New to FFS.
I'm wanting to use this great utility to backup my entire ~2TB data to a 5TB networked Hdd (using WD MyCloud). Then, have FFS update files as I change them by using one or more batch files.
Because of the large amount of data to be backed up, I've begun this task by first backing up large chunks of my most important data (e.g., My Documents file). Can I, at some point, combine these chunks to one large file of my entire ~2TB data drive? or do I need to:
* Work with many chunks separately (some of the many will be static storage and other chunks modified regularly)
* Save the entire 2TB as one file (might take more than a week to save)
The answer here will determine the method that I use for my backup.
Thanks for your advice.
Can I combine many file pair families to one?
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FreeFileSync (FFS), as the name suggests, is primarily a file synchronization tool, and works at file level.
It can also be used for backup purposes, but still works at file level.
So, if you run a sync / make a backup with FFS, the results will be a whole bunch of files (in their proper directory structure), not a single backup file, like with some imaging or backup tools.
You can combine all your syncs/backups in one FFS sync by using multiple left-right folder pairs and/or using the Include filter.
Combining all in one probably requires quite some time for the Compare phase to be executed, as all included content will be scanned/compared for changes.
If the "static" part of your files is truly quite static, you might consider to at least split the sync/backup in two; one (or more) for the dynamic part, run at a high frequency (or using RealTimeSync), and one (or more) for the more static part, run at low frequency (or again using RealTimeSync).
It can also be used for backup purposes, but still works at file level.
So, if you run a sync / make a backup with FFS, the results will be a whole bunch of files (in their proper directory structure), not a single backup file, like with some imaging or backup tools.
You can combine all your syncs/backups in one FFS sync by using multiple left-right folder pairs and/or using the Include filter.
Combining all in one probably requires quite some time for the Compare phase to be executed, as all included content will be scanned/compared for changes.
If the "static" part of your files is truly quite static, you might consider to at least split the sync/backup in two; one (or more) for the dynamic part, run at a high frequency (or using RealTimeSync), and one (or more) for the more static part, run at low frequency (or again using RealTimeSync).
