PC Hell: How to Use Microsoft SyncToy to backup your data

If you have ever experienced a "computer crash" whether its in the form of a hard drive going bad, physical damage to the computer, virus attack, or other issue you know the value of backing up your data. Unfortunately for most of us, remembering to backup your important data as well as the time to do this can cause many of us to forget to backup and therefore suffer the consequences when the inevitable crash happens.

Thankfully, with the invention of external hard drives, shared network drives, flash/usb drives and other various devices the times of struggling with tape backups and other older methods are behind us.

This tutorial will show you how to use a free utility from Microsoft called Microsoft SyncToy to backup your data to your favorite device and put your mind at ease the next time your data is lost. This tutorial does not cover how to create an exact disk image of your hard drive. We are simply covering how to backup the important data on your hard drive including your favorites, email, items in My Documents and such.

Downloading and Installing Microsoft SyncToy

SyncToy is one of the many PowerToys offered by Microsoft for Windows XP. You can find a list of these utilities by visiting the site below.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Click on the link on the right side for Microsoft SyncToy and you'll be sent to its download page. Click on the Download button and save the Setup.msi file to your desktop.

Once downloaded, find the installation file called Setup.msi on your desktop and double-click on it to install. Once installed SyncToy will be listed under All Programs.

Using SyncToy with Your Backup Device

Make sure you have connected your backup device to your PC and it shows up in My Computer correctly. Also, make a note of the drive letter or network path to your device. We will use this drive letter in SyncToy to tell it where to backup your data.

Open SyncToy and Configure Items to Backup

Find SyncToy under All Programs and click on it to open, you should see a screen similar to the one below.

Click on "Create New Folder Pair" to start adding items to backup. The Left Folder is where the data is currently located (usually on your hard drive, drive c or other known drive letter), while the Right Folder is the drive letter (and directory) of your external hard drive, usb drive, or other backup device.

Once we have chosen what to backup, in this case the Favorites folder, we have to tell it where to backup.

After clicking Browse for the Right Folder, choose the Drive Letter for your backup drive. In the example, we are backing up the data to Drive J.

You'll want to organize the data being backed up. A good way to do this is to create separate folders for each type of data we are saving. First, we'll create a folder called Backup. We do this by clicking on the "Make New Folder" button, then right-clicking on this new folder and choosing Rename. Type "Backup" (without the quotes) as the name for the new folder.

In this example, we'll make another folder under Backups for the Favorites List. Remember to Right-click on the Folder and rename it to Favorites (or whatever data you are backing up).

Now, you need to choose how you want to backup the information. You can perform the following tasks between two folders:

Ok, that's it we have backed up your important data, however we are missing one important step. Scheduling the backup so we wont forget to do it.

1) Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks to open up Task Scheduler

5) Now choose a start time, I would recommend either a time when you first turn on your computer or late in the evening when you are done for the day. Choose Daily again for when to perform this task and choose the current date then click Next.

6) Here's the tricky part, in order for the task to be scheduled, you'll need to tell the scheduler which user to perform the task for and the username for that profile. Enter the username and password for this profile in this section and click Next.

7) On the next screen check the box for "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish" and then click Finish

8) When the Advanced Properties box opens, look under the Task tab for the Run line. It should look similar to the one below.

Make the Run command look like the following to allow SyncToy to run all the folder pairs.

Congratulations! You have now setup your computer to backup important information like your email, favorites, address book and My Documents directory to your removable or external backup device on a daily basis using Microsoft SyncToy.

Even though Microsoft SyncToy is free, you may want to use another automated program to backup your important data. Listed below you will find links to some of the other backup tools I have used.

How to Backup and Restore Outlook Express Mail, Address Book, Blocked Senders List and other Settings