Note: this method is for windows users only
Backing up files online is the ideal way to save your information. Not only is then available to you wherever you go, it means that if you have catastrophic hard drive failure, your data is easily recoverable.

Dropbox

Sure. Backing up online is easy. The complicated part is getting a system in place to backup your files automatically. What follows is my way of achieving this, and it uses software that is absolutely free.

Before you continue, you have to download and install the following software:
Dropbox
SyncToy 2.0

Dropbox is an amazing little application. It adds a folder your computer where, if you add files to the folder, it uploads the files ‘on the fly’ to an online DropBox that can be accessed from online and thus any other computer. This process is also two way. If you add files to your Dropbox from online, when you get home they will be sitting on your HD waiting for you.

So. With this cracking little program in place. We now want to create a method of automatically syncing particular files/directories into this online storage without the laborious task of having to regularly add the files ourselves.

To do this we are going schedule SyncToys 2.0 to run repetitively and copy files into our DropBox storage.

For the purposes of showing you how to do this I will show you how I backup my email on a daily basis. You’ll get the idea.

First up. Open SyncToys 2.0 and select ‘Create New Folder Pair’:

In the left folder you want to add a directory on your hard drive that you want to by synced with Dropbox. In my case I want to backup my Thunderbird email profile. You can do this by copying your profile folder in you windows app data. In my case it would be ‘C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles’. For more on this folder see here. In the right folder you want to select the location of your Dropbox folder on your hard drive. Which I believe is defaulted to ‘My Documents/My Drobox’. Select ‘Synchronise’ and then give your folder pair a name.

You can now test your sync by clicking ‘Run’ on SyncToys, and you’ll get a nice report on the result. Check your dropbox folder and see if sync ran ok.

OK. So now you have a method of syncing your files online. Lets now set up a Scheduled Task to run SyncToys automatically.

(Note: this might vary depending on your operating system)
1.Go to the Start menu, select All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Scheduled Tasks.
2.Select Add scheduled task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard. You will see a list of possible programs to run.
3.SyncToy may appear as an option in the list. If SyncToy does not appear in the list, click Browse and locate the SyncToyCmd.exe file. Normally it’s installed in Program Files directory.
4.The wizard will next prompt you to enter how often you want to run the scheduled SyncToy (for example, daily, weekly, et cetera). Select a frequency.
5. The next page asks when to start the task. Select a start time.
6. The next page asks for the user name and password to run the program under. Enter your user name and password. However, in SyncToy 2.0, it’s not necessary for the defined user to log in to the computer. Different user or no one logged on is possible to have the task running too.
7. The final page contains an option to open the properties dialog when the wizard ends. Select this checkbox.
8. Modify the Run textbox to include the –R command line option. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R“My Pair” to the end of the command line.

You should now have something like below:

Run the scheduled task to see if it works.

Your done!

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