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Do you back up your files regularly? No? Well, if you've ever heard the shhhh-click, shhhh-click of a blown hard drive trying to spin up with the "Boot Drive Not Accessible" message on your monitor and still don't back up, this article isn't for you. You may as well get a pair of scissors, hold them with the pointy end up, run outside and play in the street! Seriously, though. We spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on cameras and thousands (or tens of) of dollars travelling to places so we can use them and bring back all those memories. Why not spend a tiny fraction of that to ensure that those memories will still be there if our computers decide to one day offer themselves up to the recycler? Backing Up With Microsoft® Sync Toy 2.0 Sync Toy 2.0 is a free utility that is part of Microsoft's Power Toys and Professional Photo Tools 2. Since you have already organized your photos, perhaps using my article on the subject for reference (wink, wink; nudge, nudge), I'll walk through getting a basic backup routine started using Sync Toy.
If you use Picasa for organization, it has a built-in backup utility that works as well as Sync Toy for creating backup sets and only addressing changes on subsequent backups. Since it only deals with images, I'll detail the use of Sync Toy here because we all have more than just pictures that are important to us.
What you will need:
Go to:
Click the Download button and follow the on-screen instructions.
Click "Run"
Wait. The setup file will download.
When asked, click "Run".
Click "Next"
Check the acceptance box and click "Next".
Wait....
After it's done, click "Finish". You shouldn't need to restart.
Click on "Download files below".
It will jump you to the download section at bottom of the page. Choose the file indicated unless you know for sure that you are running 64-bit Windows (if you are running 64-bit, you will probably have requested it since it is not a standard option). Click "Download".
Click "Run".
Wait...
When it's downloaded, click "Run".
Accept the inevitable...
Make your choice on the Customer Experience. I usually don't.
If you've never installed Sync Toy before, you can ignore the warning. Check the box and click "Next".
Agree and click "Next".
Usually letting the installation program choose the installation folder is best. Choose "Everyone" for the user and click "Next:".
Confirm installation by clicking "Next".
Wait...
That's it! Click "Close".
Set up Sync Toy: Make sure your external drive is plugged in and ready to go. You may want to reformat it before doing the first complete backup. This will clear the drive of any pre-installed software and make sure you can use all of the space. Many manufacturers put a .PDF on the drive with the user's manual, so check to see if you need to save a copy of that before clearing the drive. Go to the Start Menu and open Sync Toy.
Sync Toy folder pairs consist of a Left (Source) folder and a Right (Destination) folder. When backing up, the program will copy files from Left to Right and will, by default, include all sub-folders and files. Click "Browse" under the LEFT (SOURCE) folder box.
Click "Browse" under the RIGHT (DESTINATION) folder box.
- Select your external drive from the tree. - Click "Make New Folder". - Type "My Documents" in the box. - Click "Ok".
You are ready to go. Click "Run" and the backup will start. The first time, it may take a long (hours) to complete. Subsequent backups will only have to deal with changes and will be much quicker. When the backup is complete, there
If your Outlook mail file is under My Documents (as it should be for proper backup), make sure Outlook is closed before you backup or it will fail to copy and show up as an error. If this happens, just close Outlook and click "Run" again. It will copy the Outlook file and all will be right with the world.
Do you feel safer now?
As always, Happy shooting!!
Dave
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Click "Create New Folder Pair.
For this example, we'll set up a folder
pair to backup the "My Documents" folder. Most programs that load your photos
will put them in a directory under My Documents, usually in My Pictures". 
For the LEFT folder (the SOURCE),
choose "My Documents". Click "Ok"
Note that the left folder box doesn't
just say "My Documents". Don't worry! XP stores a separate set of personal
folders for each user. For this example I created a user called "Test" and
choosing "My Documents" selected the one for that user (see arrow). If you log
in as "Bob", it will read "..\bob\My Documents"
For the RIGHT (DESTINATION) folder ,
you will have to create a folder on the external drive before you can choose it.
If you just choose the external drive as the destination, it will still work,
but the files and folders in "My Documents" will be copied to the root directory
of the external drive and make it difficult (or, at least, confusing) if you
want to add another folder pair later to back up something else from your
computer or another computer.
Your folder pair is now set up. Click
"Next".
My suggestion it to choose "Echo" as
the update method. When you backup, Echo will copy any new files Left to Right,
remove any files you deleted on the Left from the Right and rename any files on
the Right that you have renamed on the Left since the last time. "Synchronize"
copies all changes both ways and is useful if you have a drive that you move
between a laptop the home PC. "Contribute" adds new files from the Left to the
Right but does not delete any files from the Right that you have removed from
the Left. It also adds renamed files from the Left as new duplicate files to the
Right (it doesn't rename the files on the Right). Click "Next".
Name your Folder Pair. I chose
something unique and creative. Click "Finish".
When the backup is complete, a summary
screen will be displayed showing how many files were copied and how many errors,
if any, occurred. 
After a backup, you will occasionally
see errors on the summary screen that are almost always caused by Sync Toy
trying to copy it's own log files while it's still using them. Click on "see
details" to see what the problem was. 
There is an odd bit about Sync toy that
is still odd in version 2. After you are done, there is no "Exit" button. To
close it you have to use the Windows standard "X" button in the upper right.