Using SyncBack

What is SyncBack?

SyncBack is one of the backup programs available for Microsoft Windows.

You can use the SyncBack family of products to backup, synchronize, and restore data files.

The SyncBackFree version should be enough for easily mirroring directories, or groups of directory to an external disk, but you can compare the features available in SyncBackPro, SyncBackSE and SyncBackFree: summary comparison and full comparison

Installing SyncBack

Download SyncBackFree

Install SyncBackFree. At the end of the installation process, you may want to subscribe to the mailing list (you will receive from time to time codes to upgrade to another version of Syncback at a reduced price)

Basic configuration

We want to do a mirroring backup:

Copy all the files from the source folder to the destination folder. All the files are copied on the first run, and only the new/changed files are copied on subsequent runs. The subsequent mirror operations are then significantly faster, which should motivate you to make frequent backups

Warning! if a file is not on the source anymore, mirroring will automatically remove it from the destination! The idea is that the destination should be an exact copy of the source! This also means that if you delete a file by mistake, you have to retrieve it from the backup before the next mirror operation removes the file from the mirror! If that's not what you want, check the backup (rather than mirror) options.

Do not be frightened by the step by step configuration and the screenshots below! There are lots of available options in the SyncBack point-and-click interface, and it is easier to use images to explain what needs to be done

Connect a USB disk/stick with enough free space to your computer

You should create a clean directory hierarchy on the backup disk, matching the folders that you intend to backup

In this example, we are going to mirror the content of
D:\Users\jypeter
to F:\Backup_JYP\Dell_Precision_3420\D_Users_jypeter

Launch SyncBackFree. You can find it in Start-> 2BrighSparks -> SyncBackFree

Click on New Profile to create a new mirroring operation

Choose a Profile Name that will describe correctly the Source folder (e.g. the machine and the source folder names, Precision Tower 3420 D_Users_jypeter) and click on Next

Choose the Mirror type of backup and click on Next. You can get some information about each available backup type by clicking on ?

The Source (a folder on your computer) and Destination (on the USB disk) folders are both local disks and you don't have to change anything in the locations window. Just click Done

A new window Profile Setup window opens, where you can specify the Source and the Destination folders. In this example, we use Source =D:\Users\jypeter
and Destination =F:\Backup_JYP\Dell_Precision_3420\D_Users_jypeter. Once you have filled both fields, a summary of what will be done is displayed in the Description of this profile section. Click on Change Filter for a more precise control of what will be saved (this is optional, and you can do it later!), or on OK when you are done

If you choose to review and update the filters, with the Change filter button, you will get two new windows: the File & Folder selection window that you can ignore, and the Filters window
You can use the Add button below the Files/folders NOT to copy window to add new rules to the list of files/folders that should be ignored by SyncBack. Check the Filters section for more details about the filters

When you have finished adjusting the filters, or if you have directly clicked on OK after specifying the Source and the Destination folders, you will get a popup window asking if you want to do a simulated run. You can skip this step, as it will be automatically done by default each time you execute this profile

You are now ready to execute the backup profile! You can either click on the main Run button to launch an attended run, or use the other available options
The Attended Run (and the Simulated Run) will display a window with the list of planned backup operations. You should check carefully the content of the Differences window when executing a profile the first few times, especially the files/folders outlined in red in the right part (the files that will be overwritten or removed). If you see lots of files with random names (screenshot below), they are probably in a cache directory that you can remove from the backup by using a filer

Using Filters

It can be useful to use some filters to disable some of what SyncBack would try to backup otherwise:

Not backing up useless files/directories (e.g temporary files in cache directories) will make SyncBack run faster (and save space on the backup device)

Some files/directories can't be backed up because their access is protected by the system (possibly because they are still open) and will generate errors in the log file. Skipping them will make it easier to spot real errors

In order to make a correct backup of everything, it is always better to close the running applications before starting the backup

Notes:

A filter must start with \string (string will be searched in the root of the source directory) or *\string (there can be subdirectories between the source directory and string)

A folder name must have a trailing slash

To modify an existing filter double-click it

Suggested filters when backing up your Home folder

Home folder means here ANOTHER_DISK_THAN_C:\Users\your_login, assuming that you have followed the instructions in Configuring folders to create a Home folder distinct from your default Windows home folder on C:\

Note: we assume in the filters below that the Thunderbird and Firefox profiles were moved from their default location, to the Home folder

Remove Thunderbird and Firefox lock file: *\parent.lock

Try to remove all the obvious cache folders: *\Cache\, *\cache2\

The filter rules above will remove cache folders like:
*\Firefox\Profiles\jyp_Firefox_fixe\cache2\,
*\Thunderbird\Profiles\jyp_Thunderbird_fixe\Cache\,
*\Thunderbird\Profiles\jyp_Thunderbird_fixe\cache2\

Suggested filters when backing up your Windows folder

Default Windows folder: C:\Users\your_login

Remove WSL+Linux from backup: *\AppData\Local\Packages\Canonical*Ubuntu*\

Remove the backup of all the settings saved in AppData\Local\Packages: *\AppData\Local\Packages\

Remove Chrome Cache: *\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\*Cache\

Remove some Microsoft apps related directories: *\AppData\Local\Microsoft*\

Remove some apps directories that use too much space: *\AppData\Local\WebEx\, *\AppData\Local\GoToMeeting\

Remove misc. files: *\ntuser*, *\NTUSER*, *\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Current*

Remove misc. directories: *\AppData\Local\Comms\, *\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\

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