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Jeff Harmon walks through a free tool PC users can use to help backup your photo library by automatically copying your files from one drive to another every night.
12 thoughts on “Photo Taco – Free PC Backup Tool”
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Great podcast! I used to use SyncTool but I switched to Bittorrent Sync, which works much the same way but I prefer how it works. https://www.getsync.com/
Did you mean SyncToy 2.1? I couldn’t find Sync Tool 2.1.
Thanks
Yes, Microsoft SyncToy 2.1. Sorry if I called it Sync Tool. Glad you listened to the episode! You can follow @PhotoTaco on Twitter and even suggest topics you would like to see covered.
SyncBack is a good tool too.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/download-syncbackfree.html
Jeff,
I downloaded SyncToy and installed and tried to set up a schedule with windows task scheduler. I am no computer guru to I got stuck where I think I need an “argument” to run the program once it launches. Can you point me in the right direction please.
Thanks,
Steve
@Steve,
I built my job based on the help instructions accessed from the SycnToy app by going to Help->Learn How To Schedule SyncToy. That brings up a Microsoft SyncToy Help window that outlines for the various operating systems how to schedule the job to be run. Even though I am running Windows 8.1, the Windows 7 instructions worked great. I think the key is adding a “-R” parameter just after the program name. According to the instructions:
Type “-R” in the Add Arguments textbox. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R “My Pair” to the end of the command line.
So on the Actions tab in the Task Scheduler window I have the action as “Start a program” with Program/script of “C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.1\SyncToyCmd.exe” (include the quotes on that one) and a argument of “-R” (not quotes)
Hope that helps,
Jeff
Hi Jeff
What program or software would you suggest for Mac users? I don’t know very much at all about back up drives. Presently I have one attached to my Mac and it backs up the whole computer using Time Machine. But I would like a separate back up drive just for my picture library that functions more like a big USB memory stick.
@Jeremy Cook,
Without personal experience on Mac with this regard, I can’t offer an experience based recommendation. However, I have heard many photographers highly recommend the ChronoSync application. It is $50, so that isn’t quite the same kind of alternative to SyncToy. OSX being a *nix OS under the covers, a combination of the rsync and cron utilities would do the job here really well, but it is quite a bit more technical. You would need to create a shell script that uses rsync to “synchronize” the files from one location (like internal hard drive) to another (external hard drive). Then schedule that script to run each night automatically using cron (or Automator).
I’m using ‘EasyUS ToDo’ backup software (free version) and I know they have one for Mac as well. It’s super easy to use and works as a charm. You may give it a try.
@ Jeff,
Sorry, I clicked the wrong “reply” button. My earlier reply about ‘EasyUs Todo’ is for Jeremy Cook. Please ignore.
Thanks Jeff.
@ Jeremy,
Please check my earlier reply to Jeff above (supposedly for you :)). Cheers!