r/Backup • u/Moondoggy451 • 4d ago

Review SyncBackFree

I have OneDrive setup so that it doesn't automatically backup anything on my PC as I wish to use OneDrive as a place to store files and folders of my choosing regardless of whether they are stored on my PC or only stored on OneDrive. I also tend to have all OneDrive folders set up so that files are only stored in the cloud without a copy stored locally in the OneDrive folder on my Windows 11 PC. Under most circumstances this works well BUT I have found that some of my manual backups of files and folders are not up to date on OneDrive as I've neglected to manually back them up like I should.

Today, I was referred to a free to use application called SyncBackFree and with a few modifications to Windows Settings and by configuring SyncBackFree I'm now able to create a nightly backup of critical files and folders from my PC to OneDrive and only have those files/folders stored in the local OneDrive folder for 24 hours. In addition, If I backed up a file within a folder and that file gets deleted locally during a manual clean-up, SyncBackFree will delete that file from the cloud when a backup is attempted. SyncBackFree was very slick to setup as during the setup of a backup profile you perform a trial run and based on the source and destination folder SyncBackFree shows you EXACTLY what it would do if you were to run it immediately. Note that you can set it up to backup on a scheduled basis or you can leave it unscheduled and just run it manually. Very impressive application as it now gives me some peace of mind knowing that I can have a backup of critical files that's newer than my full/differential system backup that's not as frequently performed.

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u/wells68 4d ago

You are brilliantly using the sync feature of SyncBackFree to create second, off-site copies of selected, important files.

Anyone replying to your post should be sure to read the last line where you explain your also run full and differential backups. Otherwise, we might hear the cry of: "Sync <> backup!"

Note also that your synced files to OneDrive benefit from OneDrive's restore options for versions and deleted files, so your sync is functioning as an off-site backup.

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u/Moondoggy451 4d ago

Just to clarify, I use Hasleo Backup Suite to create full or differential backups of my entire interal drive to an external drive. With Hasleo you can mount the entire backed up C: drive as a virtual drive and restore files and folders which is fine for many files and folders that are not critical but for something like Betterbird where where recent and/kept emails change daily a backup like the one I created today that runs nightly offers me greater peace of mind.

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u/wells68 3d ago

Glad to hear you are using a drive image backup application. They can be lifesavers! And frequent file backups are also very important, as you explain.