I know – a pretty bold title. There are many programs out there that do the job well some arguably better than others. You can probably have a look at http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/utilities/best-sync-software/ and make up your mind from that.
However, for this article, my criteria is very specific… To mirror drives locally in a Windows PC as simple as possible reliably… The top 10 programs listed in the link above can probably do all this and so much more and can cost anywhere from $20 to $60. But because they do so much more, simplicity is compromised in some of these programs. It’s not a bad thing… for the tech savvy. But for Mom and Pops it can be a bit daunting to look at – hence the real reason behind my criteria. Afterall, I am their tech guy and setting them up with something complex would be like shooting myself in the foot.
What makes the best, the best?
Some of you might already be thinking “FreeFileSync” or “Synkron” and while they are great and I do love their UIs than most of the paid solutions, I have to stop using them if I need the most reliable solution. They are open source and the truth of the matter is that you don’t really have any guarantees that they’ll be sticking around. Some bigger company might swallow them up or developers may decide to move on to the next big thing and abandon the project completely which then throws a monkey wrench into your setup.
So what makes the best, the best? Easy mirror setup for local drives (Copy A to B), clean UI (I don’t want my folks to say “wow, look at all these buttons, I wonder what this one does?”), reliability (a paid solution offers some accountability) and scheduling (keeping things automated is key).
Solution
The quest to finding something that works was not easy, there are a lot to choose from but in the end, I narrowed down my search to one program made in Switzerland called Bvckup 2.
Bvckup 2 is very fast at bulk copying and it is even faster at updating thanks to its native delta copying support. Extensively optimized across the board the app is designed to complete every backup as quickly as possible.
The app does not compress, encrypt or FTP files. It’s not a two-way sync nor is it a system backup software. It does just one thing – it mirrors A to B.
It’s better to excel at one thing than to be average in many. From its nuanced user interface to the high-performance core, the app is built to always favor quality over quantity. – www.bvckup2.com
The cost (at the time of this writing) is $19.95 for a personal license and $39.95 for a professional license. Bvckup 2 can be run for 2 weeks without a license to get your feet wet.