What free backup sync software do you recommend?

[Morne]

Hi all

So I have 2 external drives and also 2 seperate pc's all with more or less the same information that I copy to each other manually. I have this because sometimes I use 1 drive off-site and sometimes some else is using my pc and also I need backup etc. The problem is the "MORE OR LESS same information". I'm finding I'm forever copying information between devices and it's becoming a bit of a mess to keep track of things and to keep all the devices updated.

Ideally if something changes, I want those changes only to be synced to the other drives etc. So if for example I add 3 photos to my main drive, I want to plug in my external backup drive and it will automatically copy only those 3 photos to the external drive. Then I want to take that external drive and connect it to for example my laptop which in turn will then also get those 3 photos.

Would be nice if for example I can also setup a FULL backup sync as 1 job (for a specific external drive), but only a selected couple of folders as another job for a different external drive
Because I would like a full backup on 1 drive, and say for example only photos and family stuff on another drive.

I have 3 external seagate drives. Isn't it suppose to come WITH software that do what I need?

If not, then what FREE backup sync software can I use for this?

[andybot_cg]

I use synkron: http://synkron.sourceforge.net/
super reliable, I've used it for years. Many options for how to back up.

[Morne]

Yes I'm also looking at these:
http://synchronicity.sourceforge.net/
http://winmerge.org/
http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/

Anybody else had any experience with any of these or the one andybot_cg mentioned?

[Morne]

Then there is this Free tool from Microsoft: SyncToy, it is part of Microsoft PowerToys
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en....aspx?id=15155
what you think?

[tammo]

crashplan is what i use.

[zeronove]

Then there is this Free tool from Microsoft: SyncToy, it is part of Microsoft PowerToys
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en....aspx?id=15155
what you think?

I use this for my daily off-site backup of all my wip, works fine for me; at the end of the day I plug in my usb key and run the sw and it searches into the paths you selected if something has changed then it goes on with the synch process

[andybot_cg]

Then there is this Free tool from Microsoft: SyncToy, it is part of Microsoft PowerToys
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en....aspx?id=15155
what you think?

I tried it early on, and it lacks a lot of features compared to Synkron, so gave up on it.

[Ramsay]

I've used Syncback Pro for years and wouldn't use anything else. There is a free version - http://www.2brightsparks.com/

[muoto]

http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/

i use it everyday to sync my workstations (work+home)
works perfect

that way i have 3 copies of my files...safe enough

[PixelJockey]

I've been using Allway Sync for several years now. After reading through these posts it seems very similar to FreeFilesync.

http://allwaysync.com/

[simmsimaging]

I use Synctoy mostly for this kind of thing, but have also used RichCopy for synching between network drives. SyncToy needs mapped drives - doesn't seem to work with network paths- otherwise it covers me just fine. For a long time I just used a simple .bat file to accomplish this too. What you are after sounds pretty simple - I'm sure any of these options would be fine.

b

[tammo]

Sykron looks good, i just started my first multisync.
I guess that feature is what you should use for backups?

[andybot_cg]

@ tammo - since I have multiple folders I am synchronizing (instead of a whole drive), I actually set up individual tabs and use scheduler. I don't like multisync because from what I recall, it tries to recreate the directory structure on the destination drive. I forget now exactly how multisync works, I just ruled it out early on as I was trying out different settings. I just want to have absolute control over which folders get written to and how (there are a couple different ways of setting up the master-slave relationships.) The tabs work great for that. It's also a very transparent program and you can see exactly what it's doing (plus you can preview what you are syncing, easily set up blacklists, and it makes a copy of anything that is overwritten so you can restore very easily.)