On everyone’s PC there are a lot of files. Some of them are just occupying space but the rest of other important files are so damn important that you forget to copy them to their respective locations and they are gone straight to hell when you perform a clean format of your PC. Some of these are:
1. Save game files of your games which are stored in the underground storage like AppData folder
2. Saved text files and documents stored in My Documents
3. Thousands of Facebook downloaded pics stored in Downloads folder that go unnoticed.
And many more applications that store their templates and other documents in “My Documents\ {App}\Projects
After reading the above few lines you might have remembered the day when you forgot to backup your save game and then after a fresh install, the games screen shows up blank with achievements and completion progress.
Now getting to point, “What if I say, that all the above things that I told you can be done in a single click!”
Its up to you, which way you choose. One is the older method which executes as follows:
1. Select files of specific extension and type by holding control key and then making clicks to mark the files.
2. Selecting one more file that you forgot which just showed up!
3. Bump! You forgot to hold the control key so the process is nullified and again start selecting files
4. Now cut the files and go to the location where you want to paste them , make a folder and then press Ctrl+V
5. Nothing happens, as the computer didn't received the Ctrl+X request because of the $3 keyboard with low response keys so Ctrl+V has nothing to do.
6. Kick the PC hardly and then say “ I will see you later” and that day never came and your files are lost!
And the method that I am gonna tell you is so smart and easy that the only things that you need to do are
1. Tell the program how it should treat files in your PC
2. No need to do anything for few weeks or depending upon your priority for files
3. When you think it is the right time, execute the program again and then execute the operation.
4. Done
How to get started
To automate your file syncing, you need the following software
1.
SyncToy: For managing files across two locations
2.
Dropbox or
Google Drive: For online backup of your tiny important files
3. 15 Minutes or less for setting up the process
Why SyncToy? Because it is an official application from Microsoft and it is easy to use! Now after downloading SyncToy, you need to download any online backup application like Dropbox. This one is recommended only for those who will prefer their files to be present on the web when the whole computer gets burnt into ashes.
Now install all the applications that you downloaded from the above link and run SyncToy. Here is the wizard window that you should see when SyncToy executes successfully.New Folder pair wizard will run automatically.
What is a Folder Pair
This is the main purpose of the application and the motto of the post that you are reading. Folder pair means relating two folders so that changes and creating of data is done symmetrically in another folder. Here another folder can be a folder in your pen drive, a cloud storage folder as I told you to install Dropbox or just a folder in your hard drive other than the C: Drive so that your files are safe.
So in folder one, specify the folder “Downloads”, Say. Now in the other folder in the right side, specify the folder in which you want the backup of previous folder. Let it be a folder in your pen drive, hard disk or cloud storage, as per your needs. Now after specifying both folders, click on next
Now a confusion might arise between the three modes from which one is to be selected.
Here is a short explanation of each:
1. Synchronize: In this mode both folder will act symmetrical. So changes made like renaming and deletion on either side will effect the other side. Also, files copied to right folder will be sent to left folder as well. So the pairing is two-way.
2. Echo: In this mode files will be copied from left to right only, unlike the synchronize mode. The relation is between the files which are present on the left side with the right side. So this is only one way. Files copied to the right have no effect on the left folder.
3. Contribute: This is similar to Echo mode but the only difference is that files deleted on the left are not deleted from the right folder.
So according to me, the third option is the best for our purpose of backing up. Now click on next and then enter the pairing name. Let it be “backup for downloads”
Now in the left sidebar, you will see your pair name. Now it is time to try our hard work. Just press RUN button and see the action.
Now let us make the real use of the application by organizing right things in the right place. I mean by syncing android apps in different folder and images in other folder. Lets see how this can be done.
For android apps
1. Create a folder pair with all the instructions that we used above
2. Now open the pairing page from SyncToy’s left sidebar
3. Click on Change Options
4. In “Files to Include” field enter “*.apk” Here asterisk wildcard is used to copy all files with .apk extension to the specified location
For Pictures
Follow the same steps as you did for Android apps pairing. Now a question arises, how to select more than one extension?
To do this, you have to specify in the Files to include field, “*.jpg;*.gif;*.png;*.etc” each extension are separated by a ; symbol.
Now create as many pairs you want and then from the right sidebar of SyncToy, select all folder pairs and then click on run all to manage files between two locations at the cost of single click.
This is the end of how-to article, if you face any problem in using SyncToy, feel no shame in asking questions.
