Back It Up and Sync It!

You do, don’t you? Back stuff up and/or sync it? On your computer? Tell me you do! If not then I’m afraid you’re in for a real problem sometime down the road. Hopefully not but, you never know when your precious data will be irretrievable without notice. Sounds kind of like a dooms day prediction but it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a little planning ahead of time.

Below you’ll find a few systems I tried, how they worked out for me and in the end, what I found worked best for my needs and why. So grab a coffee, sit back and let’s see if any of them are systems you’ve tried or are using presently.

Testing machines:

The machines I tested the systems out with are a Lenovo Desktop 3000 H Series that has a Pentium dual-core processor, 500 Gb HD with 4 Gb Ram that runs Win 7 Pro and a Lenovo V560 Laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor, 500 Gb HD with 4 Gb of Ram. Both machines are 64 bit. Yes, I like Lenovo. What can I say? Damn fine machines. I dual boot each with Linux Mint and JoliOS. I also subscribe to my internet via cable so upload speeds are around 1Mb +/-.

Carbonite:

Carbonite is an unlimited on-line backup tool that allows you to back up anything you want backed up (exceptions) for $59 annually. You can access your files from any computer connected to the internet and data retrieval is a click away in case you lose yours due to various reasons such as hard drive failure. Carbonite is secure, user friendly and a sure-fire way to keep your data loss worries at bay.

My experience with Carbonite was both good and bad. It did as it said it would and backed up the data I chose however, it did it ever so slowly. Not only that but it also bogged down my computer to the point it became almost useless to attempt to do anything during the backup process. For $59 I would have liked to see less resource usage during back ups and a little more speed involved.

Dropbox:

Dropbox was a favorite tool of mine for quite a while until that fateful Sunday when they ‘unlocked’ all their users accounts for 4 hours. I was told that 1% of their accounts were accessed during this time but they had no idea if the access was by an account holder or not. Also no explanation as to why the accounts were unlocked, to my knowledge. Yes, I bailed. Quickly.

The thing I liked most about Dropbox was that it was cross-platform. I had it on my Windows machines, Linux partitions and on my iPhone. Complete access anytime I needed it. Granted, I didn’t keep state secrets filed away on it but I had data I wanted access to there 24/7, if need be. It worked flawlessly too, never noticed a performance issue while it was running.

SyncBack:

SyncBack is a file syncing service that gives you a choice as to where you want to sync your data as well as what you want to sync. You can sync it to a NAS system, an external drive, another folder on your machine or, in my case, to a server located elsewhere via FTP.

The tool is free and works just like your Windows backup tool does. Enter a few variables, choose a location for the data to back up to, a start time and go! Granted, it took several hours for the initial backup to complete plus it had an issue with a desktop.ini file but it finished the job well enough. Any changes to a file already included were backed up on the next scheduled run as well as any new files added to the back up folder on my machine. Overall, a pretty darn good backup tool to make sure your data stays secure in case of trouble.

SugarSync:

SugarSync is my present backup/syncing tool of choice for a couple of reasons. First is the simple fact that I can stream music from my account to my iPhone anytime, anywhere. I love this part. I don’t have to have my tunes with me on the iPhone itself if I don’t want to. Phone gets lost or stolen? I can brick it, if need be and nothing is lost data wise.

SugarSync also has different areas for data storage. Web Archive for example is “a place to put copies of files that you do not want to sync to your computers. Think of it as “backup only”. These files are stored safely in the cloud and you can access them from any web browser or mobile device.” Magic Briefcase is for syncing files across multiple computers and smart-phones.

SugarSync works on most smartphones as well and I’ve found that I can upload some of my favorite music and play it from my iPhone anywhere I have service. Nice!

Summary:

There are many data syncing services out there ranging from free to ‘X’ number of dollars per plan. They have good features that will be attractive to their users. Thing is, try them out before buying to make sure the service is a good fit. I like SugarSync because it fits with my present needs. I’d like it better if it worked on Linux too but I’m hoping they’ll come around soon.

What data syncing service do you use to keep your files backed up and why? I’d like to hear your take on it.