File Synchronisation Program – Allway Sync
Some of you may have seen my previous blog “keeping your valuable data safe!” and links to Keiron’s backup saga (now sorted) with his new MyXerver.
The MyXerver is a very good solution which I rate highly and I’m considering purchasing myself – being used to enterprise products, its often hard to find a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) solution that will ‘cut the mustard’ at a reasonable price (i.e. cheap not to burn a hole on your pocket) and simple to use (set-and-forget – but please do TEST your backups!).
A while ago, I installed a small NAS drive on my network just for the purpose of backup, acting as a data repositry for the local PC hosts, and just needed a simple application which would copy data over my network.
I tried custom x-copy scripts, these work to a degree, but you need to “wake” the NAS drive up, etc and ensure the network is always ready – more often that not there were time-out issues, so OK if you wanted to run manually, but not so much if you wanted automation
I tried NT backup – doesn’t like finding NAS – plus NT backup is so old (written by Veritas for Microsoft all those years ago – and we’re talking a lot of years ago as NT backup is crude!).
I tried Symantec System Recovery Desktop Edition (formally LiveState) – again this didn’t like backing up to my NAS as it wanted NT file permissions (thinking it was on network!)
And then I came across Allway Sync™
Allway Sync is free (domestic use only) file and folder synchronization software for Windows.
Allway Sync uses innovative synchronization algorithms to synchronize your data between desktop PCs, laptops, USB drives and NAS / SAN type storage. Allway Sync combines bulletproof reliability with an extremely easy-to-use interface – and is very granular in how it performs.
So if you have a USB drive or a Network drive, and you want to make the most of it before considering devices such as the MyXerver, then I’d give Allway Sync a try.