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SyncToy

by Wren McMains
04/03/2017

SyncToy is a great little tool for backing up your documents and images to another hard drive, either an external drive or a network drive on another machine.

If SyncToy is already installed on your machine, skip to the next video. For tips on installing SyncToy, you should watch this video, or you can just install the two files found just below. (Once a video starts, I recommend clicking on the "Full Screen" button on the lower right of the video so it's easier to see details on the screen.)

Since SyncToy was last updated in 2009, it needs an old version of the Microsoft run-time (.NET) to run on your computer. If you install it without first loading the appropriate old version of .NET, it will tell you to get it at Microsoft. Here's the version you need:

.NET run-time, version 3.5, includes v2.0 and v3.0

If you feel safer getting it from Microsoft, as of this writing here's a link to it on their website:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

Once that's installed, you can install SyncToy itself. Here's a link to the version for a 64-bit machine:

SyncToy Setup Package, version 2.1, for 64-bit OS

If you need the 32 bit version, or want to get it from Microsoft, try this link:

Microsoft SyncToy 2.1

And here's the video showing how to actually use it:

That video shows using it with a single folder pair, which for many users is all you need. If you have multiple hard-drives or have your data stored in places other than under your User folder, you'll need more folder pairs. eMail me if you need help or if you want me to do a video covering other situations.

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