Everyone needs a PC backup strategy. SynchBackFree provides a serious tool to backup and synchronize documents.

I have been using SynchBackFree for a few years as my primary utility for backing up and synchronizing documents across all of my computers. There are paid versions with more features. But I find that SynchBackFree does everything I need, either manually or automatically.

There are generally two types of backup strategies. The traditional is to backup or create an image of your system, so that it can be restored in the event of a major hardware or operating system failure. This is still a good idea. The other strategy is to focus on backing up your documents, typically everything you would save in your My Documents folder on a Windows PC. This includes pictures, videos, and so on. And this is where SynchBackFree shines.

SynchBackFree lets you create many different Profiles. Each can focus on a different group of documents or a different schedule. For example, you may want to backup your working papers every day, but only backup your videos or Outlook storage once a week, and so on. Typically, you want to schedule these profiles to run automatically at night, while you are not using your PC.

SynchBackFree does three different kinds of “backup”:

• Mirror simply copies files from the source folder into the destination folder. This way if you have a source folder that is the “master”, SynchBackFree makes sure that your local destination folder always contains a copy of the master folder.
• Synchronize ensures that two folders (source and destination) are always the same. If you add or delete files from either folder, these actions are synchronized according to the decision rules you specify.
• Backup creates a permanent archive in the destination folder. Even if you delete a file in your source folder, the backup copy is retained in the destination folder.

SynchBackFree can use any accessible folder on your PC, other PC’s on your network, or NAS (network storage) in your LAN. It can also connect with such useful activities as Dropbox, and use FTP to transfer files to a web site.

How I Use SynchBackFree

SynchBackFree runs on all my computers, using customized Profiles to do backups, synchronization or mirroring on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I have documented each of these Profiles so I know what they are doing. Otherwise, the whole thing is “set and forget”.

There are probably other alternatives that work just as well, but SynchBackFree is a great place to start. If it works for you as well as it has for me, you will probably stick with it for a long time.