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System Backup - part 1 of 1 2

by Mike McNamee Published

Siber Systems GoodSync 'Quite fancy automatic backup options may be easily set...'

GoodSync Pro by Siber Systems is a piece of utility software for organising your file backups. It can perform two basic types of file movement/management - 'Backup' or 'Synchronisation'. 'Backup' copies files from the working drive and makes an up-to-date copy on the backup device. This backup device can be another hard drive in the same machine, a hard drive in a different machine (attached across a network), an external hard drive (usually USB or Firewire or, more recently it could be eSATA), or an external hard drive connected into another machine on a network connection, or, finally, a pen drive.

Synchronisation may be a twoway process in which files from both sources are synchronised (ie made the same) . For the average photographer, backup is all that you need. Synchronisation is dangerous and should be avoided by non-experts and those prone to keyboard fumbles. Once you hit synchronise you lose your backup if you have messed a file up - both will now be the messed up version. Synchronisation may have uses in work-group environments where a number of people need to access the identical files.

If we use a typical wedding photography work flow you can see how GoodSync works.

The first thing you do is set up your working folder on your main computer. This could be named 'MacTavish John and Jane'. Note that we have used the groom's surname. This is so that when Mrs MacTavish phones about having the children photographed in five years' time you can find her original file and what she looked like. If you use her maiden name you might have trouble finding the files. The idea is that you can greet her at the door and not assume that she is the Avon lady (it happens!).

Now you make a sub folder called RAW files and copy the RAW files from your CompactFlash cards into it. You then make DVD backups of these files before you do anything else! When you have made the DVDs you should check them over by analysing the DVD content against the hard drive content. As an additional measure we also like to use a different DVD drive for this process rather than the one used to make the disc.

Now you are ready to set up your backup job options. Copy the 'MacTavish John and Jane' folder to your backup storage device which will, by default, take the sub folder with it. Then, using GoodSync set your work station folder as the left side, then the backup storage location as the right side. Clicking 'analyse' will now show that the two file sets are identical (if not - panic!). Downstream from here you have a number of options which may be set up in the dialogue revealed by clicking the 'Change job direction and other settings' button between the left and right panes (see image).

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last update 21/07/2022 08:46:26

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