Powerful folder comparison and synchronization utility - FreeFileSync

This open source folder comparison and synchronization tool will compare files by scanning their contents or by file size and date; it can synchronize files and subfolders, process multiple pairs of folders at once, load/save folder comparison sessions, create batch jobs that can be run from the command line, and can handle cloned files (i.e. symbolic links or junctures). It also allows for custom syncing rules and command line option.

The utility has easy to understand, intuitive, interface with the two-pane “visual comparison” abilities.

Key Features

• Compare files (bytewise or by date) and synchronize them.
• No limitations: An arbitrary number of files can be synchronized.
• Unicode support.
• Network support.
• Built-in support for very long filenames (more than MAX_PATH = 260 characters).
• Synchronization database for propagation of deleted files and conflict detection
• Support for multiple folder pairs with distinct configuration
• Full support for Windows/Linux Symbolic Links and Windows Junction Points.
• Lean & easily accessible UI: Highly optimized for speed and huge sets of data.
• Algorithms coded in C++ completely.
• All progress indicators optimized for maximum performance!
• Create Batch Jobs for automated synchronization with or without GUI.
• Focus on usability:
• Only necessary functionality on UI: no overloaded menus or icon jungle.
• Select all folders via drag & drop.
• Last used configuration and screen settings are saved automatically.
• Maintain and load different configurations by drag & drop, load-button or commandline.
• Double-click to start external application (e.g. show file in Windows Explorer)
• Copy & paste all grid data as text
• Delete superfluous/temporary files directly on main grid.
• Right-click context menu.
• Comprehensive status information and error reporting
• Sort file-lists by name, size or date.
• Support for filesizes larger than 4 GB.
• Option to move files to Recycle Bin instead of deleting/overwriting them.
• Ignore directories "\RECYCLER" and "\System Volume Information" with default Filter. (Windows only)
• Localized versions are available for many languages.
• Delete before copy: Avoid disc space shortages for large sync-jobs.
• Filter functionality to include/exclude files from synchronization (without requiring a re-compare!).
• Include/exclude specific files from synchronization temporarily.
• Automatically handle daylight saving time changes on FAT/FAT32 volumes.
• Portable version available (selectable via installer).
• Native 64-Bit version.
• Check for updates from within FreeFileSync automatically.
• Copy locked files using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service. (Windows only)
• Create regular backups with macros %time%, %date% within directory names
• Copy file and folder create/access/modification times when synchronizing
• Advanced locking strategy to allow multiple synchronization processes (e.g. multiple writers, same network share)

Website: http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/

The utility is highly recommended. After checking its capabilities, I switched to use it, replacing the previously used GoodSync utility for my personal needs.

Crack PDF password with PDFCrack

PDFCrack is a GNU/Linux open source (GPL) PDF password cracker for recovering passwords and content from PDF files which have been locked and protected with lost or forgotten password. PDFCrack is command line driven without any external dependencies, and use guessing or password cracking method of dictionary attack and brute force attack. PDF Crack supports and works on Linux and other POSIX-compatible systems, and a Windows binary version has also been ported and compiled with Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for Windows.

Features of PDFCrack

• Supports the standard security handler (revision 2, 3, and 4) on all known PDF-versions.
• Supports cracking both owner passwords and userpasswords.
• Both wordlists and bruteforcing the password is supported.
• Simple permutations (currently only trying first character as Upper Case).
• Save/Load a running job.
• Simple benchmarking.
• Optimized search for owner-password when user-password is known.

Usage Syntax for PDFCrack

To use PDFCrack, open a command prompt window, and run pdfcrack or pdfcrack.exe to list out all options available. The default command syntax is as follow:

pdfcrack -f filename OPTIONS

Any options is optional, and not necessary require. So to use PDFCrack to recover and crack owner password or user password of a PDF files, simply enter the following example command:

pdfcrack -f locked.pdf

Replace locked.pdf with the actual filename for the protected PDF files which you have forgot the password. To speed up the cracking process, specific minimum (-n) and maximum (-m) length for possible password, and specify the possible characters (-c) to brute force the password.

What PDFCrack cannot do?

Using the software, you cannot change/override/remove the copy/print/etc. restrictions of the PDF document. If you want to recover a document you can recover the owner-password and then use another tool for decrypting and/or changing the permissions. PDFCrack is a tool for recovering the information with the owners consent, not overriding the allowed usage.

Developer’s website: http://pdfcrack.sourceforge.net/

Direct Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcrack/files/

Corruption Corrector

Corruption Corrector (CCorr) is a program designed for fixing corrupt files. It is for situations when you have (downloaded) many copies of the same file, but all of the copies are a bit corrupt. If the corruptions are in different parts of the file, it is possible to combine the good bytes from each file and get an uncorrupted copy of the file.

At first CCorr creates checksums from the files at regular intervals (e.g. 16KB) after which the files can be compared to locate the corrupted parts. The user chooses which parts are corrupt and which are good, after which CCorr writes a combination of all the good parts into a new file, and thus fixes the corruptions if possible.

As you see, it is not usual data recovery utility. It requires some preexisting conditions (like multiple similar files) and user interaction to get the things done. However, to the users with relatively slow and unreliable Internet connection that might be a real help. Let's assume that you have a 56kbps modem and you have already downloaded the 100 MB video file several times, but every copy has some sort of damage. Naturally you don't want to waste another 9 hours downloading it, because it is possible to fix the file by combining the corrupt copies that you have.

This is an Open Source utility, which is naturally absolutely free for any use. The software not intended for beginners.

Website: http://ccorr.sourceforge.net/

Download: http://softlayer.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ccorr/CCorr-1.03.zip