Migrating to Mac… sync and backup
- Date Stamp:
- 20 January 2008
- #
To readers of the non-Apple variety, sorry, another Mac related post – although I do point to two Windows apps. This one is about an app to handle backup and synchronisation.
Under Windows I was running a synchronising backup, SyncBack (there’s a freeware version with some limitations). Each night, it checked the files on the PC and the backup drive, and copied across whatever was newer. I liked this style of backup because it didn’t store all the files in some super-huge zip like archive (which is what Windows Backup does).
I used Microsoft’s Synctoy to sync my USB storage devices with the PC, meaning anything modified at school was copied to the computer and vice-versa.
On the Macbook, Apple’s Time Machine is not an option, because my external backup device is connected via the network not USB.
My current choice is Chronosync. It allows me to set and forget a nightly backup with lots of options like creating an archive of changed files – so, if I stupidly save over a file but don’t realise it till after the backup, I can go and grab it from the archive. Chronosync also does the sync to my USB pocket hard drive, and it’s quick. It scanned 61000 files and updated 23 (5.89Mb) in 39.5sec.
I use Chronosync as well. I heard it on MacBreak Weekly from Merlin Mann. Its pretty good. Would you say that SyncBack for Windows is a similar type of backup program to Chronosync?