When I initially decided to write an article on how I’ve organized my life, it started out simple and straightforward. Touching on the basics of organizing personal, freelance and work life. From this I’ve branched out into multiple articles and in the end decided it would be best to write a series on the entire process I’ve gone through and frankly still going through.

I’m going to start off with the most important aspect in my opinion and that’s synchronization and backups. I’m adding backups into the mix simply because it goes hand and hand with syncing files. I’ve tried to explain as much as possibly and in detail how everything is setup, while not getting to long winded. Simply because I will be going into more detail about each application and/or service that I’ll touch on below.

I will also be working on a full diagram that will be included sometime through the series. This diagram will be a much better representation of what I’ve setup, how it syncs back and forth and how all the backups work. It will also include all the hardware I utilize and where it is used.

Synchronization & Backups

So let us begin this series with the synchronization and backup applications that I’m using. I’ll try to include as much detail about each particular application and/or service and why I’m using it. I’m starting with these two types of applications and/or services for a good reason, this should be number one on everyones list to get in place and keep it working!

I have lost very important files in the past because I didn’t believe that hardware failure or data loss could happen to me. Guess what? It did and it can. Since then I have put barriers up to keep it from happening again and I’m happy to report that I haven’t lost anything in a very long time.

Windows Live Sync

Windows Live Sync (FolderShare) is a free application developed by Microsoft that allows for folder synchronization. This is your first line of defense against data loss, granted you need multiple computers for this. Currently I have a workstation at home (Mac Pro) and a mobile computer (MacBook) that I use while at work. Windows Live Sync is integral to my setup and a must have for daily operation.

A few things to note about this application/service.

• You can only synchronize 20 folders total.
• Each folder cannot contain more than 20,000 files.
• File size limit of 4GB
• Sync does not work with mapped network drives.

Currently Windows Live Sync supports:

• Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later
• Windows Vista
• Mac OS X 10.5
• Mac OS X 10.6

With the above limitations it would appear that this might become a problem. Truthfully, I’ve been using it for over a year now and I haven’t had any problems with the limitations listed above. Microsoft simply put these in place to keep from killing the servers that Windows Live Sync run on, most will not need to exceed the above.

Back when it was FolderShare it had far more limitations than it does now, it would appear now that any file type can synchronize. When it was FolderShare I had many problems syncing PSD’s and other “uncommon” filetypes as Microsoft put it. I will go into more detail on Windows Live Sync later in this series, I’ll also go into what folders I sync, why and the benefits of doing so.

Dropbox

Dropbox has probably been one of the most useful application that I’ve started using. It’s a really simple concept and it only makes sense to utilize it. Now I know most of you are probably thinking, why use Dropbox if you’re using Windows Live Sync?

It’s simple, you’re not using up your 20 folders, you’re not tapping the 20,000 file limit, you’re creating a backup point and you’re also able to access the files anywhere. Windows Live Sync is more of a “configuration & database” synchronization solution. I don’t use Windows Live Sync to sync “work” files, such as documents and images.

Reasons why I’m Using Dropbox

• Works on the major operating systems; Mac, Linux & Windows. (No particular order here…)
• You can run it on all of the major operating systems and it will sync between them.
• Paid and free accounts.
• Automatically syncs, no starting or stopping. Run a small app all the time and it handles the rest.
• Backup point.
• Accessible online, anywhere with web access.
• Each referral grants 250MB more space.

*** Please use the link above if you plan on signing up for Dropbox. It helps to grow my free account so I won’t have to pay for an account, doesn’t cost you anything and helps me keep rolling. Thanks in advance. ***

Mozy (Free)

Mozy is a great backup solution. I’m mentioning this because I currently use Mozy for backups for work files. I do not prefer Mozy, or didn’t I should say. The application was clunky and didn’t seem to handle large backups (100GB+). I am using the free version which is limited to 2GB and it seems to be working just fine now, I haven’t needed to restore any files so I can’t attest to that just yet.

Basically I only backup my Dropbox with Mozy. The only items that go into Dropbox are related to my current full-time job. Which do not come close to hitting the 2GB limit. Mozy is similar to Dropbox with their referral program as well, for each person that you refer to Mozy you’ll get an extra 250MB’s of space added to your free account.

*** Again use of the referral link is very much appreciated. ***

Carbonite

Carbonite is my backup everything solution. They charge yearly, but so far have been well worth it. If you have multiple computers you want to backup with them, register for one first and they may give you a half off for another. When I first signed up, they did that for the two computers that I paid for. With Carbonite I simply backup everything on my Mac Pro and my wife’s iMac (Family photos & videos).

Carbonite is one of those backup solutions that you install, setup and forget. The $54.95 that they charge a year is for an unlimited amount of backups. Currently my Mac Pro has 280GB backed up with 150GB in queue. My wife’s computer currently has 100GB backed up, so that’s a total of almost 400GB backed up with Carbonite, with no problems thus far. I have more computers than my workstation and my wife’s iMac, so to get around having to pay for multiple accounts I use Crashplan on all my other computers and I have an extra 500GB hard drive installed on my Mac Pro specifically for my other computers. Which brings me to my next backup solution.

Crashplan

Crashplan is one of those setup and forget backup/sync solutions. I’m mentioning it because I currently use Crashplan as a backup point for my other computers that do not have direct to web backup accounts, such as Carbonite or Mozy. With Crashplan I can setup a “host” computer and then each computer that runs the Crashplan software can connect to the host and backup there needed files.

Crashplan allows for multiple backup points with as many computers as you’d like, these backups are all encrypted. So if there were three computers using Crashplan, all three could be a backup point for each other. Computer one would have two sets of backups on the other two computers in the configuration and vise versa. So in my case, my MacBook and my servers backup critical files to my Mac Pro. Those backups are then backed up yet again on Carbonite.

Crashplan also allows you to backup with your friends and/or family. So if your buddy that lives in another state installs the application, he can send you a friend code and you can backup to his computer. I do this with a buddy of mine that lives near me, this way I have another remote backup point.

Time Machine

Of course no backup system would be complete without a Time Machine setup. Currently I utilize two Time Machine systems at home. One is specifically setup for my Mac Pro and the other is attached to an Airport Extreme Base Station which services all the wireless macs in the house. My Mac Pro has an internal 1.5TB hard drive that is used to backup the dual 250GB RAIDED drives that the OS and applications run on as well as my 500GB repository drive where I store all my work files and downloads.

The drive that is hooked to the Airport is a 500GB My Book. The My Books are outstanding external backup drives, I actually own three of them; two 250GB and one 500GB. The 500GB that is hooked to the Airport services my wife’s iMac and my MacBook.

Xmarks

Xmarks is kind of a life savor in my opinion and probably one of the coolest applications I’ve used thus far. The reason that I’m mentioning this one is simple, I use bookmarks for everything. I also utilize multiple browsers, mainly for testing websites and how they look in each, but also for speed reasons as well; Safari being faster on my MacBook than FireFox.

With Xmarks you simply install a FireFox plugin, or download a small app for Safari and setup an account. Currently Xmarks supports the following browsers:

• FireFox
• Safari
• Chrome
• IE

As far as Chrome and IE are concerned, I’m not sure what is needed to sync those. I would assume it would be a standalone application such as Safari, but since I don’t normally use them I wouldn’t know. I would highly suggest visiting their website and going over their feature list. Xmarks is MUCH more than a bookmark sync application. This is the main feature I use of Xmarks but there are MANY MANY more things it can do, most of which you may find very useful.

Conclusion

In the next bits to this series I will be outlining in more detail how I utilize each of the applications/services above. I’ll also be going into more detail the small bits of my synchronization and backup system. This is the first of many articles to come on my entire setup.