This blog post is my experience with SugarSync and how it saved my Vacation. SugarSync is a utility which allows you to sync and backup files across multiple computers with ease. If you haven’t tried SugarSync, check out their Free 2GB account to backup your important files. I have also written an indepth review of SugarSync which may be of interest to you.
Multiple Computers May Cause Headaches:
Anyone who uses multiple computers understands the pain of carrying a flash drive or emailing documents back and forth. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished for a simple solution which would help me effectively manage files across multiple computers.
I have 2 computers which I do the bulk of my work on. I love the mobility of my laptop and the power of my Desktop. Each have their own perks. Often I find myself doing the majority of my development on my desktop, due to the extra power and dual monitors while using my laptop exclusively for surfing, blogging, mobile computing, and website management. To help me keep my important files in order and synced/backed up across two computers I use SugarSync.
Having different files on different computers works great until you are traveling and you need to do a few quick fixes to one of your projects; Or for a real life example lets say your hard drive dies on your desktop wiping out 2 years of files and nearly 8 years of photos. This is actually what happened to me two weeks ago, days before my vacation to North Carolina.
Lesson Learned: Backing Up Important Information is a Must
If there is anything I have learned from this experience it is YOU must backup your personal memories, music, and important files. Thank goodness I had SugarSync running, in addition to a 1TB external hard drive.
At the time of the crash I was only running SugarSync’s 30GB plan. I have been using the 30GB plan for nearly 9 months. This worked great for my important projects, along with some of my music and personal files, however I didn’t have enough room to sync my photos (nearly 20GB in itself.)
Photos = Memories
For photo management I use Lightroom, an amazing photo editing program. At the time of the crash I was backing up all my photos on my external hard drive using Lightroom’s built in utility which back ups your photos every month. Every month isn’t adequate for me from now on. Thank goodness I only lost 3-4 weeks of photos. Thank you Facebook because I still have copies on there, even thought they are tiny.
Manual Backups Don’t Work
Along with backing up my photos I did manual backups of my whole computer when I remembered to. But lets be honest, putting a reminder on a calendar to backup your computer may work for some, but not me. Some how there is always something more important. Needless to say when my computer when down I hadn’t backed up in 4 months. All of small projects that weren’t in SugarSync or were older than 4 months were wiped clean.
Remotely Backing Up and Accessing Your Files:
If I wasn’t using SugarSync I would have been in a pickle. The issue was I didn’t have time to both reinstall my operating system and get the work I needed to get done. I took a deep breath and started up my laptop. THANK GOODNESS for SugarSync. I just needed to specify which files to copy down and I was on my way. I would deal with the small projects later.
Within 2 hours all of the important files were downloaded to my laptop. Just 3 hours later I had knocked out my to-do just in time to pack for my trip. Though I still had the head ache of reinstalling an operating system. I was able to still go finish up the extremely important tasks I needed to fix before I left. To put it in perspective. This project was actually losing money per hour instead of making it. Because of SugarSync I was able to fix the problem and still catch my flight. All I can say is that the $50 I paid for a year of SugarSync was totally worth it.
Back from Vacation – Time to Upgrade
As you can probably see from the pictures on the right. We had a blast in North Carolina. (If you are looking for me I’m in the yellow life vest in the top photo.)
Now that I’m back from my Vacation. I’ve got my operating reinstalled on my desktop (xp 64bit) and I am beginning to pick up the small projects and get them back into order. Needless to say as I am writing this post I am expanding my SugarSync account to encompass all my photos, projects, and even part of my music. The upload will take about 2 days to complete but I will be worry free in the future.
Loyal SugarSync User
There is no doubt in my mind I will be a long time user of SugarSync. The slight price tag is worth every penny especially if you are a person who travels a lot and can’t afford to lose productivity if your machine goes down or gets lost/stolen.
So if you are on the fence as to whether you need online backup / synchronization. I would suggest you error on the safe side. Give SugarSync a try today. Its free and will change the way you think of mobile computing.
If my experience hasn’t convinced you to test drive SugarSync’s Free trial then I suggest you check out a full review of SugarSync.
{ 4 trackbacks }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I wholeheartedly agree about backup; you never know when your system will die on you nor if your web service will fail, be hacked, etc. You mention that Facebook was your backup for some photos and we find this is often the case. There are many occasions, however, when people only have their photos on FB – this is why we created SocialSafe (www.socialsafe.net) to allow you to backup your FB data to your computer. I firmly believe its your data and you should be in control of it wherever you host it – always have a backup!