Review: GoodSync File Synchronization Software

So I have my laptop - traveling many thousands of miles with me and to three/four countries during this leg of my travels - and I figure that anything can happen to my data. Computer might be lost or stolen, or maybe the hard drive will come loose and destroy itself like it did with my last computer.

Before leaving home I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to put some of my most critical files on a USB drive. However, thinking ahead, what if I ended up changing or adding files on my own to the laptop, or alternatively when I'm out and about and maybe using a friend's computer or an Internet cafe and need to add some files, how to keep them up to date?

So I tried to hunt down some file synchronization software -- free, of course. GoodSync was one of the first that I came across. The interface was very comprehensive and it gave lots of information about the sync (including free vs. required space on the "destination" or secondary, in my case, drive). I guess this spoiled me, because when I looked at other software to see if anything was even more "free". (GoodSync allows free unlimited use only for a month; afterwards, the website warns that you're limited to syncing 100 documents "routinely". Not sure yet what that means. Pro version costs $30.) However, other programs just didn't have all the features I would need.

For instance, I keep all of my documents -- basically from middle school on -- in a folder with my name under "My Documents". Of course, while I'm traveling, I'm probably not updating my 7th grade Literature papers, nor do I need to keep a close eye on whether I've saved any new programs to my computer. So these should be excluded in the backup, whereas all the other files should be synced up.

The software does have its bugs, but I found workarounds.

The first issue I noticed is that when you permanently Exclude a file or folder from the list of files to be analyzed (compared between the two locations), GoodSync doesn't update the required disk space on the secondary drive: if you simply Exclude a 1.0 GB folder, the software doesn't decrease the required disk space by a gigabyte. The workaround I found is just to make sure that, before you Exclude, you click on the "Do Not Sync" option for that file or folder (in this software, it's the green circle between the two arrows that show in which direction a file would be synced). When you select that option, the software updates the required space, and then you can choose that file or folder and Exclude it from the analysis and sync.

The second problem was that the program doesn't seem to know how to re-Include files or folders that had previously been included. I had to work around this problem simply by creating a new job from scratch, being careful not to Exclude anything that I would want back into my list of files to sync.

As for next steps, I wonder how well this software would be when you want to create backups of files onto writable CD or DVD media. I also wonder whether the post-30-day restriction applies when you're just starting a new job. But that's a discussion for another day!