We all have our precious data stored on our PC that we love very much, such as pics, office documents, important files and other stuff. We all try to make a backup of this in mostly one of our external hard disks as the Internet isn’t that fast all the time. But haven’t you felt tired to create exact same folders with same permissions, icons, date and time and many other things to maintain while copying files from one disk to another? Especially copying permissions is not an easy task for us. This is why today we are going to discuss an awesome file syncing software called FreeFileSync.
FreeFileSync is an open source free to download and use software that can sync your files easily to another disk while maintaining permissions and other important stuff. It is cross platform so you can use it on any OS without any problem. Let us see how to download and use it in Linux.
Download FreeFileSync
Download FreeFileSync isn’t any difficult task. You can either install it on your system permanently or store it as a portable medium. Portable medium storage is a better option as it allows you to freely move the software.Visit the download link below and grab the respective build for your Distro. I am going to use Ubuntu build 16 as I am on Linux Mint 18.1.
Download the zip file and extract it to any place. Now you will see a FreefileSync icon, double-click to launch it.
[Better store FreeFileSync in such a place where you can access it any platform like your everyday pen drive.]
Now FreeFileSync will launch.
Now FreeFileSync will launch.
The Interface
FreeFileSync interface isn’t complicated. It is very easy to set options and control the behavior of sync. You can control and access many settings from clicking the option with the GEAR icon and tweak around.
The First screen you will come across on launching FreeFileSync. The left side pane indicates the name of data for your quick glance and right side offers detailed actions as what is to be planned with data. You can hit and change them instantly.
You can easily access settings by clicking the GEAR icon. There are many settings that are divided by types and uses. Explore them all for the best experience.There are a lot of tweaks that you can do in settings which are really useful. On synchronization, the option Mirror is better if you want to sync only one-sided disk, not both. This is better in many ways for me ( everyone uses differs). You can also turn on the setting to copy permission of the folders that however requires admin privileges.
Syncing Data
I have many files which I require to be synced. I did sync my data to my external hard disk. Copying 2 GB of data took almost 60-70 seconds which is of course fast. There were no errors and the whole thing was done smoothly. I also synced some fewer data with my pen drive and it also worked fine. The same happened with other devices.
Initial copy screen showing various options
The moment I copied small data as test in my Pendrive.
Synchronization complete dialog box
You may see some warning if there is no same folder with same filename present but it is OK. There won’t be any harms if you continue.You can also save your file for quick access. Multiple types of sync can be saved and accessed anytime.
Conclusion
FreeFileSync is an awesome free software that does the job, is cross-platform, and is completely free. It has almost all the required options that you would like a syncing software to have. Better download it and have a backup of your private data and keep it sync using it. There are a lot of threats that would likely to hit out your personal data in the modern world like Wanna Cry recently.We at LinuxAndUbuntu advise our readers to have their important data in their backup drive synced.
Sorry, my experience with this piece of art is not the best. I would put it at the bottom of my software experiences.
To update, you’ll have to get a quick course and pass the professor IQ test. Auto update is only enabled after donation. (Freefilesync is totally free, except for auto updates).
Selecting a bunch of files you want to backup onto a file storage server, is a pain, since you have to deal with file permissions and most of the time is unsolvable for the average Joe. Only once was I able to copy something from here to there. Aside, It wanted to backup for the following two days.
No, No, and NO, I be faster just to crab my file and drop it to it’s destination, then trying to figure out just what needs to go where (takes more time to figure that out) Very non intuitive!!!!! Perhaps Windows versions are better, but on LINUX, no go!