Looking For A Tool...
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I use a free tool called PathSync[^]. You can save the configuration for syncing directories to a file and all you have to do is double-click on it to launch it, then click Analyze to let it figure out what's different, then Synchronize to sync things up. Three clicks and it just works. I use it to copy all the photos on my CF cards to an "incoming" directory on my laptop, and have it configured to do a one-way sync/copy. I have another config that copies all the photos on my laptop to a NAS device (again one-way so everything on the laptop gets pushed to the NAS). I have another config to compare the NAS backup to an external disk backup (full sync so everything on either device ends up on the other). Am I a little paranoid? :^) Maybe so, but I've got backups of the important stuff! :-D -matt
Matt Newby President, Matt Newby Enterprises, Inc. matt@mattnewby.com
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I use a free tool called PathSync[^]. You can save the configuration for syncing directories to a file and all you have to do is double-click on it to launch it, then click Analyze to let it figure out what's different, then Synchronize to sync things up. Three clicks and it just works. I use it to copy all the photos on my CF cards to an "incoming" directory on my laptop, and have it configured to do a one-way sync/copy. I have another config that copies all the photos on my laptop to a NAS device (again one-way so everything on the laptop gets pushed to the NAS). I have another config to compare the NAS backup to an external disk backup (full sync so everything on either device ends up on the other). Am I a little paranoid? :^) Maybe so, but I've got backups of the important stuff! :-D -matt
Matt Newby President, Matt Newby Enterprises, Inc. matt@mattnewby.com
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XP still has the briefcase[^] Vista uses Sync Center[^].
Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Visual Basic is not used by normal people so we're not covering it here. (Uncyclopedia)I'll have him try Briefcase first. He's probably used it in previous incarnations. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Cool tool!
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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That looks interesting. I grabbed a copy and will experiment with it. Thanks!
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I'll probably try SyncToy, but I also found a recent version of pfbackup.exe which I installed on his laptop a few years ago. It transparently does a backup without any action on the user's part. That would seem to be the ticket, if it doesn't bog things down too much.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I use a free tool called PathSync[^]. You can save the configuration for syncing directories to a file and all you have to do is double-click on it to launch it, then click Analyze to let it figure out what's different, then Synchronize to sync things up. Three clicks and it just works. I use it to copy all the photos on my CF cards to an "incoming" directory on my laptop, and have it configured to do a one-way sync/copy. I have another config that copies all the photos on my laptop to a NAS device (again one-way so everything on the laptop gets pushed to the NAS). I have another config to compare the NAS backup to an external disk backup (full sync so everything on either device ends up on the other). Am I a little paranoid? :^) Maybe so, but I've got backups of the important stuff! :-D -matt
Matt Newby President, Matt Newby Enterprises, Inc. matt@mattnewby.com
caspianx67 wrote:
Am I a little paranoid?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.:suss:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I'll probably try SyncToy, but I also found a recent version of pfbackup.exe which I installed on his laptop a few years ago. It transparently does a backup without any action on the user's part. That would seem to be the ticket, if it doesn't bog things down too much.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Oh wait, didn't read the post. Just saw "looking for a TOOL."
Blog link to be reinstated at a later date.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Have you looked into Snap On Tools? It worked for Billy Jean King...
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
DropBox is good
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
What youwant to be using is Allway Sync[^], started using it myself a few weeks ago. Microsofts SyncToy sucks Donkeys Arse, there is no way to change the source or destination in a Sync Pair, have to delete them and recreate, real efficient. I am using Allway Sync to backup data from my and the families computers to my Linux server and then rsync from the Linux box to my usb drive. Put it all together for practical, learning and CP Article reasons. Articles still to come.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
You don't necessarily need a tool, the functionality is built in to windows (atleast XP). Just find the location of his "My Documents" in explorer (preferably using UNC path, and assuming it's already retargeted to the server), rightclick the folder and select "Make available offline" If it's not enabled you go to the tools > Folder option menu, offline files tab and tick the checkbox to enable offline files the first synchronization naturally takes a lot of time as there is a lot off copying to do. The biggest drawback is that the sync is not continuous. It can be set to synchronize automatically at login and logout, but if your boss is having a very large amount of files this process might take a while (even half a minute can be a looong time when you're waiting). This can of course be sped up by using the indexing service, but that's another pain in the butt. Another solution is to use Distributed File System (DFS). DFS is not made for workstations, but they can be used as link targets. So in this case his "My Documents" should remain on his computer. One of the drawback here is that it's synchronizing immediately when you're saving a file which makes it directly useless on databases. And make sure there are no files on the target folder when you set it up, to avoid nasty surprises.
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Try www.getdropbox.com, it works well for me.
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You don't necessarily need a tool, the functionality is built in to windows (atleast XP). Just find the location of his "My Documents" in explorer (preferably using UNC path, and assuming it's already retargeted to the server), rightclick the folder and select "Make available offline" If it's not enabled you go to the tools > Folder option menu, offline files tab and tick the checkbox to enable offline files the first synchronization naturally takes a lot of time as there is a lot off copying to do. The biggest drawback is that the sync is not continuous. It can be set to synchronize automatically at login and logout, but if your boss is having a very large amount of files this process might take a while (even half a minute can be a looong time when you're waiting). This can of course be sped up by using the indexing service, but that's another pain in the butt. Another solution is to use Distributed File System (DFS). DFS is not made for workstations, but they can be used as link targets. So in this case his "My Documents" should remain on his computer. One of the drawback here is that it's synchronizing immediately when you're saving a file which makes it directly useless on databases. And make sure there are no files on the target folder when you set it up, to avoid nasty surprises.
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
make sure there are no files on the target folder when you set it up, to avoid nasty surprises.
Good point! :laugh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I've used SynchToy, its pretty nice. I also wrote a custom app that will do that, we have files the users uploads in one place, and this app watches that directory(and a few others) and copies them out to specified directories on one machine or in a list of IP's, its overkill for what you want, but would do the trick. Its all configurable and the info as well as errors are stored in the DB. if it can get to an IP it just marks it as bad and checks to see if it came back every so often. I wrote it for and at work so i'll have to check w/ the boss if i can send it out or post it as an article.
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I've been using a tool called Allwaysync (allwaysync.com). It can be set up to auto sync defined jobs.
Steve Tahan Savannah River Site Aiken, SC
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Once upon a time Microsoft had an annoying little widget on the desktop called the Briefcase. It was annoying then because hardly anyone had a network, and bosses kept using it in place of My Documents, causing all sorts of confusion. Now I have a need for it again, I think. My boss has a new notebook PC, and he travels a lot. He just had our IT guy set it up for him, and asked him to put My Documents on the server where it will be backed up regularly. Unfortunately, he travels a lot, and I know he's going to want his My Docs folder with him in meetings elsewhere. Is there a handy tool that will do an incremental copy - synchronization, really - of his local My Docs folder and the one on the server? A full copy would take days, so it has to be smart enough to recognize which version of a document is newer and copy in the appropriate direction. If not, it would make an excellent CP article, if someone would like to tackle it. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"