This IS the Avid L2: [Avid-L2] does FreeFileSync verification really do much?

Thursday, September 4, 2014

[Avid-L2] does FreeFileSync verification really do much?

I've been giving "Free File Sync" a whirl after reading about it on this
list a couple months back. I'm on OSX 10.9.2

I notice that file verification is not enabled by default. You have to
dig into 'expert' settings in the XML settings file that resides in
~/Library/Application Support/FreeFileSync in order to turn it on.

When turned on, FFSync does produce messages in it's log indicating each
file copy has been verified, but the time taken for verification is very
short, which doesn't give me much confidence that the verification is
reliable.

I was using a test folder of about 7.5 GB of files.

FFS - with no verification - took 1:01 (1 minute, 1 second)
FFS - with verification - took 1:13 (so only about 13% longer)

rsync (which does a real checksum) - 3:10
CCC (which uses rsync under the hood, so again doing a real
checksum) - 3:17

As another point of comparison, I know ShotPut Pro takes about twice
as long to back up footage when MD5 Checksums are turned on.

FFS takes so little time for its verification both in percentage terms,
and in comparison to other backup programs, it makes me wonder whether
it is really doing a useful check.

Curious to hear what others might think.

Cheers,
--Michael