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SyncBackPro can record file integrity data, e.g. hash values, of your backup files so that in future you can verify that the backup files have not been tampered with or deleted. This is especially useful when archiving data so that you can check, months or years later, that the archive is intact and valid.

 

File Integrity cannot be used with backup of email, single zip compression, MTP or SFTP. It can be used with FTP and FTPS, as long as the FTP server supports file hashing.

 

For example, you create a backup profile to backup your photographs to a cloud service. Before running the profile, you enable file integrity for files the destination/right. There's no need to enable it for the source/left because you are not copying files from the cloud. If you already have a backup profile, and have already run it, then you'd also enable the Calculate the file integrity for files that have none option (for the destination/right). When the profile is next run, SyncBackPro will record file integrity information for the files copied to the cloud (and for those backup files that are already there, if you've enabled the option to calculate it for those that have none). The file integrity information will be recorded and update every time the profile is run. Now, at a later time, you may want to check to make sure your backup files are unchanged and none are missing. To do this, in the main user interface, right-click on the profile and select Integrity Check from the pop-up menu. SyncBackPro will now run an integrity check on your backup files. If any have changed, or been deleted, then the log file will provide details.

 

Note that enabling integrity checking will have an effect on performance. The impact depends on where files are stored. For the cloud, the impact is less, but for something like FTP, or copying over the network, the impact can be much larger.

 

•Enable file integrity recording for source/left: If enabled, then SyncBackPro will record file integrity data for files that are copied to the source/left.

 

oCalculate the file integrity for files that have none: When this option is enabled, and SyncBackPro finds a file in the source/left that has no file integrity data, then it will update the file integrity database and add details for the file. If you have an existing profile, that has already copied files to the source/left, then you will probably want to enable this option so that the file integrity database can be initialized. Note that SyncBackPro has to ignore some filter options when deciding if it needs to get the file integrity data for a file. For example, the minimum file size is ignored because those filters apply to both the source/left and destination/right, but in this context it is only looking at one side.

 

oDelete File Integrity Database: Click this button to delete the entire file integrity database for the source/left. This does not delete your source/left files, just the file integrity data store in the database. Optionally, you can delete the integrity data for specific base folders, on the source/left, by clicking on the folder in the user interface and selecting Delete from database.

 

•Enable file integrity recording for destination/right: If enabled, then SyncBackPro will record file integrity data for files that are copied to the destination/right.

 

oCalculate the file integrity for files that have none: When this option is enabled, and SyncBackPro finds a file in the source/left that has no file integrity data, then it will update the file integrity database and add details for the file. If you have an existing profile, that has already copied files to the destination/right, then you will probably want to enable this option so that the file integrity database can be initialized. Note that SyncBackPro has to ignore some filter options when deciding if it needs to get the file integrity data for a file. For example, the minimum file size is ignored because those filters apply to both the source/left and destination/right, but in this context it is only looking at one side.

 

oDelete File Integrity Database: Click this button to delete the entire file integrity database for the destination/right. This does not delete your destination/right files, just the file integrity data store in the database. Optionally, you can delete the integrity data for specific base folders, on the destination/right, by clicking on the folder in the user interface and selecting Delete from database.

 

If you want to check the integrity of your files, select the profile in the main user interface, right-click on the profile and select Integrity Check from the pop-up menu. SyncBackPro will then run an integrity check on your files. If any have changed, or been deleted, then the log file will provide details. As you can use variables in paths, and therefore could have multiple possible sources or destinations, SyncBackPro will prompt you which path should be checked (only if there is more than one possible path).

 

There are also command line parameters that can be used to run file integrity checks.

 

In the current version, file integrity data is not stored for versions. This may be included in future versions of SyncBackPro.

 

 

 

 

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