lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Thank you, everyone for responding to my initial and ongoing questions. I appreciate everyones input, even if I did not choose your recommendation. I learned a lot in this thread and earlier threads about Backup Software in the UglyHedgehog.

I have decided to purchase SyncBackPro. I am a bit surprised about that, because I initially rejected it because it seemed too complicated. But many of you recommended it, so I decided to take another look. It is a little complicated, but it is also comprehensive. Two of the features I was looking for are providing thumbnails of photos on the backup file without using the backup software to view the files, and deleting files from the backup storage if they were deleted from the source location. Most of the software I evaluated did not satisfy either of these requirements or addressed it poorly. The main issue is that I think the SyncBack software will handle my backup needs.

Below is a list of the software I downloaded and reviewed, in no particular order.
-Ashampoo Backup
-EaseUS
-AOMEI
-Acronis True Image
-Backup for All
-FBackup
-Altaro Backup
-Goodsync
-Nova Backup
-Allway Sync
-Paragon
-Macrium

NancyG

I will follow any updates on this topic.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Well, since I have decided to use SyncBackPro, I have a few more questions for those that have experience with SyncBackpro. And BTW, I have been reading the SyncBackPro Help documentation for these answers.

I've also sent these questions to SyncBackPro support, but they have not gotten back to me yet. All I want to do is copy the data on my hard drive on my PC to an external drive attached to my PC.

1. I'm trying to determine if I should set up Backup tasks or Mirror tasks for backing up my data. It appears to me you can configure either one of them to almost function the same. I initially thought that Mirror was the one I wanted because it deletes files from the destination drive if they are not on the source location. But I've determined that you can configure a Backup task to do the same thing. So now I am trying to determine which task I should use.

2. When are Differential files created by SyncBackPro? After a full Backup task or after a full Mirror task or both? If a full Mirror task does not use Differential files, I will probably use it. Doing a restore is a bit easier if you do not have to deal with Differential files.

If any of you SyncBack users have answers, I would appreciate it.

photoman43

See if this helps.

https://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/pdf/SyncBackSEV9.pdf

Mirror and full can be different. I use both, for different purposes.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Well, thank you for the PDF. I saved it on my computer, but I do not see the answers to my questions. The PDf is essentially the same as the Help documentation hooked to the program. I am currently reviewing it line by line.

So if you use them both, when and why do you set up a Backup profile and when and why do you set up a Mirror profile?

photoman43

Backup--when I want to copy all of the images, like right after a download of RAW files, from D (source) to E (destination). Copy D:\My Pictures\Download 2020\ to E:\My Pictures\Download 2020. For example 1000 RAW images in a new file folder on D to E.

Now on D I look at them, cull (delete a lot of them) , process some and create some jpegs. To back these up, I do a Mirror D to E. The program adds to E the new or changed images and deletes the ones I had deleted myself on D.

I do not think I have ever run a Synchronize. See manual starting on page 20.

On my desktop D and E are internal drives. I also have external drives labeled F and G. I have sample profiles saved in Synckback for all of these different drives, both Backup and Mirror. C on my desktop holds just the operating programs.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

For those of you that are following this, I think I found my answer in the documentation below (in quotes). But I also think this documentation is outdated because you can configure a Backup task in SyncBack to delete files in the destination drive if they are not in the source drive. I'll see what the SyncBack support people say about this if they get back to me.

I still don't understand when Differential files are created. It's not just that I am curious. This is important to know if you ever have to do a restore.

"•Backup: A backup copies new and changed files in one direction, e.g. from your local drive to your attached storage drive. Files on your local drive will not be deleted, moved or replaced. Files that have not changed are not re-copied.

•Mirror: A mirror is the same as a backup except that it will also delete backup files that no longer exist on your source drive. For example: you mirror files from your local drive to an external drive. You delete a file from your local drive. When you next run the mirror profile it will delete that file from your external drive."

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

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Ok, that all makes sense to me how you are using it. Although, I think you could configure the Backup profile to do a delete of files on the E drive if they are not on the D drive. Then you would just rerun the D to E Backup after your culling and would not need the Mirror profile at all. But your system is working. That's all that matters.

I also do not plan to use the Synchronize process unless I sometime in the future want to keep two folders in sync.

Sorry to take in the weeds on this. I appreciate your feedback.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

One last post about SyncBack. Although at this time I have limited experience with SyncBack, I am very pleased with a couple of backups I ran on two PCs. I also sent several questions to SyncBack support, and a real live person got back to me within 24 hours! FWIW, the answers to my questions from their support person are shown below.


Thank you for contacting 2BrightSparks. (SyncBack)

Question: It appears to me that if they are configured the same (Backup and Mirror), they will provide a copy of my data that is the same. So when should I chose a Backup task and when should I chose a Mirror task?

Answer: Both Backup and Mirror profile will copy new/changed files within scope from profile's Source to Destination. However, a Backup profile keeps/retains those files that you may have deleted or moved from the Source (no longer needed files) on your Destination, but the Mirror profile delete files/folders on Destination which are deleted on the Source as well. Therefore, if you do not want SyncBack to delete destination 'only' files from destination then create a Backup profile. Otherwise, create a Mirror profile to make source and destination a 1-to-1' set of each other (with more or less same sizes on the Source and Destination).

Question: So with that thinking, I initially thought I would use the Mirror task and set it to delete files in the destination location if the files do not exist in the source location. Is that thinking correct?

Answer: Yes, correct.

Question: On the other hand, it appears to me that I can also set up a Backup task to delete files from the destination location when they do not exist on source location. So with this in mind, should I create a Backup Task or a Mirror Task?

Answer: The default settings of a Backup profile does not delete anything from destination. It only copies new/changed files from source to destination. However, if you change the options in Decision-Files settings to delete files from destination, then a Backup profile will be converted to a Mirror profile. In case, you want a Mirror task, then I suggest creating a Mirror profile directly, which is much simpler than creating a Backup profile and changing the settings in the Decision-Files settings page.

Question: Are Differential and Incremental backups used if I start with a full Backup task? And secondly, are Differential and Incremental backups used if I start with a full Mirror task?

Answer: Incremental/Differential backups are supported only with Fast Backup. And Fast Backup mode is supported with both Backup or Mirror profile type. An Intelligent Sync profile cannot use Fast Backup.

To perform Full Backup of your data on a certain day of a week and Incremental/Differential backups on remaining days you have to enable Fast Backup mode in your profile configuration under: Modify > Expert > Fast Backup > enable the option 'Perform a fast backup'

Note that Fast Backup can only be used with a Backup or Mirror profile type. An Intelligent Sync profile cannot use Fast Backup.

You can leverage on Fast Backup option and use Variable (such as %DAYOFWEEK%, %DAYOFWEEKNAME% etc.,) in your Destination path to perform Full Backup on certain day of the week and Incremental/Differential backups on remaining days.

Fast Backup help provide step-by-step instructions to do this. With Fast Backup settings page opened, press F1 to open the contextual Help, which will open the help section for Fast Backup. From there, scroll all the way down and you will see several step-by-step examples on how to set up various types of Fast Backup profiles, which you can try to see if it is suitable for your requirement.

However, we do not offer support on designing an Full/Incremental/Differential backup policy that requires a bespoke set of retention rules/configuration as this is beyond the scope of our support.

Kind Regards,
Swapna
2BrightSparks Pte Ltd
www.2brightsparks.com

jerrylh Loc: Texas

I have used Acronics for about 10 years. About 3 years into using it I had total failure of my computer but was able to restore quickly. This year I had some problems with it and their tech called me 3 times until we felt it was working right. It ended up being a bad USB cable between computer and backup drive. It seemed to work sometimes but not all the time.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)