On XP, best way to synchronize files and folders.

Question

I'm using SyncToy 1.4 and it would be fine for what I need except that:

• It can't handle the assigned drive letter changing between systems (e.g. syncing a USB drive),
• it leaves its own (hidden) files in the folders being synched (is this a limitation of the OS/FS?),
• it recreates empty folders for ones that have been deleted,
• it syncs new sub folders in folders that have been unselected from syncing
• and sometimes finds all the files have changed when they are still the same as they were.
• it can't handle very long file path/name

SyncToy 2.1 is too slow to be usable. Especially when run again on a folder without any changes it will start from scratch scanning all the files and sub-folders for differences.

It has to be a solution without using Internet based storage, as this isn't always available and otherwise can be far too slow. I'd prefer something that doesn't add its own files to the folders to be synched, and something with which it's quick and easy to change file and folder synching selections. When run the less interactive the better, ideally safely synching multiple folder pairs with a couple of mouse clicks (as SyncToy does).

Do I have to use rsync and batch files? Something with a GUI for granny to use without difficulty, would be better.

Answer 1

http://allwaysync.com/ - and it's free

Answer 2

Justin Frankel (of Winamp Fame) wrote this

http://www.brothersoft.com/pathsync-64550.html

Answer 3

SyncBackSE is a more robust solution that I use for daily backups to an external. It isn't free but its light, feature rich and intuitive.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbse.html

Answer 4

If I understand you correctly, you are using SyncToy to synchronize folder in different machines. This is not a good idea because SyncToy has not been implemented to do this; it is more of a back-up solution.

To synchronize folder between machines, you have two very good solutions that work great and do automatic synchronization.

The first one is Windows Live Mesh. Despite being a technology preview, it works great and it also allows you to remote into a machine added to your Mesh.

The other option is Windows Live FolderShare. It is in Beta and also works great. I will recommend this option for a simple reason: Windows Live Mesh is going to become a sharing platform for Microsoft, and FolderShare will be implemented on top of it, so FolderShare will be the application to use where Mesh will be the underlying platform. If you go with Mesh, at some point you will have to move to FolderShare, where if you use FolderShare you will be all set.

Answer 5

Winmerge is the tool I prefer for this: it's openSource and quite useful.

WinmergeHomePage

Answer 6

Synkron

Here the list of features (you can find them on the website) :

• Synchronise multiple folders
• Tabs allow you to have more synchronisations running at once
• Periodical synchronisations automatically sync your folders in selected intervals
• Restore files, which were overwritten during the synchronisation
• Add files and folders to black list to make sure they won't be synchronised in the future
• Make schedules and backup using multisync

It's a free software that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows with a GUI wirtten in QT.

Answer 7

You can also use a free version of SyncBack which is enough for syncing folders on different machines.

Answer 8

Dropbox is absolutely awesome. It syncs automatically in the background, stores all files locally on every computer where you want to use the files, and centrally on a webserver. Files are sent encrypted, and it's free for up to 2GB of storage.

You mentioned that you don't want to use web-based storage, but I think this still fits the bill - you can access files when offline (since you've got a local copy) if you make changes while offline, then the changes will be synced with the server when you come online. Not sure how it handles conflicting revisions though.

Works on Windows, Linux and Macs.

Answer 9

I used Unison for a long time. It's free, it's cross-platform and it uses the rsync-Protocol to transfer only deltas of changes over network connections. It's also very thorough in examining files for changes -- and because of that it's unfortunately not very fast (you can speed it up significantly if you let it use file modification times as inode-equivalents under windows).

However, unless you're willing to spend money on SyncBackSE (which I use now and highly recommend), I think you'll get quite far with Unison.

Answer 10

Ms. Robocopy seems to answer all of your criterias.

Tons of options and really reliable.

Command line only, but it's trivial to make/download a gui

Answer 11

I'd vote for allway sync, links up my main machine with a portable HDD backup in no time.

I have a 60,000 file folder structure, it can spot a simple change (one changed .txt file plus corresponding new .bak) and synchronise in under a couple of minutes.

That seems pretty useable to me...

Answer 12

I use a distributed versioning control system called Mercurial for that. It is CLI but you can use a nice front-end for it like TortoiseHG.

Answer 13

For unidirectional sync

There is a windows port of one of the best Unix sync tool (rsync):

• With GUI: DeltaCopy;
• For command line lovers: CWRsync.

There are installers, no Cygwin dependencies, no need for any internet connection,etc.

Rsync is very fast, lightweight and efficient, provided you take the time to learn to use it.

For bidirectional sync

The reference is Unisson. It's very easy to use and cross-platform since it runs with Java. But it's not lightening fast...