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June 2, 2008 12:00 AM PDT

Featured Freeware: SyncBack

by Seth Rosenblatt
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SyncBack is a straightforward backup utility that makes it a snap to safeguard and synchronize your files. Surprisingly flexible for a free program, SyncBack can save your files anywhere: on external hard drives, in ZIP archives, write them on CDs (using UDF), or transfer them via FTP. Recovering from a drive loss is also cinch, with a convenient restore tool that replicates folder trees along with the files in them.

It lets you define multiple scheduled backup jobs so you can just set 'em and forget 'em, too, allowing users to create specific backup jobs for certain folders or file types. You can control the way files are compared and selected for backup: the program comes with ready-made profiles to make the process as easy as possible. It's hard not to like that SyncBack doesn't use many system resources when working in the background, and backups can be set to export their logs to an HTML file for easy viewing. All in all, it's an excellent choice for both home users and small businesses.

Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter.
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by n0lxx June 2, 2008 10:49 AM PDT
The BIG problem I have with software like this is simple. What happens if you have a MAJOR crash and have to wipe the drive? How do you get all your settings and programs back? Does this program provide a way to automatically install all the files and programs the way they were? There's only one program that I've found to allow me to do that so far. It only works with Windows XP 32-BIT versions. That program is NovaStor's NovaBackup.
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by skylights June 2, 2008 8:34 PM PDT
SyncBack is terrific for what it does. If you have a major crash, just restore from an image backup.
by Franz Gruber June 2, 2008 9:28 PM PDT
Exactly right. I've reviewed about all the utilities with "Sync..." as part of their name (5 at last count), and none will do the big job that you describe and I need. Unfortunately, I don't have the 32-bit XP. If I did I'd be running to NovaBackup with my money out. I wonder if there is a reader who knows of something that works on XP home edition?
by morgansher June 2, 2008 11:56 AM PDT
WOW! Good tool!
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by Greg_Simon June 2, 2008 10:22 PM PDT
Check out Second Copy. It's much simpler than Syncback. I have been using Second Copy for the past 7 years and I never had any issues with it. It works like a charm. Second Copy has saved my butt many times when I needed to restore accidentally deleted files. I use Second Copy to backup files my external USB flash drive as well as to Buffalo NAS device. It handles two-way synchronization extremely well and fast too. I also like to encrypt my files with 256-bit AES encrytion using Second Copy and backup them up to my flash drive.
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