Backup Your Precious Assets (Data)!

Customer: "You want me to back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse gear?"
IT support: "... ..." (speechless)

Nope, this is not a post about driving, though if someone really asks me the question above, this person needs to stand 10 meters away from my computer!

Knowing how to back up your important data files, documents, and photographs, etc is essential. I would recommend to try out the SyncBack Freeware software for this purpose. It has 2 main features, Backup and Synchronisation. After installing the software, you will need to create a profile.

The fine tuning of the backup/synchronisation profile can be done in the Profile Setup dialog screen (as seen below). You can use the default settings for a start and customise it to your preference as you go along. When you are satisfied with your configuration, highlight on your newly created profile and click on the "Run" button. A log report will be generated at the end of the backup process. This software also allows you to perform the backup manually or configure the backup to run at a scheduled timing.


I have used this software to back up my data, as well as program and system settings from my computer to my portable hard disk. Works well for me. If you are not sure which directory to backup, you could choose to backup the entire local hard disk. For me, the Source directory is set to "C:\Users\<login-name>\".

I would also recommend that you remove temporary and cached files before performing the backup. You can read more about the software which I use to perform the cleanup here.

So, cleanup then backup, piece of cake...

To learn more about SyncBack Freeware, click here.
If you need a backup software with more advanced features, you can explore SyncBackSE and SyncBackPro.