Backup and synchronize files with SyncToy

In this article, I will show you how to use Microsoft's SyncToy tool to create an up-to-date copy of all the data on your external hard drive .

Configure SyncToy to backup and sync files

Setting up SyncToy is not complicated, the important thing here is that you need to focus on how to sync, don't let it erase your important things!

SyncToy uses a new method for syncing, which is called Folder Pairs . Instead of definitively defining what your synchronization options are and then selecting individual folders, you can decide which folders to synchronize and will be synchronized in a way. Come on.

After downloading and installing the program, launch it and click ' Create New Folder Pair' .

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Select folders (step 1)

On the next page, select the folders you want to sync.

First, ' Left Folder ' is the root directory, meaning that you will make most changes in this folder, and your changes will be synchronized to a certain location. In the case of the test in this article, we selected the root folder 'Documents' on the D: drive.

' Right Folder' is the folder that will save the data in sync, in the case of the test in the lesson, the folder is named 'Documents' and is located on the H: drive (external hard drive).

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Synchronous action (Step 2)

This next step is the most complicated step and it will determine how SyncToy will work.

In version 2.0, there are three synchronous options: Synchronize , Echo and Contribute .

Synchronize : This action will 'mirror' the two folders (the two folders here are Left Folder and Right Folder), synchronizing the latest changes made to the files in this folder or other folder. New or updated files are copied both ways. The action of renaming or deleting a file on this side will be repeated on the other side. New folders and deleted folders are also popular in both directions. In short, this is a standard sync function (like Dropbox). It is most useful in situations where you continuously update your files and folders on two devices.

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Echo : This action will 'mirror' the right folder to create an exact image of Left folder. Any changes created on the root directory (Left folder) will be synchronized and reflected in the Right Folder. In other words, any changes to the Right folder will be deleted to maintain the integrity of the image. This is a synchronous action to use when you want to simply back up data from the Left Folder to the Right Folder.

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Contribute : This action will add changes from the Left Folder to the Right Folder. New or updated files will be copied from Left Folder to Right Folder. It's quite like Echo, but the difference is that there is no action to delete anything in the Right Folder.

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In short, if you want to keep two devices in sync, choose Synchronize. If you want a data set to be backed up, select Echo or Contribute.

Set the action name synchronously (Step 3)

Finally, you must provide a name for each of your newly created sync actions.

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Change settings

When the sync action is created, you can edit the sync action by clicking ' Change Action .' . You can also change synchronization options by clicking ' Change Options .' .

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Some options can be changed, allowing you to customize a number of settings such as the exclusion of specific folders.

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Run sync action

When the sync action is created, you can run it by clicking ' Preview ' or ' Run ' to start the action.

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Clicking Preview will show you changes (deleting, overwriting, renaming and creating new ones) that will be done for files and folders in your Folder Pair and Run will automatically start the process. In general, you should click Preview and make sure that the changes are what you expect.

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Since this is the first time we have synchronized it, there were 6,735 new files and 916 directories created.

If satisfied, you can click ' Run' .

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Depending on the number of files and folders that will be changed, the process is fast or slow.
All that is, now you can run this program multiple times to continuously backup your data.

Conclude

The main source of income for Microsoft is Office and Windows. Even so, there are some good products, such as SyncToy, that are missed by us, but this is one of the products that provides users with a free and simple solution that can solve the problem. not easy.

SyncToy is a versatile program that can synchronize an unlimited amount of data between two sources. In the next few articles, I will show you how to use it to synchronize data between your notebook and desktop.