General SyncToy feedback

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Guest

OK, the web page that SyncToy links to for feedback does not allow any
feedback, getting "unknown error", so I'd figure I'll provide my small notes
here below. Maybe someone will actually read them:

Actually very/pretty satisified with SyncToy - for a free tool, this is one
of the better backup tools out there.
But, there are some simple functionality changes that would make SyncToy
even better.

One would be "include/exclude" ALL subfolder in a directory when the top
directory is selected to be "included/excluded". As it is now, if I want to
exclude "My Music" from the backup of "My Documents", I have to go through
and uncheck ALL and EVERY subfolder in the "My Music" directory. VERY time
consuming!

Reason, sometimes you want to backup your docs, but NOT your music because
that might take too long time (at that very moment). In my case, I have "My
Music" as a separate folder pair (running at night).

Another way to handle this could be to be able to EXCLUDE certain file type
(as it is now, you can only INCLUDE file types). Might want to have a run
that EXCLUDES .mp3 and .jpg files simply due to their sheer "mass", but still
backup everyting else. The "My Pictures" and "My Music" backup is run at
night when I go to bed so PC can work on its own.

Finally, SyncToy's "run" data is now in a folder in "My Documents". SyncToy
should allow for an alternate location for those files.
Me for examples ONLY keep "useable" files in the "My Documents" directory.
All "technical" crap is elsewhere (hidden in folders that I don't care for).

It could be under a hidden folder under the user, just like any other
Microsoft (program setting) information, or it could even be in the SyncToy
folder under "Program Files" (and then of course available to anyone that use
the PC, small drawback but since most PCs are unique to their owners these
days, I would not really care. Just want to get those files out of my "My
Documents"!

But, all in all, a very, very, handy tool. I stopped using StrageSynch when
SynchToy was made available. It is much faster, smaller and just very handy.
Many of firnes have had their work saved by SyncToy, after they now actually
DO backups...

Way to go Microsoft!
 
Actually, with the latest version, just right-click on a directory and you
can un/select all below it.
 
Angus,
Thanks for the info. I had missed that completely!
You made SynchToy even better/faster (to use).
 
Funny, I had the same problem as Per-Ola. I typed in a longish comment with
suggestions, and got an "unknown error" for my trouble.

I'll try to remember what I wrote...

First I like SynchToy. It's a pretty good solution for many "backup"
scenarios where you want to keep two directory trees on two system more or
less in synch. The best previous solution I'd found was to create a ZIP file
of a directory tree on system A copy it to system B then unzip it to the same
tree. Most ZIP utilities do a good job of updating the file when you zip or
unzip them, generally choosing the correct "newer" version to keep. But this
is not optimal. You have to keep around big ZIP files, updating is slow, and
you copy lots of big zip files between systems. SynchToy solves most of
those problems, but there are ways it could be better.

1) SynchToy could be clearer about left and right. It has two sorts of
operations, symetric and asymetric operations. Symetric operations copy files
and changes both ways, with the result being "the same tree" on both sides.
Those operations are Synchronize and Combine. These are generally what I want
for backups, but not for photos, music, or other cases whare I'm dealing with
"part of my library on one system". For those I want an asymetric operation.
Asymetric operations would be easier to understand if they always worked
"left to right" copying files and changes from the left folder to the right
folder. But for some reason "Subscribe" works right to left, unlike Echo and
Contribute. I suggest you switch its direction (and probably give it a new
name).

2) For all operations, I'd like to control whether or not they are done. In
particular I'd like to turn off duplicating Rename and Delete operations
independently of one another. The only Action without rename and delete is
Combine. But that's a symetric Action, and when I'm trying to initially build
a library, it creates a complete duplicate on both systems.

Here's a use case that may make it clear what I'd like to be able to do.

I have a big library of photos on System B, and some of them are duplicated
on System A, a smaller system where I do my editing. I want to create a sub
directory where I gather some of the photos into a photo CD for a friend. I
create a directory, move the photos I want to the CD directory, edit some of
them, and burn a CD of that directory. Now I want to store that CD directory
back in the library. Since the "move" operations are all treated as renames
by SynchToy, it wants to rename (move) the files in my library on system B
when I do a Contribute or Echo. And Subscribe won't create the subdirectory
on B. What I'm looking for is a "Contribute without Renames and Moves"
operation that creates new directories, copies new and edited files, but does
not delete files, nor does it move files.

3) and while I'm on that thought, moving a filephoto015.jpg from directory X
to Y is not the same thing as changing the name of a file from "photo015.jpg"
to "Sally Wedding Cake.jpg". I may want to duplicate rename but not move
operations left to right.

In general, for backup type usage, losing data is much wose wasting storage
space. Any operation that removes data (deleting a file, overwriting a file,
or moving a file out of a directory) is dangerous. So offering ways to
control when those operations are done is a good feature.

Mark
 
Since I've been using it a tad longer now, I'll ad some more general comments.

The first one has to be that this is a GOOD sw product. It's not full, but
it certainly fulfills a large portion of what (I think) it was designed to do.

A few needed changes:
You should be able to take an existing backup routine and easily modify it
to a new location. This could be done as "copy" or create "new with XX
routine" as a basis".
I backup to so many different mediums and locations, so that'd be handy.

Another would be to easily, for a one time shot, be able to omit certain
files in a certain directory. An example. Earlier today in a bit of a time
crucnh, but still wanted to get one hard drive back in safe deposit. Did a
preview, and about 70% of the work was music files that were to be
overwritten. In this case, it was more than 5,000 and that DOES take some
time - time I did not have. After the preview, deselecting that many files
takes FOREVER. Preview should have some type of "mechanic" to omit/pass over
these files THIS time (since the music files were not really changed, but
possibly had had some editing of the mp3 tags, not critical info - THIS time).

Apart from that, Mark and many other have made some very good points.
Hopefully a lot can be integrated w/o making this brilliant little product
overly complex or large.

/// Per-Ola
 
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