On Monday I wrote a quick article discussing how you could use SyncToy, a free application from Microsoft, as a simple hard drive back up utility. While I think the application is fantastic, it does lack one critical feature: scheduled execution. Fortunately, both Windows XP and Vista have a built in scheduling application that you can use to add this missing functionality to SyncToy. In this article I’ll review the steps required for installing SyncToy, how to configure a sync, and how to schedule it with the built in application for automated execution.

Installing Microsoft SyncToy

In case you haven’t done so already, I’ll do a quick walk through of the SyncToy installation so you know what’s involved:

1. Once you download SyncToy from Microsoft, double click the file to launch the installation.
2. You’ll prompted to “agree to” several licenses and usage agreements. Standard stuff so just agree and mindlessly keep clicking.
3. Finally you reach a dialog box allowing you to specify the install directory for SyncToy. Also, in this dialog box you can indicate whether this application is for “just you” or “everyone.” What you decide here, is up to you. I believe I accepted the defaults. Click Next to continue.

4. The next dialog box prompts you to confirm the installation. Click Next to continue.
5. SyncToy installs quickly and then informs you of its success with a final dialog box. Click Close to continue and complete the installation.

That’s it. A few quick clicks of the mouse and Microsoft SyncToy is installed. Now it’s time to start the application and walk through a quick directory sync configuration.

Setting up a directory for synchronization

You can get very elaborate with exactly what you want Microsoft SyncToy to keep track of. You can select individual files, just a folder, or several folders. What you sync is entirely up to you; however, in case you want to see what’s involved, here is a simple example of using SyncToy to synchronize a single folder from my internal hard drive to an external hard drive connected via USB:

1. Start SyncToy. The installation created a program icon in the All Programs section off your Start menu. Navigate to this icon and click on the icon to start SyncToy.
2. Upon your first launch of SyncToy a dialog box appears asking if you want to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program. Microsoft recommends you participate but the option defaults to “no participation.” I thought that was a nice touch (much different than Apple and it’s sneaky updater that tries to install Safari when you’re not looking). Decide whether you want to participate and click the appropriate button to continue.
3. Next, the Welcome to SyncToy screen appears. Click the Create New Folder Pair button to create a folder pair for synchronization.
4. In the Create New Folder Pair dialog box select a Left Folder (source) and Right Folder (destination). Use the browse buttons to make the appropriate selections. In this example I select my C:\temp folder for the left option (source) and E:\temp for the right option (destination — the E drive is my external USB drive). Click Next to continue.

5. In the next step (2 of 3) decide “how” you want to synchronize:

• Synchronize: New and update files are copied both ways between the left and right folders. Not exactly what you want for a hard drive backup.
• Echo:  New and updated files are copied to the right folder. Renames and deletions made in the left folder are carried over to the right folder. This is my preference for a data backup.
• Contribute:  New and updated files are copied to the right folder. Renames are also carried over from left to right but deletions made in the left folder and NOT replicated in the right folder. This is also a good option for a backup synchronization but it can start to consume more space on the right folder (destination) because deletions are never made in the destination.

6. Make your sync selection and click Next to continue.

7. In the final step give your folder pair a name. I called mine Temp Sync Demo. Press Finish once you’ve entered your folder pair name.

Once you’re finished with creating a new folder pair for synchronization, the SyncToy main screen displays what you just created. From here you can make additional folder pairs for synchronization, rename an existing folder pair, or delete one. Details about each selected folder pairing also appear on this screen. For example, you can see information such as the type of synchronization configured for this pairing and the last run for this pairing.  Finally, if you need to further customize how each file and folder is handled by this synchronization pairing, you can click on he Change options link to fine tune the settings that are displayed under the Options for this folder pair.  Once you’re happy with all of the settings, press the Run button to execute the sync.

For my folder pairing 25 files were successfully copied from the C drive over to the E drive. Now that I have a working folder pairing, I need to schedule SyncToy to run a specific day and time to automatically backup this folder.

Schedule Microsoft SyncToy to execute on a specific day and time

The Microsoft Task Scheduler is a built in application that can schedule the automatic execution of nearly any installed application. Here are the necessary steps for creating a task specifically for automated backups with SyncToy:

1. Start the built Task Scheduler by clicking Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Scheduled Task.

2. Double click the option Add Scheduled Task that appears in the Scheduled Tasks window, and click Next in the following dialog box (notice that in the image above Apple Updater is a scheduled task. Thank you Apple, I’ll be removing your intrusion on my system in the next few minutes).
3. Scroll down the list of applications and locate and select SyncToy 2.0 from the list.

4. In the next dialog box, give this new task a name. By default the application names gets inserted. I’ve decided to call my task “Daily Temp Backup.” Also, in this dialog box select how often this task should run. I selected”daily” so I’m consistent with the name of the task. Click next once you have named and selected the run frequency for your task.

5. On the next screen you can further specify when and how often this task should run. I set an 12:00 PM start time on Every Day of the week and selected the start date as today. Click Next to continue.

6. Finally, set the username under which this task should run, and enter that user’s password and then confirm it. Keep in mind, if you don’t select a valid user or enter the wrong password, your scheduled task will not run. Once you’ve entered the required information, click Next
7. In the final dialog box, place a check next to the option “Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish.” You’ll need to adjust the run command before the scheduled task is complete.
8. In advanced properties dialog box edit the Run command so it points to the SyncToyCmd.exe file located in the SyncToy installation directory. In my case I set the Run command to point to “C:\Program Files\Sync Toy 2.0 Beta\SyncToyCmd.exe”
9. At the end of this command, and after the quotes, add a space and then -R
10. The extra command line parameter tells SyncToy to sync all of the folder pairs enabled for all sync. The final Run command should appear as follows:

"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0 Beta\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R

11. Apply your changes and then press OK to close the advanced properties dialog box. Now, sit back and let the automated backup run itself as configured.

Final thoughts: double check your scheduled sync

You can verify if your scheduled task executed as planned by opening SyncToy and reviewing the log. You can find the log by selecting File -> View Log from the menu bar. If the scheduled task didn’t execute as planned, check the Task Scheduler and see what it says about the task. Look for the date and time of the last run to verify that it kicked off as scheduled. Also look under the Last Result column for any error codes. Keep in mind, tracking down errors in the Task Scheduler isn’t the most intuitive. My advice, double check all of your settings and make sure you didn’t miss something. And, if at first you don’t succeed, delete the scheduled task and start over.

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Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips