...because I found out last week that backup software is not really what I've wanted for several years now. What I've really wanted is file synchronization software. Today's typical backup software, such as TrueImage, will backup drives, partitions, or directories into a proprietary backup file structure that needs the backup software to view or restore the backup contents. When you want to backup changing files on a regular basis, you have to do an incremental or differential backup that chains you to a sequence of those proprietary backup file structures.
What I've really wanted for several years now is to keep an up-to-date copy of specific data file directories on a backup hard drive. Such directories are those that contain all my word processor documents, spreadsheets, photos, e-mail, scanned copies, etc.
I don't really need to continually backup changing program executable files or operating system files -- having a backup copy of those is rarely useful unless you are restoring a whole partition. If you are recovering from disaster, you usually need to reinstall the software to ensure it is working correctly.
Last week I found software that is really suited to what I want to do -- Allway Sync. And to top it all off, it is free for personal use. When you run the program, you define specific file synchronization jobs that you will want to do on a regular basis. A "job" tells the program to synchronize a specific origin directory structure to another specified directory. In my case, I synchronize from my desktop to an external hard drive connected via USB. If you define it to be a one-way synchronization with file-deletions propagated, then you are maintaining an "exact" copy of your original file structure. [You can also define two-way synchronization -- if you were to add a file to the backup directory, it would propagate backwards to the original directory.] You can either run these jobs manually at your convenience or you can specify 7 different ways to do them automatically -- either periodically or under specific conditions.
The advantage of making this kind of synchronized copy is that you are not tied into a proprietary backup format -- your files are immediately usable in the standard Windows directory structure. I can take my external USB hard drive and plug it into my wife's PC or my laptop and view & work with those files as-is.
I'm not going to throw away my TrueImage software yet, however. I think its best use is to make full partition images of pristine installations for disaster recovery purposes. If I was starting from scratch (or bought a new PC), I would install Windows and run Windows Update until it was current. Then I would make a TrueImage partition backup so that I could easily get back to that pristine point if needed. I would then install the software that I consistently use and then make another TrueImage partition backup. Then I would load all my "personal" data files from my synchronized backup copy.
Conservative person that I am, I will make periodic data DVD copies of my synchronized data files for archiving purposes -- maybe on a semi-annual basis.
What I've really wanted for several years now is to keep an up-to-date copy of specific data file directories on a backup hard drive. Such directories are those that contain all my word processor documents, spreadsheets, photos, e-mail, scanned copies, etc.
I don't really need to continually backup changing program executable files or operating system files -- having a backup copy of those is rarely useful unless you are restoring a whole partition. If you are recovering from disaster, you usually need to reinstall the software to ensure it is working correctly.
Last week I found software that is really suited to what I want to do -- Allway Sync. And to top it all off, it is free for personal use. When you run the program, you define specific file synchronization jobs that you will want to do on a regular basis. A "job" tells the program to synchronize a specific origin directory structure to another specified directory. In my case, I synchronize from my desktop to an external hard drive connected via USB. If you define it to be a one-way synchronization with file-deletions propagated, then you are maintaining an "exact" copy of your original file structure. [You can also define two-way synchronization -- if you were to add a file to the backup directory, it would propagate backwards to the original directory.] You can either run these jobs manually at your convenience or you can specify 7 different ways to do them automatically -- either periodically or under specific conditions.
The advantage of making this kind of synchronized copy is that you are not tied into a proprietary backup format -- your files are immediately usable in the standard Windows directory structure. I can take my external USB hard drive and plug it into my wife's PC or my laptop and view & work with those files as-is.
I'm not going to throw away my TrueImage software yet, however. I think its best use is to make full partition images of pristine installations for disaster recovery purposes. If I was starting from scratch (or bought a new PC), I would install Windows and run Windows Update until it was current. Then I would make a TrueImage partition backup so that I could easily get back to that pristine point if needed. I would then install the software that I consistently use and then make another TrueImage partition backup. Then I would load all my "personal" data files from my synchronized backup copy.
Conservative person that I am, I will make periodic data DVD copies of my synchronized data files for archiving purposes -- maybe on a semi-annual basis.
