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"
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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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.
I would enthusiastically agree with Offline Files in XP. I have a Vista machine for development and an XP laptop which I take on site. The laptop has virtual drives for the various jobs which are 'available offline'. I rely on it and have for a couple of years with all manner of applications. It is very 'set and forget'. Downside is the slow synchronization when you leave or rejoin the network and you need to keep an eye on new subdirectories, that they have the little blue arrow as sometimes, if you haven't appeased the appropriate diety before they are created they aren't set for offline.
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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"
The sync tool I use most often on windows is SyncBackSE - it will even let you keep n-versions while running in the background. The free version is great - the pro version is fantastic (but rarely required unless your boss has a _very large_ set of files to backup).
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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"
Sorry if this has already been posted. But you should check out DropBox. I love it, use it to sync all my files between my computers, it backs up and keeps old versions, and syncs nice and fast. Im not going to waste time describing it when a video is worth .. well a lot more then words :P www.getdropbox.com Watch the video. This tool is amazing.
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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 like Karen Kenworthy's Replicator. . . Jeff
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The sync tool I use most often on windows is SyncBackSE - it will even let you keep n-versions while running in the background. The free version is great - the pro version is fantastic (but rarely required unless your boss has a _very large_ set of files to backup).
SyncBackSE is definitely cool. It will even sync over the interweb.
ASCII tables, HTML entities, types, string formats and more info for the serious coder at: www.codecharts.com
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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"
If you want plenty of power, built in diff, and backup if things go wrong, try AJC Directory Synchronizer: www.ajcsoft.com/ProductsAJCDirSync.php[^]
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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"
Beyond Compare http://www.scootersoftware.com/ is a great to for syncing files/dirs/drives. You can compare by date or do binary compares and it has tons of other features including remembering various compare setups. Also a free tool is SyncBack http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware Jay
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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"
Has no one mentioned standard Offline Files/Folders?