File synchronization software.

Thanks for the response. The thing is with live mesh I think it only syncs the files to your personal folders. I want to be able to back up/sync selected folders on my laptop over my network into a specific folder on my desktop. So not sure which would be better? Surely still robocopy?

Thanks
 
do you really need your files backed up in the "cloud"? if you want to access them in a browser from anywhere then it can be handy.

but if not, just stick to using robocopy.
 
marc2003 said:
do you really need your files backed up in the "cloud"? if you want to access them in a browser from anywhere then it can be handy.

but if not, just stick to using robocopy.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. The reason is because external hard drives are not exactly safe. Storing backups for two devices on one external hard drive isn't really a great solution. I could go with a NAS device such as netgears readynas. However a cloud solution is much cheaper and has advantages such as security, offsite and browser access.

So from what I have been looking at I think yes really. But I am all for suggestions.

Thanks again :)
 
I use SyncToy on my home network to backup all machines important files to a central point. It works flawlessly.
 
Right so the options are:
  • Robocopy
  • FreeFileSync
  • SyncToy
  • Live mesh
Can they all run continuously and synchronize themselves? Can they run over my home network? Can you select specific files and folders and sync to a specific folder on the networked PC?

EDIT: Just to add the ultimate goal is to essentially have my laptop backed up to my desktop, so that I can then backup my desktop to the cloud.
 
Last edited:
Dropbox will do most of what you want. As for specific files and folders, Dropbox can't monitor anything outside of its own folders. You could combine Robocopy and Dropbox. Get Robocopy to run, using Scheduled Tasks, and backup files into the Dropbox folder. Dropbox'll then sync for you. Dropbox also has a LAN sync function if you're synchronising from one PC to another on the same network and not necessarily to the cloud. :)

https://www2.dropbox.com/help/137
 
wildest_jjk said:
Thanks for the response, isn't dropbox limited space though? Or would it not be this way?
Click to expand...
Yep. 2GB but you might be able to get more this way: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18370973&highlight=dropbox & http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=55007&replies=75

How much space do you need? I still think a Robocopy script would be your best option; it'll work over a network and you can set a task that exectutes the batch script to run every hour or something.
 
MarcLister said:
Yep. 2GB but you might be able to get more this way: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18370973&highlight=dropbox & http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=55007&replies=75

How much space do you need? I still think a Robocopy script would be your best option; it'll work over a network and you can set a task that exectutes the batch script to run every hour or something.
Click to expand...

Well it will be about 100GB initially then of course it will be incremental. To be honest I think it still sounds the best option. The only other one is SyncToy really. I can't see that any others will be suitable.

The thing that concerns me most is the scheduling of robocopy for example. I was hoping the syncing will be checking all the time!

Thanks again :)
 
wildest_jjk said:
Well it will be about 100GB initially then of course it will be incremental. To be honest I think it still sounds the best option. The only other one is SyncToy really. I can't see that any others will be suitable.

The thing that concerns me most is the scheduling of robocopy for example. I was hoping the syncing will be checking all the time!

Thanks again :)
Click to expand...
OK, forget Dropbox then. I think you're looking at Robocopy or Synctoy then.

I've just looked on Wikipedia's Synctoy page. There's a link describing how to get Synctoy to run automatically; it is done by scheduling a task to run, so the same as I've been saying about Robocopy.

You could get Robocopy to run every hour or two hours, depending on how frequently data might get changed. When Robocopy runs it can compared the source files/folders to the destination files/folders. If a file or folder in the source location has been changed, i.e. been deleted, renamed, updated or in the case of a folder had new files added, then Robocopy will update the destination copy. If there's been no change in the source files and folders then Robocopy will leave them alone.

deadite66 said:
i wouldn't trust dropbox for personal data though, your files are unencrypted on their web servers.
Click to expand...
True. The files could be zipped into a 7z file, as bledd. described earlier, and password protected to give some level of protection. :)
 
MarcLister said:
OK, forget Dropbox then. I think you're looking at Robocopy or Synctoy then.

I've just looked on Wikipedia's Synctoy page. There's a link describing how to get Synctoy to run automatically; it is done by scheduling a task to run, so the same as I've been saying about Robocopy.

You could get Robocopy to run every hour or two hours, depending on how frequently data might get changed. When Robocopy runs it can compared the source files/folders to the destination files/folders. If a file or folder in the source location has been changed, i.e. been deleted, renamed, updated or in the case of a folder had new files added, then Robocopy will update the destination copy. If there's been no change in the source files and folders then Robocopy will leave them alone.

True. The files could be zipped into a 7z file, as bledd. described earlier, and password protected to give some level of protection. :)
Click to expand...

So for the laptop to desktop sync it is still sounding like robocopy. However just going back over the thread bledd did mention about live mesh. Was there a reason that this was not a good idea? Live mesh is also continuous I believe?

Going off of my original topic slightly I could use dropbox in replacement of carrying a memory stick around with work on? That could be very handy and saves the loss of memory sticks :P

Also the 7z archive sounds quite interesting for archiving purposes. Does it compress much more than standard zip then or something? It definitely sounds like something I might be able to make use of for other things. Just not my solutions at the moment!

Thanks again.
 
wildest_jjk said:
So for the laptop to desktop sync it is still sounding like robocopy. However just going back over the thread bledd did mention about live mesh. Was there a reason that this was not a good idea? Live mesh is also continuous I believe?
Click to expand...
Not sure. I've not used Live Mesh so I can't really answer for it. :)

wildest_jjk said:
Going off of my original topic slightly I could use dropbox in replacement of carrying a memory stick around with work on? That could be very handy and saves the loss of memory sticks :P
Click to expand...
Yep. I use it to send stuff to work so there's no bother with email or pendrives. I tend to use Dropbox for documents and a pen drive for larger programs.

wildest_jjk said:
Also the 7z archive sounds quite interesting for archiving purposes. Does it compress much more than standard zip then or something? It definitely sounds like something I might be able to make use of for other things. Just not my solutions at the moment!

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
I've not seen bledd's script yet but I do know that the 7-Zip interface has several levels of compression. I think the 'Ultra' level of compression is meant to be quite good compared to .zip. I'd be surprised if bledd's script didn't allow for the specification of what compression level you wanted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom