($1,048,576.00) over a million dollars like it 1991 prices.

What is my point here? My point is this; there is no reason for me to use backup software that uses disk imaging or any type of compression whether its proprietary or not. I’ve had very bad luck with disk imaging backups that are long and slow and many times that can’t even read their own proprietary files! Data storage of all kinds has never been any cheaper. So why are we still using different proprietary file compression techniques that fail so many times?

I have tried so many backup programs and have had issues with all of them for one reason or another. I don’t mind buying a paying for a good program but I refuse to rent software. I also don’t want any software that can only be read by their program like disk imaging software and the like.

For me there is only option and that is “Synchronization Software”. I’m no longer going to take a disk image of anything and waste any more money just to have my data ruined. I have “FreeFileSync” which comes in handy but it does not create sub-directories or any directories on the target drive. You have to make your own directories and I don’t want to spend the time and effort. And if you made a mistake with any of the sub-directories it could ruin the whole job.

The best program I ever used was the DOS and Windows 95 Colorado tape backup software. You just clicked on the files you want to copy from the “Source” and chose the where you wanted the files to go to, the “destination” and it did it for you perfectly every time and it would verify the files for you if you wanted.

I never seen anything as good as that, or as perfect a fit for my needs until Microsoft came out with “SyncToy” in 2009. I ran across it again but not on the Microsoft site because it is no longer updated or supported. I believe I got my copy at MajorGeeks. I believe that last one out was SyncToy 2.1. It does everything that I need and does not corrupt the files and creates all the same directories and files at the destination exactly the same as the source. Voilà!

So what’s the issues now JeffRedd!? Well it doesn’t work on Windows 11 and looking forward I need something that is going to work with Windows 11 onward. Now I’m seeing posts that say SyncToy will run in Windows 11. I guess I’ll have to give it a try. I read on some post that “You can still run this software on your Windows 11 PC after installing .NET Framework 2.0.” Well that’s nothing new you always had to install either NET Framework version 2 or NET Framework 3.5 which includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0.

Interesting enough I found someone who took the “SyncToy” concept, look and feel and created their own version of “SyncToy” called “FileSyncToy” and it looks the same but doesn’t work the same. This guy is actually selling this at the Microsoft Store but even though it only costs $9.99 it’s hardly worth your time and frustration. From what I’ve read, FileSyncToy is not ready for Prime Time.

So where do we go from here? Good question. I’m still looking for an answer for something that is not overly complicated and created for IT professionals on a network but rather for the home user like me who really only needs a small amount of data to be copied compared to businesses. Something like SyncToy that only copies files in there native state and does not do any disk imaging or file compression of any kind.

I guess for now I’m going to stick with Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 or Microsoft SyncToy 1.4 which is older but has a msi setup file and seems to have a little less overhead.

The only files I back up are My favorite downloaded software that is no longer easily available, about 11.7GB. My Documents, about 730MB. My drivers for all my computers, about 15GB. Old MP3 files, about 32.5GB. Roughly 60 gigabyte in all, which isn’t a lot of disk space at all. My Steam gaming directory on the other hand is around 433 gigabytes and will require the use of my USB 5 terabyte western-digital external drive. I rarely use USB Flash Drives for long term storage because they are not a good bet.

So do any of you regularly use a Synchronization program that also creates directories in the destination drive and does not image, compress or damage the files and transfers the files in their native state? If so I would very much hearing what you use. Thanks for reading my post, JeffRedd.

FastCopy

JeffRedd said:

So do any of you regularly use a Synchronization program that also creates directories in the destination drive and does not image, compress or damage the files and transfers the files in their native state? If so I would very much hearing what you use. Thanks for reading my post, JeffRedd.

I use Robocopy to Sync all my Macrium Reflect backups off my PC to a second drive using a Powershell script I hacked together from an old bat file that did the same thing and added a series of tweaks to it that I cobbled together with help from various posts on the Internet and the knowledgeable people here. Just runs from a shortcut on my desktop. I do need to add a check that the destination drive is available to the script but other than that it has worked with very few issues for years (issues were not script related I hasten to add).

One day I will get round to building the NAS - a very long standing project that keeps getting pushed down the line - and I will do something along the same lines to back up everything to that as well.

Takes a bit of work to get the syntax right but the information is out there. You just have to find it.

cereberus said:

Robocopy

Thanks but a command line interface is not what I'm looking for when working with large amount of files and directories. Thanks for your suggestion.

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Carmano said:

FastCopy

I've looked into FastCopy and it is closer to what I'm looking for but I'm not sure if it has been updated lately but I will try it. Thanks

It's kept up to date very frequently.

Thanks to everyone that's responded to my post. I've been wanting to get back and write what I have found but I've had some medical problems that came up and now I want to give you an update on some choices I made. I've decided to go with synchronization software and not with backup software.

After a long search that took me many days these are my favorites:

Allway Sync
Beyond Sync
Bvckup 2
DirSync Pro
ExamDiff
FileSyncToy
FreeFileSync
Macrium Reflect
PureSync
Syncbackfree
SyncFolders
Syncovery
Syncthing
SyncToy
ViceVersa PRO
WinMerge

And after that I narrowed it down to:

Beyond Sync
Bvckup 2
DirSync Pro
PureSync
Synchredible
Syncovery
ViceVersa PRO

I ended up with “Synchredible”. I based this on a lot of factors like how long they’ve been in business, support for product, price, features and most importantly (to me anyway) how well it’s laid out. I don’t want anything that is confusing even if it is complicated. There are many things you can do with this very powerful software utility including the use of filters.

I have taken a test run and set up the backup just how I wanted them. There are many choices but it’s all very straight forward and they do have a PDF manual. It’s free for personal use and I would recommend this to anyone who has a need for file synchronization.

Here is there website: ASCOMP Synchredible: Synchronize and back-up files, folders and drives