Backup File Sync Software

[Chris.J]

Hello everyone.

This is my first post on here, but I've been using the forum for quite some time. I must admit there there is a huge wealth of information here, so it's finally time I subscribed!

Anyway, basically I got my first Mac about a week ago (the new Macbook Pro 15") which I'm absolutely delighted with. As a Windows user for about 12 years, obviously there is a bit of a learning curve to shake old habbits, which I'm slowly coping with and picking up an awful lot of tips along the way.

At the moment, I'm setting up my Mac to have the same software as I used on my PC, whether it be the Mac version, or a Mac alternative which functions in a similar manner.

I've managed to sort most things, but after trawling through free software threads, I'm still struggling to find a good piece of syncing software. On the PC, I used a programme called "FreeFileSync" which was a lovely piece of open source software that allowed me to sync files or entire folders on my computer with corresponding folders inside a share on my NAS drive, resulting in a mirrored copy of all my important information in sperate folders for each machine on my network.

Unfortunately, there is no port for this software for the Mac. Whilst I realise I can emulate Windows programmes on the Mac, I'd rather something that was designed to run natively under OS X.

Can anybody please help me find something suitable?

P.S, I'm a bit fan of OpenSource/Free software. Not neccessarily because I'm a cheapskate, but more that I find they are much more efficient and less bloated. So I'd prefer free stuff if possible!

 

[maflynn]

There's always dropbox and I think chronosync may do what you want

 

[Chris.J]

Thanks for the reply.

I use dropbox at the monent for my Uni work and it's great, but unfortunately, it is no where near the capacity that I need for the rest of my data. I have a lot of music/movies accounting for hundreds of Gigabytes across three computers, hence why I have a NAS to back it all up.

Chronosync seems more like what I need, however it's shareware and I was hoping for something free, of course whilst sacrificing some features.

Cheers.

 

[shootermac]

Try www.aasync.com.

Its free for local purposes, you would have to pay if you wanted to use the FTP remote feature.

 

[bmcgonag]

if your NAS supports rsync, I would suggest that. There are a couple of GUI front ends to it if you need it, but honestly, if you are just syncing then the syntax would be this...

YourHome~>rsync -avzP --delete --ignore-errors <source dir path> NasUsername@Nasip:<NAS destination path>

let it run.

GUI Frontends are RsyncX and GRsync...basically drag and drop the folder / directory you want to sync, drag and drop network directory on NAS, and give it the parameters.