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Are you seeking an easy and dependable way of backing-up, restoring, and/or synchronizing your important data?

SyncBackSE provides a simple interface that enables the first time user to backup and save their valuable data within minutes.

Easily backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server, ZIP file, networked drive, or removable media. Highly configurable, SyncBackSE includes: open/locked file copying; fast backups; detailed and easy to read log files; email results; simulated backups and restore; file filters; sub-directory selection; copy verification; background backups; auto-close of programs; easy and expert modes; profile groups; compare files, and an extensive context sensitive help file.

As well as an 'Easy Mode' for essential backup, restore, and synchronization tasks, SyncBackSE has an 'Expert Mode' that delivers advanced functionality. If you need to backup to an FTP server or network and email the results this is where you'll fine-tune the software. SSL (implicit and explicit), MODE Z compression, and one-time-passwords are supported.

A comprehensive context sensitive help file provides easily accessible instructions and guidance about all aspects of using SyncBackSE. Simply click a help button at the bottom of the window you happen to have open, and you'll get taken straight to the help page for that task. In addition an extensive Frequently Asked Questions section provides all the answers you're likely to ask when carrying out a backup, restore, or synchronization task.

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Locked and/or File Copying

With the exception of expensive solutions, most backup software cannot copy locked files. For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook then you cannot copy the data file (e.g. outlook.pst) while Outlook is running. The same restriction applies to many other applications and their files.

The reason for this is because of the way Microsoft Windows manages file locking. When a program opens a file it must specify if other applications are allowed to read the file while it is being used. If the program specifies other applications cannot read the file then Windows will strictly enforce this. There is no way to force Windows to let the other applications read the file.

However, Microsoft introduced new features in Windows XP Windows 2003 and Windows Vista that allow programs to read these files. SyncBackSE makes use of these new features to copy these locked files. There are restrictions on their use:

You must be running Windows XP (Pro or Home), Windows 2003 or Windows Vista. It is not possible to copy locked files using Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT, or 2000.

The file being copied (which is locked) must be on a volume formatted with the NTFS file system. If you're using Windows XP or Windows Vista then it's very likely it is.

The file being copied must be on a local drive and not a networked drive.

Fast Backup

SyncBack (freeware) needs to scan the source and the destination before it can backup your files. If the destination is a slow device, e.g. a networked drives, FTP server, etc., then this can add a lot to the overall backup time.

To considerably reduce backup time, SyncBackSE has a new Fast Backup feature. This lets SyncBackSE backup your files without scanning the destination drive. The more files you have, and the slower your backup device is, the more time you'll save.

FTP

SyncBackSE uses a completely new and updated FTP engine that takes advantage of newer FTP standards and extensions. This increases performance and compatibility with FTP servers. New features include:

The exact time zone of the FTP server can now be specified. However, in most cases you don't need to tell SyncBackSE as it will ask the FTP server itself automatically.

Files can now be verified against the copy on the FTP server (this requires that the FTP server supports the XCRC command). This ensures that what you upload or download to and from FTP servers is correct.

SSLv2, SSLv3, and TLS encryption is now supported. This means you can send and receive files to and from an FTP server and they'll be transmitted in encrypted form. SyncBackSE supports both implicit and explicit FTP connections. The FTP server must support encryption.

To greatly reduce transmission time, files can be sent and received to and from FTP servers in compressed form (this requires that the FTP server support MODE Z compression). This means large documents, spreadsheets, text files, etc. can be sent and received much faster.

New settings to support firewalls and routers have been added, e.g. specifying the external IP address and the range of ports to use.

SyncBackSE can retrieve the details on the files on an FTP server much faster than previous versions. A single FTP call can retrieve the details on all files in a directory. The freeware version of SyncBack makes up to two calls per file. This means backing up to and sync'ing with an FTP server is much faster.

Variables

SyncBackSE includes a whole range of new environment variables that can be used in the Source and Destination settings for a profile:

• %DATE% Current date, e.g. 24-6-2005
• %TIME% Current time in 24 hour clock format, e.g. 19-30
• %YEAR% Current year, e.g. 2005
• %MONTH% Current month, e.g. 2
• %DAY% Current day of the month, e.g. 10
• %DAYOFWEEK% Current day of the week, (1 = Monday, 7 = Sunday)
• %DAYOFYEAR% Current day of the year (January 1st = 1)
• %HOUR% Current hour (24 hour clock format), e.g. 19
• %MINUTE% Current minute
• %SECOND% Current second
• %MILLISECOND% Current millisecond (0 to 999)
• %THISDRIVE% The drive that SyncBackSE is running on, e.g. C:
• %THISPATH% The path that SyncBackSE is running from, e.g. C:\Program Files\2BrightSparks\SyncBack
• %LABEL=?% The entry is replaced by the drive with that label (see below)
• %SERIAL=?% The entry is replaced by the drive with that serial number (see below)

These new variables allow you, for example, to keep 7 days worth of backups, e.g. you could set your destination to D:\Backup%DAYOFWEEK%\ so that you'll always have backups of the last seven days worth of files.

There are two special environment variables than can be used to identify drives based on their label or serial number. These are very useful when using external USB drives, for example, which may have a different drive letter each time they are plugged-in:

%LABEL=?% - The entry is replaced by the drive with that label. For example, if your C drive is labelled My Disk then %LABEL=My Disk%\Documents\ would be translated into C:\. Note that you can only use one label per string but can use it multiple times.

%SERIAL=?% - The entry is replaced by the drive with that serial number. For example, if your D drive has a serial number of BC46-F69E then %SERIAL=BC46-F69E%\Program Files\ will be translated at runtime into D:\Program Files\. Note that you can only use one serial per string but can use it multiple times.

Compression Filtering

To increase compression performance, SyncBackSE can be configured not to try and compress already compressed files, e.g. MP3's, JPG images, etc. Instead of compressing files of these types it will instead store them (without compression) in the Zip file.

Progress Bar

An often requested feature that people want included in SyncBack is a simple progress bar. SyncBackSE now includes a pop-up progress bar that automatically appears when a profile is run. This lets the user clearly see the progress of the backup/sync and what stage the profile run is at.

Note: SyncBackSE is for backing-up, synchronizing, restoring your important data —not for disk cloning. If the objective is Disaster Recovery [and you're not using Raid 1—mirroring] caused by a hard drive failure where you may wish to reproduce your exact environment utilizing a replacement hard drive then we recommend disk cloning software like Acronis True Image. What's Disk Cloning Software? Its software that copies the full image of a hard disk to another machine [or external hard deive] via direct cable or the network. Cloning saves time setting up new [identical] machines by eliminating the installation of the operating system and each individual application.

Scenario: I had a hard drive failure. And I had to send it off to Dell to get a replacement. When I got it back from Dell it was blank of course. I stuck it in but had to spend days getting it to be like my old failed one. I don't want to have to do that again. If I have another failure [or buy a new computer] I just want to use my backup to make my new one just like the old one with everything in it just like my old one. How do I perform a backup that will do that?

If you're not planning on using Raid 1—mirroring then use disk cloning software [prerequisites may apply]. With disk cloning software like Acronis True Image you can have your PC back up and running within one hour [or your Laptop within half an hour] exactly as it was before with all your software and settings unchanged. It's actualy remarkable how quick it is to restore a cloned disk compared to re-installing software. Acronis True Image will save you days if not weeks of work!

Once your disk is cloned then use SyncBackSE to automatically synchronize [based on intervals of your choosing] all your important data changes between your source and your cloned drive to keep your cloned disk up to date.

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