Because of its scheduling
and rule base capabilities, ChronoSync can be effectively used as a 'lightweight'
backup utility. We refer to it as 'lightweight' since, in the capacity, it lacks
some important features that a 'full fledged' backup utility possesses. First
and foremost is data compression. ChronoSync performs no compression whatsoever
on the files that it synchronizes. Thus your backed-up data will occupy just
as much hard disk space as your original files. Secondly, ChronoSync only recognizes
standard mountable devices, so backing up to a SCSI tape drive, for example,
is out of the question. Lastly, ChronoSync lacks any built in data archiving
capabilities, so you can only restore your most recently back-up data (this
last limitation can be somewhat overcome through various strategies, as mentioned
in this section).
These limitations aside, it is often useful to have a working backup of your
data readily accessible. Dedicated backup utilities are great, but can be somewhat
difficult and burdensome to use. We all know that the more effort that is involved
in backing up data will more likely result in procrastination - and procrastination
can lead to disaster. A quick and painless method of maintaining duplicate copies
of important data is always useful, and that is exactly what ChronoSync can
deliver.
Using ChronoSync as a backup tool is a simple matter of identifying a folder
containing critical data as your local target, and choosing a location where
a duplicate copy of that data will be stored as the remote target. The remote
target can be just another folder on the same disk as the local target, or it
can reside on a file server. It can also be both, by creating multiple Synchronizer
Documents. This multi-tiered approach is discussed in the next section.
The other half of the backup solution lies in scheduling. ChronoSync has fairly
powerful scheduling abilities that allow any Synchronizer Document to be automatically
executed at any time of the day or week. An effective backup strategy would
certainly involve scheduled execution of Synchronizer Documents. Synchronizations
can occur in the background, so these scheduled events can take place without
you ever being aware of them.
The key to effective scheduled execution is that ChronoSync must be running.
The best way to ensure this is to enable ChronoSync's "Launch at login" feature.
This is accessible via ChronoSync's Preferences dialog. Enabling this option
means ChronoSync will be automatically launched whenever you login to your machine.
If your computer is set to automatically login (i.e. you don't enter a name
and password every time you boot up), ChronoSync will launch as soon as the
Finder comes up.
While their are infinite strategies for setting up Synchronizer Documents and
schedules, one extremely valuable technique is to utilize the "Execute at App.
Startup" and "Execute at App. Shutdown" scheduling features. As the names imply,
this will execute the specified Synchronizer Document when ChronoSync launches
or quits, respectively. This is truly an effortless synchronization on the part
of the user. Between the two, we prefer the "App. Startup" method. This is based
on our experience that synchronizing at the beginning of the day is more painless
than at the end. We're usually just getting started, sipping coffee and planning
our day. A few extra moments backing up yesterday's work is no big deal. At
the end of the day, however, we're usually ready to go home - slowing down the
process of leaving by a couple extra minutes may be too much to bear. It's too
tempting to just hit that "Cancel" button so we can leave...