I used to be one of those people who never backed up their files. I know, me, a bona fide geek, not backing up. I just found it tedious and annoying. I didn't want to shell out the big bucks for a backup program, and most of the freeware tools out there didn't work. But I finally decided after looking through my mp3 collection of roughly 7,000 files that I'd be majorly bummed if something happened and they all got wiped out.

So I shelled out a couple hundred bucks for a massive 500 GB external hard drive. Then I went about trying to find a backup solution that would work. I must have tried like ten different programs until I found SyncBack.

SyncBack is a great program. It lets you back up all your files with lots of options. The coolest thing about it is the ability to do incremental backups. This means that after your first initial backup, SyncBack will scan the backup directory and only backup files that have been changed or new files, meaning your backups will take less time. It can even delete files from the backup directory if they're no longer in the source. There's a scheduler, so you can run your backups whenever you want, and your backups can be completely unattended, so you don't have to be at your machine while it's backing up. And, unlike most of the other free backup tools I've tried, SyncBack actually works.

SyncBack is completely free. There is a shareware version, SyncBackSE ($25) that has a few more bells and whistles (like the ability to back up open files and to compress your backups). I'm actually thinking of forking over the money and getting it when I have the cash, but if you're just looking for an efficient, easy to use, free backup tool, then SyncBack is the way to go.

Categories: Software